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From	Message
gmforsythe 22-Jun-25, 10:28	Question Does anyone know what advantage is gained by a player hiding his online status?
cyber-1 22-Jun-25, 13:39	One answer might be, that fast players, don't as a rule hide their identity, but slow movers do. Possibly the slow mover feels more comfortable if he can ponder over the next move in secret, but the fast player wants his opponent, to see that he is online and making moves!
saguaro 22-Jun-25, 14:01	I've noticed that quite a few Captains, whose teams are typically not high on the ladder, have average times per move greater than a day and hide their online status. (I don't challenge them, as I prefer to have the challenges completed quickly.) I wonder if they're trying to avoid other Captains pestering them to handle their challenges. Any ideas?
cyber-1 22-Jun-25, 14:25	Deleted by cyber-1 on 28-Aug-25, 12:09.
lord_shiva 22-Jun-25, 18:17	Hiding Status My cousin played a guy who always waited until the last 20 minutes to make a move. Knowing the guy lived near L.A. he made his own move (in a game he was losing) at 5:20 pm, when he estimated the guy would be deep in traffic. Sure enough, he won by T.O. I’m not sure what the advantage to concealing online status is. Maybe to evade potential hacking? The log shows when moves were made. I like the log to see where my conditionals were triggered, and to count how many I used.
royal_knight1 22-Jun-25, 21:48	My status was hidden because when i was the captain my co captain unclemuzio was and still is very busy at work. I made and answered all challenges now i have handed the team over to dynamic-dv we share the load it helps being in different time zones. Another reason i was hidden when I shut my laptop down i do check my phone a quick look later on and as you know the green dot is on for 10 mins and i didn't want captains think i was rude not to answer. Geoff.
gmforsythe 23-Jun-25, 03:37	What about non-captains? I can understand (sort of) not wanting other captains to think you were being rude by not answering when, in fact, you were not online, but what about individual players? Sometimes I may be getting ready to go to bed, but if I see that one of my opponents is online, I may wait a bit so that I can see if he is going to send a move. Sometimes I may send a chat message and am anxious to see a reply. If he's not online, I know not to expect one, but if he is not online and I can see that fact, I know not to bother waiting. It just seems rude to me.
dynamic-dv 23-Jun-25, 07:04	@gmforsythe try a friends request, even if they are hiding their status you can still see if they are not online and last time they were.
gmforsythe 23-Jun-25, 08:35	dynamic-dv Thanks for the suggestion. I'll try it when I run into another such person.
lord_shiva 23-Jun-25, 08:45	Friend Request I just discovered the friend list reveals the last time each friend was online, sorted by time. Players, friend list (at the bottom). Did not check how hidden status appears in the list, though.
dynamic-dv 23-Jun-25, 08:53	It isn't hidden even if they hide it!
5imon 25-Jun-25, 12:23	gmforsythe <I can understand (sort of) not wanting other captains to think you were being rude by not answering when, in fact, you were not online, but what about individual players> I've done it before to avoid being pestered. I had a high number of games in progress at the time, so needed to spend time thinking. One opponent seemed to want to play speed chess and would spam me both on the chat and private messages if I didn't move every 10 seconds since I was online. Also sometimes I would have gameknot in a tab, forget to close the tab and work on something else in a different tab. Gameknot still shows you as online even when the tab is inactive, which also upsets some people since you're 'online' but not moving. Not a problem with 99.9% of players but unfortunately there is a minority of weirdos out there.
cyber-1 25-Jun-25, 12:29	Deleted by cyber-1 on 28-Aug-25, 12:09.
thumper 25-Jun-25, 13:24	Cyber-1 15 years of paying for silence? That's dedication!!

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