What bothers you about being escaped on?

[HKA]

Even though I shouldn't be attached so much to my rank it provides a measurement of my progress and I want to have the win (and finally the change in my rank) recorded.

What bothers me much more are opponents that have lost according to their position, wait until counting and then resign... That's rude in my eyes.

Mich

Yes, I think that is rude. I told a person on KGS I thought that it was rude once. He had finished the game, removed prisoners, I had pressed done. And at this point he resigned. Again, people would never do this face to face. He responded "Why is it rude, what is the difference?" I said - "you tell me, you chose to resign - what is the difference?"

While we are on rudeness. When I finish a game, I type "Thank you for the game". I have stopped worrying about folks who simply log off. And I certainly am willing to accept "Thanks" or even "thx". I am trying to accept "th". It may take me a while to accept "t". BUT, what I would appreciate, is folks who do grant me their abbreviated gratitude, PLEASE hang around long enough for me to type my sentence.

[BaghwanB]

I'm also curious of what people think about the following, in terms of proper ettiquette:

Say you are playing a random person you've never played before, and an emergency comes up. Should you tell the person and request to resume later, or should you resign?

The former option might make the person think you are an escaper and be turned off, especially if they are a bit ahead. The latter can screw up the rating system. What do you think?

I'd resign. Things happen and no rating will be perfect for very long so I try not to worry about that aspect much.

But as to the bigger question, it's a matter of respect. I volunteered my time to play a game with the person on the other end and I'd expect both of us to honor that decision to actually play it out. Escaping says to me, "I don't care about this game or you." Fine, don't care about the game, but at least acknowledge the person on the other end and don't just wander away from the board. Picture what your reaction would be if this happened in F2F play. I don't think I'd set a good example for others...

Bruce "GOM" Young

[SpongeBob]

Say you are playing a random person you've never played before, and an emergency comes up. Should you tell the person and request to resume later, or should you resign?

That is what the resuming possibility is for, right? The majority of my opponents, I play them for the first time and I do not see a reason not to ask for resuming. But if I figure that they do not want to, I will resign. However, I would only ask for resuming if the game is still open.
Maybe further discussions on this should go into a fresh new thread.

[ross]

1) I do find it rude and juvenile, and that bothers me a little.

2) If it's a rated game, I feel like it's wasted a little of my time—I don't get a lot of time to play rated games, so every escaped game (particularly if the escape happens near the very end) takes a little bit of that away from me and makes it a little more likely that I'll have a question mark or won't really be solidified in rank.

3) I have a personality where I like things to be finished. In this way it's like Hikaru and his unfinished game against Isumi—the game and its patterns weigh on my mind in a way that wouldn't be the case if it had finished. This effect is biggest when the escape happens during the middle-game, such as during a complicated fight.

All in all it's not a big nuisance—each of these effects are small, and I don't get escaped on often. But I do share a dislike of KGS's escaper policy. These problems could be so easily solved and make a lot of people happier about playing on KGS, but instead they are more or less ignored or shrugged off. Why, when such simple changes could make things so much better?

[Andrea]

I voted other. I follow the maxim: "You can't control others, you can control yourself". I won't pretend I never feel irritation at other people's behaviour, but that's my problem, and I'm working on it. It's a work in progress...

[karaklis]

I voted other as well, because I don't feel bothered very much. I am just surprised how many people haven't learnt about good manners. Go is a game that is supposed to teach patience (among other things). Being escaped on is an opportunity to practise these teachings.

[SpongeBob]

Being escaped on is an opportunity to practise these teachings.

You are right, it's a good attitude to treat this as an opportunity for personal improvement. On the other hand, I gotta practice enough patience every day - in my free time, I wanna enjoy. And so I fully agree with Ross' post. You encounter enough impoliteness on the server. Being escaped on is amoung the most severe. So ... well, you can guess my conclusion.

[freegame]

what bothers me most is that I have to sit and wait for 5 min or so to see if my opponent escaped or just lost connection and is trying to get back.

[palapiku]

I voted other. I follow the maxim: "You can't control others, you can control yourself". I won't pretend I never feel irritation at other people's behaviour, but that's my problem, and I'm working on it. It's a work in progress...

Same here, except my preferred way of dealing with this problem is not playing online much.

Sure you can control your behavior and don't get mad when someone escapes on you, but that doesn't change the fact that you just donated an hour of your time to a jerk.

[cdybeijing]

I use KGS to assess my progress in numerical terms. My serious game, training games with stronger players, and best reviews are all done live.

Therefore I care most about the rating points - mine and his/hers.

[Dusk Eagle]

I voted other. I follow the maxim: "You can't control others, you can control yourself". I won't pretend I never feel irritation at other people's behaviour, but that's my problem, and I'm working on it. It's a work in progress...

Same here, except my preferred way of dealing with this problem is not playing online much.

Sure you can control your behavior and don't get mad when someone escapes on you, but that doesn't change the fact that you just donated an hour of your time to a jerk.

Then why not play on a different server? Are you really telling me that you avoid playing Go solely because of escapers? If that were so, why wouldn't you use a different server? Are you sure that's just not an excuse to avoid playing online?

[SpongeBob]

Then why not play on a different server? Are you really telling me that you avoid playing Go solely because of escapers? If that were so, why wouldn't you use a different server?

Why wouldn't you encounter escapers on any other server?

[quantumf]

Then why not play on a different server? Are you really telling me that you avoid playing Go solely because of escapers? If that were so, why wouldn't you use a different server?

Why wouldn't you encounter escapers on any other server?

You do, but escaping is considered as a loss, with consequent impact on rating.

[xed_over]

You do, but escaping is considered as a loss, with consequent impact on rating.

it is on kgs also -- kgs just allows more time to finish the game before counting it as a loss.

and if its a non-rated game, then its immediately a loss.

[kokomi]

Because they don't even say ' Thank you' and just disappear.