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From	Message
harrigan48 27-May-20, 04:28	Almost inactive teams A comment was made by lord_shiva on another thread, that there used to be a time on Gameknot when there were more teams than the 171 that we currently have on the ladder. I think that there might be even fewer meaningful teams than 171. Over the last 10 days, I have been sending out challenges to teams at the lower end of the ladder. In total, I sent out 8 challenges during that time. Two were accepted and matches are in progress. One was declined without comment. I would prefer a reason for declining but I'm not too worried, at least I know where I stand and can move on to something else. The remaining 5 challenges went unanswered. When I looked again at these unanswered challenges, I came to realise that in some cases the captain hadn't been on line for some time and the teams had few if any active matches. Okay, I realise now that this was a problem of my own making due to inexperience. Is there a way that teams could be temporarily removed from the ladder due to inactivity? That way everyone one could see a list which contained only active teams. I suspect this may be considerably lower than the 171 showing at the moment. Cheers Harry
joveyboy1 27-May-20, 18:51	I was able to find the reason for this. It's the last of the Team Ladder rules: "If a team has no current team matches in progress, and has not finished a team match in the last 30 days, it is removed from the ladder forfeiting its current rank; the team can rejoin the ladder later on if they finish new matches in the future starting with the lowest rank in the ladder." I've seen teams with inactive captains while having active co-captains, the highest rated team I know of with that case being 'The Empire Strikes Back.' The captain has been offline for 4 months (I hope they're well), but the co-captain(s) had been started the team's matches. I've noticed though they have not started one since May 01, but they're still in the top 30 right now. Some teams start very few matches, but still enough to show on the ladder. There are actually a lot more teams than 171. There are currently 76 teams on the 'Inactive Teams' list. You can find it at the bottom of the Team Table. That list also states at the top, "Either the team captain does not have a required premium membership any longer, or the team has no games in progress and has not completed any games in the last 30 days, or only 1 active team member." I'm always looking to make sure a team is active when I send them a match. If it's been at least a few days since they started their last match, I usually don't bother, as it's hard to know if they're in the mood to start a match. It's generally less of a problem the higher you go up the ladder.
harrigan48 27-May-20, 21:19	Thanks Joe, I didn't think of looking on the team table. One day I will be able to do this job properly. I will certainly check in the future about whether the team is really active. Cheers Harry
bearz2 03-Jun-20, 02:41	Joe I taught you well...i'm so happy... and that is not tongue in cheek...you have really impressed an old bear.
amacivn 03-Jun-20, 12:08	Harry , I look on the Teams profile page, if you scroll down the page to "active matches" you can see the last time they started a match , the page also shows if the matches are 3 5 or 7 days which helps when looking for players to pair On my Team we tend to challenge teams on line as you get a quicker response , with experience you'll soon learn when Captains go on line and can match them in advance, some Captains hide there status I don't know why it makes no sense unless they are busy playing chess as opposed to team "stuff"
timjensen 04-Jun-20, 08:01	I have never understood the purpose of hiding your online status.
amacivn 04-Jun-20, 09:56	Try Joe and Tim's Teams to match with , they are both good people and respond fairly , two good Teams
joveyboy1 04-Jun-20, 17:03	harrigan48 I meant to say sooner, I always check the captain of each team I go to challenge as well, as most cases they're the ones starting the majority of matches. If I see them with a slow average time per move and very few matches started in recent weeks, that tells me to be ready for a slow reply. If I see the captain on vacation, I usually don't challenge, unless I know that team's co-captains can reply. I've learned a few tricks through the years, but I know there's more to learn. I'll let you know if I find more   bearz2 thank you for all the help you gave when I started out. I wish I was more aware of, well, everything back then, I would have appreciated it even more. I'm glad I've been able to keep growing on Gameknot as well   hamot2 I normally have my status showing, but I do hide it at times. My reasons are for in consideration of other captains who challenge my team. Sometimes I'm busy with things, but I can intermittently check on Gameknot still, but I hide my status so that captains I know expect a quick reply from me aren't disappointed in a slow reply instead. I also usually hide it a few minutes before I go offline just in case anyone just so happens to be sending me a match right as I'm going. That's my reasons, but I never hide it permanently. amacivn Thanks Neil, I try my best and will keep doing so
timjensen 05-Jun-20, 07:21	Well, thank you, Neil. That is kind of you to say that. I have excellent co-captains who take their role seriously. They do a great job!
timjensen 05-Jun-20, 07:22	Joe - I am glad that works for you. Keep up the great work!

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