The recent posts have alluded to something I have been wondering about for quite some time, that is cheating the system by establishing more than one userid. At almost any given time, less than 2% of the 'registered users' are logged in, yet the site maintains that there is traffic heavy enough to occasionally overload the server. This would seem to indicate that either a lot of pawns with multiple userids are logging in and out or a lot of players have registered and subsequently left the site while still being counted as a user, or some proportionate combination thereof.

I was a pawn for over three months before I joined, mainly because I was hesitant about the prospect of cheating pawns putting a drag on the system and I didn't sense that any corrective action was being taken. I decided to take a chance and join anyhow since I wanted to play in more tournaments and it's money well spent. Some might ask what the difference is between 5,000 or so pawns and maybe several hundred with different accounts. Well, my response would be... PLENTY!! With the 5,000 pawns, many will eventually join; in the latter scenario, none will because they cheat expressly to avoid payment.

Two years ago, I bought an IYT membership which is set to expire due to my disenfranchisement with them and their mistreatment of members. However, I admire their approach to attacking the problem of users with multiple accounts, which they did by tracking the IP addresses of computers logging on, and they even went so far as to tell a family of three using the same computer that two accounts must be closed, by this was an exceptional case.

This site needs an implementation of some such program. BBW astutely suggests that, without this safeguard, limiting pawns to a 3-month trial will do no good. I also agree with BBW that pawns should be permitted to join another tournament if they have concluded their games in one, even if games of other players are ongoing (many of us have experienced the frustration of that).

I suspect that most pawns are honest and complying with the rules, and there is not a problem there, but sadly there are some (even just a few is too many) who will always try to "have their cake and eat it".

As for dormant accounts, maybe the site should have a periodic review of users who have been long absent and move those records off-site to an archive or a storage disc. I'm not sure if such a scheme is workable or would solve more problems that it creates, and it is always possible for users who have been away for weeks or months to return, although the likelihood of that seems remote.

I'd be particularly interested in how members feel about pawns using more than one account, but thanks to anyone who patiently waded through all of this. I pride myself on concise expression, yet this topic is complex and it still turned out to be rather lengthy.