Do you agree that the three timeout rule is ridiculous and stupid?
Yes
or
...
[poster has disconnected three times, YOU WON!]
..
But seriously - YET AGAIN, I've just had a really good game of alternate shot - my classic 18 holes at St Andrews .. ruined by this extremely stupid rule.
One player timed out twice during the first nine - we all joked at how this was unlikely to go the distance ... and it didn't. His partner succumbed at hole 14 and terminated the game.
I would probably run out of characters for how bad this rule is - but I'm going to try anyway:
1) You can go 17 holes (2 hours sometimes) .. and then the game is ruined because someone's connection timed out for a 3rd time. A complete waste of everybody's time.
And it's hard to play properly knowing that you've 10 holes to go - and already someone has timed out twice.
2) The rule is the same for 18 holes as it is for 9 holes .. with the software the way it is, completing 9 holes is hard enough .. but recently, I've noticed 18 holes of multiplayer is extremely unlikely to be completed due to the rule
3) Savvy players like me start counting the disconnects, and offering to lose a timeout themselves rather than having the game be terminated if the opponent is one away from exterminating the game. It should NEVER be that way. EVER.
It is ridiculous and stupid - the players themselves should decide when the game is over, not you.
If we get to the 17th hole, even with major disconnection problems for one player; that all the others have forgiven .. - is anyone going to thank you for destroying the game because "that's 3 - you're done ..."?
Whoever came up with this has clearly never played a game of golf before (otherwise they would know how frustrating it is for someone to come up to you abruptly on the 17th and say "your opponent is wearing jeans, you're done here today!"; has no friends (blatantly obvious); and is paid way WAY too much (or is forced by the government to do 'a course in computers' or lose their welfare benefit).
Please disable the 3-disconnect rule - and if removing it from the code is too much to ask, then just up it to 255-disconnect rule as a workaround. It's piss easy - you just need to change one number in the code.
How hard is that?