Losing an account - inactivity

[mvk20]

Does anybody know the specifics to when you lose an account for inactivity? How long is it, and is it based on time since playing a game, or time since last login? Thanks!

[asura]

I could be wrong, but from my experience I think an IGS account will not be deleted for inactivity.

[mvk20]

It definitely will - it's happened to me. Somewhat annoying to have to play 20 games to get a rating again.

[Bill Spight]

It definitely will - it's happened to me. Somewhat annoying to have to play 20 games to get a rating again.

IMO, unless someone has been playing for more than a year, ratings below 10 kyu are deleterious, because they have a hard time keeping up with the player's progress. Also because they encourage beginners to play other beginners. Socially, that's OK, but they can just play unrated games for fun.

[mvk20]

It's much easier to get a game when you have a solid rating though. Whether it should be or shouldn't be, that's just the way it is.

[EdLee]

Somewhat annoying to have to play 20 games to get a rating again.

Could be true if you feel the 20 games are a complete waste of time. Which could be the case if all your moves were "perfect" (AGZ level). Otherwise, there's bound to be stuff you can learn from each game, even if your opponent is vastly below your level (but this would become less and less likely as your provisional rank progresses toward your true level).

[mvk20]

I'm not trying to get in an argument here, but it's not at all that I think playing games is a complete waste of time. It's just that you can usually get better games faster if you have a solid rating. That's all. I'd rather have a solid rating than not have one, so it's slightly annoying to have one and then lose it. When I did lose it, I just played more games and got another one, not a huge deal, just minor. It is also a shame to lose access to all of your past games in your archive.

[asura]

It definitely will - it's happened to me.

Ok, then I was wrong. I have just checked my IGS games and the longest break between two games there was 9 months and 2 days.
So I would bet the account will not be deleted before 1 year inactivity.
But it might be possible that the time after you lose your account increases with the number of games that you have already played with the account...

[mvk20]

Thanks, asura, that's helpful. My gap probably was more than a year - and it's helpful to know that 6 months is probably safe. Playing on multiple servers and not having tons of time to play, every once in a while there's a fairly long gap on one of them.