sigh, such a bad sportsman
he should acknowledge that people actually have lives away from the internet

And I have a very full life away from the internet myself, which is why I either make sure I don;t sign up to games I am going to disappear from or get a sitter.

I think choosing to avoid another players request for a pause is part of the gameplay.

Whilst it is within your rights, its not a very sporting thing to do is it.
I'm not sure where you're from, but its like when in football/soccer a player goes down injured. If the opposition have the ball, they can go on and score. However, the kind and sporting thing to do is to put the ball out of play allowing the player to receive treatment.
Basically what I'm saying is you really should pause, but I'm not going to make you.
Panda - if you don't have too many unpaused games I can sit for you. My email's in my profile

Firstly, Panda isn't one of the players disappearing... Just two of his allies.

Secondly, this isn't a democracy where majority rules. To pause or unpause takes everyone to make the decision.

Thirdly, in the three games I am currently playing in, 2 of them have pause requests

Fourthly, how many paused games end up with players never coming back and requests in the forum to unpause them?

And finally, when Chelsea take to the field and go 2-0 down after 30 minutes, they don;t get to ask for a two week break in the match so they can come back and finish the game later.

Your football analogy is therefore misapplied.

And as for Akroma, there are 72 hour games you can join if you want to take three days off every now and again.

3 days, fuck year, this is a totaly appropriate length for ones well deserved holidays and also the perfect amount of time to cope with any kind of disaster that can happen IRL

geez, at least be thankfull they asked for a pause, instead of simply disappearing. Sportsmanship is sportsmanship, and winning against someone who is not even there to witness it is about as much an accomplishment as letting chelsea leave the field, stadning in front of the goal and then calling your 90-0 win a great moment in soccer history

if you cant commit to a game, dont play. an emergency is one thing,, but too many people are joinig games with the intent of pausing them. if you know you have a trip or exams coming up, wait until after to jon games.

Exactly Dingleberry. Hear hear.

And Akroma, when I know I'm going on holiday, then I don't join a new game. And when there is a disaster then strangely enough I don't actually wonder whether or not I'm going into CD or not, I just deal with that and pick up whatever has gone on on here afterwards.

CD is a part of war... The Russians walked away from their front lines in 1917, and if players on here do the same then it is to the benefit of those who choose to take advantage.

And besides, with two of my three games facing pause requests, I would be left for an open ended amount of time with nothing going on on here and that is very selfish of the absent players to expect that.

I'm not one of the people leaving.
I'm not actually certain which two are leaving.

All I'll say is, it's a very ASSHOLE thing to do to take advantage of people not being able to play by refusing to pause so they CD.

It may sound like Tarablus is a hardliner with a bad attitude, but I have to agree with him. If you're going to sign up for a game then play the damn game.

An emergency is acceptable, this can happen to anyone. But
I feel that joining a game, KNOWING you're going to be absent two weeks into it and expecting everyone else to just
wait it out is an ASSHOLE thing to do.

Well, since this has come back up again, whilst I still think the honourable thing to do would be accept the pause, if you know you're going away it wouldn't hurt to start a thread, warn people of that and get people to join who didn't mind.
Even so, it wouldn't hurt you to pause Tarablus, and if they don't unpause again after you can always get it forced back into action

I agree with Tarablus here. If you have a good holiday, isn't that more important than a game and a few points? If you have to pause for another reason, surely that's more important than a game and some points. Say you were playing a game at someone's house, your phone rings and you have to dash off. Would you say, "Play on without me," or would you say, "Let's pause the game and continue next week."?

In two weeks I will be around 5 days possibly without internet conection. I will be at a conference, and the hotel web page doesn't say if it has wifi at all. I am playing 4/5 games, but I didn't know what hotel I was to be in, and I thought it would have wifi guaranteed (150 mathematicians without internet for a week doesn't look very reasonable...). I knew in advance (3 months) I would be out, but now it turns out I may not have access. What you (the ones who wouldn't pause) would say in such an event? I'm just curious. I hope I can get the games paused, and if it turns out I have connection, I'll unpause them promptly. Or find a sitter. But there was no way I could have prevented this, as I see it.

Well, you have the solution there. Find a sitter. The pause is a relatively new invention on this site, about 2 or 3 months old or so. In the olden days, we had to find sitters.

So go find a sitter.

While I won't support or berate Tarablus for pausing or not, thats his call to make, I am 100% AGAINST a forced pause.

I am too against a forced pause. But no-one should arrive at such levels. Finding a sitter is a no-solution. I can find one, but this are my games. And in 2 or 3 turns I won't be the one diplomacy-ing, nor moving. If a fatal move gets done, I won't be the one losing, if I finally win, I will not feel completely as the winner.

I would never consider not giving away a "pause" if a player needed it, if the one asking gives some reasons. Real life can always get in the way of what we do, and not everyone has continuous connection. That's why I am only entering long-term games, this way I don't need a sitter every weekend.