Summertop:I agree with that. I have games on the board with a lady that passed away about a month ago...very upsetting. It is a multiple wins game.

Summertop: I think it's unfair to claim that all inactive players are pawns. Black Rooks, for instance, can become inactive just the same and they'll never revert to 'pawnood'.

Summertop: Yes i agree with you and dolittle

xmas is soon: i also agree with that

Summertop: Inactive player should be any player that has not loged on to BK in 1 year. In the case of a Black rook they don't get deleted but they should forfet all there games.

But wouldn't there vacation days run out far sooner? Black Rooks have 40 days that means by February they should lose the game if they have not signed on.

It is more important for laders and team games were the captain curently could just keep adding them to games even though they aren't playing.

mctrivia: Vacation days will run out, yes. The problem remains for the games with no timeout set. For those, holidays are irrelvant.

pauloaguia: Simple solution: Only accept games without time conrol against people you (personally) know ;)

Mr. Shumway: How will your "solution" help people get rid of games with the inactive players?

Pedro Martínez: It won't help people that already have such games, but it helps avoiding such situations. If you get an invitation for a game without time control, you are explicitly warned that it could be never-ending. Any other game will, as already noted, time out after some time. And please note the ";)" at the end of my post about that "solution" ^^

Mr. Shumway: Just never except a game at all with time out greater then 300 days per move. If you can't play that often your game will never end anyways.

mctrivia: could they be marked as retired where every one can see that way team captains cannot include them in matches when they come back they remove the retired symbol

pauloaguia: Yes, Black Rooks can become inactive. Also, it is possible for games/matches to go years if a player doesn't log in.

Actually, as I have thought about it...There are two classes of inactive players (Paid vs. free accounts). However, with the exception of the Black Rook, inactive accounts will revert back to pawns.

So, what I would like to see:

1. Anyone (paid or free) that hasn't logged in in over a month be flagged as inactive. This is just simply a visual note to other players. Nothing happens to the account or their games.

2. Anyone that hasn't logged in for over 6 months automatically forfeits their games. Even if there are vacation days left. An email should be sent before a forfeit is forced. There should be a way for the player to contact an admin (Fencer) and get an waiver for extenuating circumstances.

3. Any pawn that hasn't logged in in a year has their account flagged as "Dormant". To other players, its as if the account doesn't exist. If the Dormant player logs back in, their account is then reactivated. An email should be sent to the player when the account goes Dormant. Note, it shouldn't matter when the account reverted to a pawn. For example, if I paid for a rook account, then never logged in for the entire year, the account would revert to pawn AND go dormant at the same time.

4. When creating multi-game matches or tournaments, The creator should be able to set an inactive clause. If the player doesn't log into Brainking for a specified number of months (1 to 5 months...See item 2), they forfeit ALL remaining games. This way the players can still use auto-vacation but the opponents are protected from inactive players.

5. The main page, where it lists "Opponents Turn in..." games. could break the list of games into active vs. inactive games.


For rooks and above, these items aren't that important. But, for knight, bishop, and pawn accounts, where the number of games is limited, running into players that go inactive can be quite annoying.