Some people (not me) always refuse to pause on principle.

Legally you are under no obligation to pause, much like in real life, you are under no obligation to be socially gracious to other people: for example, you don't have to offer your seat on the bus to a pregnant lady, or be polite to people, or generally helpful in anyway (without the expectation of financial reward). You don't *have* to do have any of these things. Some people though feel socially obligated to others - and they feel bad can bad about things, or even the opposite, feel good when they do something to help another person. But if you are one of those lucky people who is unburdened by empathy, then by all means refuse all requests to pause. In fact this can a be a winning strategy - think of those supply centres which will be unprotected.

Oh Draug. This site would be a less colourful place without you.

Tournaments and leagues have it in the rules with certain conditions attached (giving a return date etc), so you are obliged to do it. Anything else is as Sir Babak and Spyman state. Common decency is the name of the game.

thanks for confirming my thoughts - I paused for a guy who wanted to go away suddenly, (even though, I don't like pauses because in my opinion it disturbs the flow of the game and I've had idiots refuse to unpause unless I help them etc). He is now back and unpaused, but others won't unpause because they want another pause in 10 days time, and want me to draw the game.

In my opinion I haven't granted the extended pause but will a mod unpause for me?

You can't use draws as a tactic; for example, refusing to unpause unless players agree to draw. That is against the site rules.

Typo... You can't use *pauses as a tactic...

People, including Mods, need to see these pause requests for what they are: a combination of selfishness and bad planning. I'm certain that more than a few of them are lies, as well.

What we are usually dealing with is people who have difficulty honouring their committments. It could be because they are scatter-brained, and make more committments then they could ever hope to live up to. They justify their pause requests with statements such as, " Oh, I have exams coming up followed by our traditional family vacation to Entitlementland. I need a pause for 14 days. Oh, and thanks everybody" It could also be people who have never been CALLED OUT for bailing on a committment. They're confused. Life is ALL ABOUT THEM, the precious babies. Committments(mortgages, for instance) are for SUCKAS!!! RULES SUCK!!! (Strangely enough, my good buddy, Sicarius, is an extremely considerate game player in this regard. Then again, Sicarius isn't a spoiled c##t)

My favourites are the attention-whore scatter-brains that regularly SPAM the forum with their ramblings. These people (Hello obiwan) will leave a game UNNECCESARILY paused FOREVER, while they post unread essay after unread essay in the Forum. People such as this are, of course, SOOO high functioning that they also have a billion "committments", including educating the rest of us(oh, my side). Lame asses who honour committments, like me, just have to put up with these supreme beings. Or not.

Guess what?

Nobody cares about either YOU, or your LIFE.

Get over your pathetic selves.

You don't NEED to join any of these games or tournaments. They are ONLY online games, right?

If you have a legitimate UNFORSEEN problem, then either get a sitter or suck up the loss. It's ONLY a game, right?

Incidents, such as that which Maniac is describing, are commonplace, not unusual. Sadly, the mods have been notoriously SLOW in dealing with them. Therefore, the present solution(indiscriminate pausing) is unwieldy, and need to be scrapped.

No more nanny state. The Mods need to stay out of this. If ALL of the participants agree to the pause, then pause and don't complain when the game NEVER unpauses. If at all possible, LEARN from this.

Games are to be PLAYED. The phase lengths suggest a certain time frame. Deal with these two realities.

Nanny policies do not encourage people to GROW UP.

STOP THE PAUSES.

#needs to be scrapped#

@BZD, I always grant reasonable pause requests. I just know of at least one person who I won't name who won't even grant a weekend pause out of principle. Now, I don't grant pauses that don't specify a time frame of any sort (specify a rough time frame) or where the time frame is longer than about 10 days. To those I say, get a sitter.

You are under no obligation to pause. I almost always grant pauses because in my opinion CDs and even sitters ruin the flow of the game more. However, you seem to get more than your fair share of people taking advantage of pauses, so I understand your hesitation.

I think mapleleaf is being too extreme. The idea of and social grace works both ways. Pauses should not be abused, but this dies not been it should never be granted.

We need timed pauses. Thus a player requests a pause for three days and that what he gets. No need for players to press unpause; when the timer runs out the pauses ends and the game starts again.

+1 spyman.

I am terrible at typing on my iPhone... Typo:
Pauses should not be abused, but this dies not *mean they should never be granted.

"Nanny policies do not encourage people to GROW UP."

I find it ironic that you're proposing taking the pause power away from the players -- thereby having an administration institute a policy intended to make people "grow up" -- because you're opposed to "nanny policies." Your helicoptering ban on allowing people to decide when a pause is appropriate is DISCOURAGING maturity by not giving people the opportunity to learn when it is appropriate to pause for themselves.

The tough guy rhetoric doesn't help much, either, especially if a very sudden situation occurs (like if a loved one suddenly falls ill and needs constant care -- you're REALLY going to tell them to "suck it up and take the loss"?).

@PE - I suggest that if something of the magnitude which you propose does occur, a tragedy involving a loved one, then nobody will need to convince the member where his/her priorities lie. The game(s) should be dropped and forgotten. Sorry about the NMRs, and just TRY to get in the members face about it.

As for the rest, you're so far off base that I don't have the energy to correct you. Die ignorant; it suits me just fine. Crybaby.

It's intelligent discourse such as this that distinguishes Diplomacy players from the rest of the rabble :)

Thanks Indy.

You're a peach.

"I suggest that if something of the magnitude which you propose does occur, a tragedy involving a loved one, then nobody will need to convince the member where his/her priorities lie. The game(s) should be dropped and forgotten. Sorry about the NMRs, and just TRY to get in the members face about it."

...or you could just pause the game and return to it later.

"so far off base"

Really? Am I? You're the one claiming that allowing people to decide for themselves when a pause is appropriate is symptomatic of a nanny state mentality. And I'm off base?

Some people don't know when they've been dismissed......

It would be preferable if pauses could have a set expiry date/time.

yes.

Agreed with Ghost.

@mapleleaf: Why won't you enlighten me? Your post honestly makes no sense to me... you might win some people over with a little more explanation.

@ghost - in my game I paused for a weekend for one player and then others have refused to unpause for 3 weeks - and you want unpause??? As you know I'm leaving the site, and I now have to wait until some guy (who has been accessing the site throughout) decides to play again. If I ever come back to this site you will know it's me - my screen name will be Idonotpause.

Ghost +1

Fixing the length of any pause would solve all the issues. Real life *is* going to get in the way of longer phase games and the various leagues (because plans change). Fixed length would avoid pause abuse, and everyone would be happy(ish)

Oh, and we don't all want sitters - I want my poor record here to be all my own work, thank you very much :)

We need pauses occasionally because the games last for so long, some take months to play out. It is much better to have pauses than than CDs.

LOL I know how you feel Pete U.

so any chance of getting 'sunset pause' instated? for those with programming backgrounds - how significant of a time-commitment would you consider it being to change the current code to create a 'sunset pause' option?

@spyman - "It is much better to have pauses than than CDs" for some people yes it is - but for others who sign on to a game to 'play' rather than sign on to see 3 or 4 games paused, they would sooner play and if the game ends early because of CDs they can move on to another game.

Maniac, I'm going to contact kestas asap, but he is busy & working in Australia at the moment, so finding a time when I can is difficult.