Would lichess consider adding a delay option in addition to the increment option?

Many of my OTB tournaments use a delay of 5 seconds, which I think helps tournament organizers know when all the games in a round are likely to end.

The way the delay works is that when my opponent hits his clock button and it's my turn to move, the clock waits 5 seconds before starting to count down for my move. I never have more time than I started with (as can happen in increments) but it's possible to make a fast move before my clock starts ticking.

The reason I ask about this feature is because I would like to practice using it to prepare for some of my OTB tournament games. Honestly, I prefer the option of a time increment; it's not that I like the delay more than the increment. But because so many of my OTB games use the delay instead of the increment, it would be helpful for me to get practice on lichess with the delay.

I see this topic was discussed 3 years ago but I haven't found discussion since then (though I could have missed it). The 3-year-old discussion seems not to have resolved the question, from my quick read.

I really appreciate lichess, it's such a great resource.

@BoldPodiene said in #1:
> Many of my OTB tournaments use a delay of 5 seconds, which I think helps tournament organizers know when all the games in a round are likely to end.
>
> The way the delay works is that when my opponent hits his clock button and it's my turn to move, the clock waits 5 seconds before starting to count down for my move. I never have more time than I started with (as can happen in increments) but it's possible to make a fast move before my clock starts ticking.
>
> The reason I ask about this feature is because I would like to practice using it to prepare for some of my OTB tournament games. Honestly, I prefer the option of a time increment; it's not that I like the delay more than the increment. But because so many of my OTB games use the delay instead of the increment, it would be helpful for me to get practice on lichess with the delay.
>
> I see this topic was discussed 3 years ago but I haven't found discussion since then (though I could have missed it). The 3-year-old discussion seems not to have resolved the question, from my quick read.
>
> I really appreciate lichess, it's such a great resource.

If you mean, enable a grace period between one player's move and the opponent's one, then I am all for this idea.

@heallan yes, that's a good way to describe the delay function.

it's unlikely. it has been suggested multiple times.
quoting from github.com/lichess-org/lila/issues/4641

> we don't aim at supporting everything that could be supported. Instead we pick a subset of these features based on their potential popularity and cost of maintenance.

delay has very low popularity. you say yourself that you prefer increment.

@glbert said in #4:
> it's unlikely. it has been suggested multiple times.
> quoting from github.com/lichess-org/lila/issues/4641
>
>
>
> delay has very low popularity. you say yourself that you prefer increment.

I think what he is suggesting is to incorporate this feature into the pallet of play options available to the user, as opposed to what you may suspect he means as an intention to substitute existing parameters of the execution of game controls as they are at present, in which case I am all for this idea.

@heallan said in #5:
> I think what he is suggesting is to incorporate this feature into the pallet of play options available to the user

yes, and incorporating features into the pallet of play options available when they're likely to not be used by many players is exactly what lichess devs hate to do. these options add a lot of complexity for little benefit. even if the feature itself is easy to implement – it means that in the future, when you change anything, you need to make certain that your changes don't break any of those options you added, or any of their combinations. this will get more and more difficult, the bigger the pallet of play and non-play options, until maintaining the site becomes close to impossible, and everything will break constantly.

@gilbert Certainly considerations of programming (which I don't understand) are important.
Delay is widely used in some OTB chess cultures (it is in the US), but you have probably explained why this feature hasn't been implemented on lichess.

@BoldPodiene said in #7:
> @gilbert Certainly considerations of programming (which I don't understand) are important.
> Delay is widely used in some OTB chess cultures (it is in the US), but you have probably explained why this feature hasn't been implemented on lichess.

In England we also use the common sense approach OTB, we call it manners, something that seems to be lacking in some users of this site.