grenv: Those are the rules that I play by, though I have yet to ever play Backgammon with a doubling cube or even make bets on a game's outcome. I have two such books with rules and plans in them.
Jacoby/Crawford wrote one and Cooke/Bradshaw wrote the other. As far as I can tell, the rules are identical in both books. I liked your link. Your link clearly explains something that my books are vague about. When a player has his home base closed and the opponent has a checker on the bar, the player keeps rolling the dice. That is the rules as stated. Yes, some people call it autopass, but that's not what it is. I think if we got off this notion of autopass and just played the game like the rules it would solve the whole problem.

I request that Backgammon be played by the rules as stated in these three books. Since the experts have found common ground and most of the players on this site follow the same rules, so why not have the game here be played the same way?

I will state my proposal for when a person cannot possibly move. This is different than when he actually has a chance to move, but rolls numbers that do not allow him to move. Please keep this in mind while reading this.

As far as I know, there's only two ways that it could be your turn and no matter what numbers came up on the dice you would not be able to move. The only one of them that I've ever seen is when every point in the home base is covered and the opponent has one or more checkers on the bar. It is for this situation, a fairly common one, that I'd like this site to conform to the rules. The other situation is something that, though possible, has probably never occured in Backgammon and can be dispensed with. If was to occur it wouldn't last but a turn or two anyway.

The moment that it becomes impossible for your opponent to move no matter what numbers could come up on the dice it should remain your turn. Do not think of this is autopass. Autopass works differently and I'll explain later. Since it is your turn still, the turn stays with you after you've entered your move. The dice are rolled again, and you make your next move. If, after making this move, it is now possible for your opponent to have any chance of getting off the bar, your turn is over and it becomes your opponent's turn. If you still have your home base closed, then your turn continues and another roll is made, and you play as you have. Eventually, a point will be open with one blot or none and your opponent will have a chance to get off the bar. This will be the end of your turn. All the rolls are just one turn. There is no autopass. You can only leave one message while taking this turn and the turn is not complete until it is your opponent's turn. If you stop in the middle of this turn and log off or something, the moves that you've entered and then taken another roll on will remain done. During the next roll, if you leave during it, the site already has the dice stay the same and no checkers are moved until you enter the moves. Prior parts of your turn, once entered, stay. As far as the clock goes, it is still your turn and the time will stay with you and run down until you've made the turn that will allow your opponent a chance to move. This is not autopass, and no one misses anything and the game is played how people play the game everywhere.

Autopass is a whole different thing, though in the situation I just outlined it is easy to confuse the two and I think that is why there's been so much arguing about it. In autopass, your opponent does have a chance to move, but rolls numbers that for the particular position on the board on that turn do not allow him to move. This happens a lot, even during one game it can happen more than a few times if luck is not your friend in that game. This site plays it the same in both situations ("Closed home base" and "chance to move, but unable to move") where every roll of the dice is treated as a seperate turn and must be entered with your opponent then having a turn. With autopass, a game site will look at the roll and determine that the player, though having a chance to move, rolled numbers that don't let him move, and will skip his turn and return the turn back to the other player. This is different than the closed home base, though not in the way this site treats both situations. I've seen the arguments about missing one's turn and the confusion about the checkers jumping around because of a bad series of rolls during a player's turn getting skipped. I understand that and can see why some people don't like the idea of autopass. Autopass is not how people play the game in person, either. If I have a chance to move, I will roll the dice and then get the bad news that I can't move. With the home base closed, I don't roll the dice and my opponent continues to roll and move until a point or blot opens up and then I get to roll the dice. Though I would probably use autopass if available, I don't really miss it and it only occurs sporadically during a game. Autopass also messes with the flow of the game and does indeed prevent me from leaving a message about my bad luck with the dice when it occurs. The closed home base scenario is a completely different matter though. When my opponent is able to do that, it is his turn until I have a chance to move. I know the situation and he can finish his turn and let me roll the moment something opens up. There's no reason for me to roll the dice and he could keep moving until he finally leaves an opening for me. Then it would be time for any message he might want to write and he'd finish his turn. Hopefully I can get off the bar and race home in time. If I'm still stuck on the bar, I didn't get autopassed because I rolled the dice when a point became open.

My proposal is:

When a player closes his home base and his opponent has one or more checkers on the bar it will remain his turn until his opponent has a possible chance to move. To help avoid any confusion, on the very move that the home base is closed the site might want the turn to go the opponent so that he can see the home base closed and know what has happened. This would also give him a chance to add a message about the opponent's good play or his own bad luck concerning the home base now being closed with him having a checker on the bar. After that, it would stay the player's turn until the home base was open.

As for autopass, we can do without it. It would be OK for some of us if it was avaliable, but it's not the panacea for faster play that some think it is. The closed home base would help speed play a lot during those times when someone has closed their home base and has three checkers in the opponent's home base. To avoid confusion, on the first turn of the home base being closed the turn could still go to the opponent so he'd know the game's current situation and not be surprised when it is his turn the next time. The moves could be recorded as they are now and nothing would be changed except to facilitate the flow of the game and make it more like you were playing it in person.