I've got 12 games from one opponent that have been at a standstill for a long time also. And until now I wasn't aware there was a vacation option on this site, which I think is a good thing to have, but I would agree there should be some limits, such as a maximal limit for any one time away period before the clock starts ticking again (? 2 weeks, ?3 weeks) as well as a limit on total vacation days for a calendar year, perhaps pegged to the data a person joined, with that as his/her "anniversary" date that commences a new year for these purposes.
I certainly agree that if someone has a medical issue, or some other unusual, unexpected hardship, that turns out to be over 2 weeks, it would be a reasonable and decent thing for longer exceptions, at the discretion of management. Without suggesting it might apply to anybody in particular, I would hope someone wouldn't then sign in for 5 minutes toward the end of the 2 weeks, then immediately sign out for 2 more weeks vacation, etc. That's why I suggested a limit for total days in a particular year, also.
Remaining on vacation indefinitely is unsportsmanlike. I could understand if the person were very ill, or if there was a tragedy in the family, or if it were a month's holiday somewhere. But it would be nice to know when or if vacation was ever going to end. For all we know the opponent might have passed on to chess heaven. So there should be a time limit, and I hope it will be done very soon.
It seems to me that some players want to stay on permanent vacation because they can't face losing their games. So there should be a maximum vacation period of 4 weeks.
Vacation time restrictions are now implemented on ChessConquest.
Each player receives 20 days per year. At the beginning of each year all players' allocated vacation times are reset to 20 days, and unused vacation time do not carry over to the next year.
The system will automatically revoke a player's vacation status as soon as their vacation time runs out.
There was no real science behind deciding on 20 days.
If you guys think we should rather increase the number of days, let's discuss it here to decide as a community what the allowed number of vacation days should be.
20 days in fine for me. I also like 4 weeks or 30 days just in case something happens. Some other chess sites have weekend time clock freeze like Saturday and Sunday or just Sunday only. This is just another alternative to extending more vacation time.
20 days should be the minimum with 1 day added after every full month without timing out. Used vacation days would NOT affect the full month. Just a humble suggestion :)