Dear Lichess founders/devs,
The timeout, as a punishment, is not working and is not sustainable.
First of all, punishments do not work in a 'non-commitment' environment. Have a look at Dan Arieli's works, specifically the one where they applied a cost to late kid pick-ups in nurseries.
While it seems to make sense (applying a punishment, or a cost), it just doesn't work... I'm sure a deep look at your data will suggest the same.
For myself, I have 2-3 accounts and I don't really care for rating anymore, or for my main account as my 'brand' here. It's pity. When I'm being timed out for 1 hour but I only have 20 mins to play, timeouts are annoying hurdle, nothing more. I will create another account so I can enjoy playing, and if IP will be blocked as well, I'll use VPN or find another place to play. Just a simple customer journey from my point of view.
The main reason I don't start games I initiate is my children, household stuff, meetings, phone calls, etc. Nothing malice. Life can pose great challenges for my attention span.
I close the window in the middle of a game (rarely) for the same reasons. Yes I can resign, but it's just faster and easier to close the window when one of my kids scream. Do my opponent care? Not really. I don't care when he disconnects, the "claim victory" button does the work well enough.
The only really annoying thing are those players who squeeze the clock when they know they lost. But these are rare occasions and anyway I can start a new game in a new window.
Please consider getting rid of the timeouts. As a recurring user who played and plays thousands of games, it is just annoying, and do not really achieve the goal it suppose to serve.
The timeout, as a punishment, is not working and is not sustainable.
First of all, punishments do not work in a 'non-commitment' environment. Have a look at Dan Arieli's works, specifically the one where they applied a cost to late kid pick-ups in nurseries.
While it seems to make sense (applying a punishment, or a cost), it just doesn't work... I'm sure a deep look at your data will suggest the same.
For myself, I have 2-3 accounts and I don't really care for rating anymore, or for my main account as my 'brand' here. It's pity. When I'm being timed out for 1 hour but I only have 20 mins to play, timeouts are annoying hurdle, nothing more. I will create another account so I can enjoy playing, and if IP will be blocked as well, I'll use VPN or find another place to play. Just a simple customer journey from my point of view.
The main reason I don't start games I initiate is my children, household stuff, meetings, phone calls, etc. Nothing malice. Life can pose great challenges for my attention span.
I close the window in the middle of a game (rarely) for the same reasons. Yes I can resign, but it's just faster and easier to close the window when one of my kids scream. Do my opponent care? Not really. I don't care when he disconnects, the "claim victory" button does the work well enough.
The only really annoying thing are those players who squeeze the clock when they know they lost. But these are rare occasions and anyway I can start a new game in a new window.
Please consider getting rid of the timeouts. As a recurring user who played and plays thousands of games, it is just annoying, and do not really achieve the goal it suppose to serve.