I get that things come up, stuff happens, and you can get to a point where you can't continue playing, but that rarely seems to be the situation when I notice people getting replaced.
More times than not, they are simply inactive, and without a word of explanation from them, the mod is forced to replace or mod kill them. They'll come back some time later and without a considerate word on the subject, sign up for another game without acknowledgment to those whom their previous actions (or, inactions) effected.
Others, who will sign up for several games at once, and then when things aren't going well for them in one, will ask to be replaced while maintaining activity in the other games. I find this one just flat out rude, to both the mod and the rest of the players. They'll offer various excuses when they do so, but ultimately, it comes down to rude behavior in my book.
Of course there are times when a player will ask to be replaced because something unexpected came up (not some made up excuse of managing time, or taking on too much, but something legitimate and unforeseen) in which case, they do not apply to this rant. This is dealing specifically with those whom don't have the respect for others to explain after the fact why they just vanished on a game, or whom quit on one game when things go badly for them to focus on another, or claim some bogus reason (in my book at least) of "biting off too much" or some other nonsense about poor time management. For the most part, people have a good idea of how much time they can spend here, and I don't grudge them that, but if you know you can only handle one or two games at a time, and sign up for four, then that's your failing.
I guess what my point with all this is, that perhaps we should consider sanctions for people who either by inactivity or bogus reasons, ask to be replaced, thus harming the game they were in. This could be as simple as a temp ban from the next game in sign ups, or a list maintained of people who do this, with scaled punishment based on frequency of offenses. Perhaps even a special section in game sign ups where they have to sign up, and if no one else takes a normal spot, the mod can use their discretion in allowing them into the game. Something like...
Signups: All non-quitters sign up here.
1.
2.
...
10.
Quitters: Those who habitually need to or ask to be replaced are forced to sign up here.
1.
2.
3.
Replacements: Those who wish to be replacements if needed sign up here.
1.
2.
3.
I dunno. Maybe I am the only one who feels this way that people who do this ruin the game, and am annoyed when replacements come in, since it creates a crappy (in my opinion) situation, especially if the person being replaced was under suspicion.
Am I the only one who feels this way? If so I'll suck it up, but if not, we should consider some measures to try and alleviate this problem.
EDIT:
Shared Google Doc for mods or other players to track when someone requests to be replaced or has to be modkilled for failure to respond to prod.
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Ag1lOgJ3FE_vdFNrX3FPN2ZKZjFlcEM2VTQ1S0JiTEE&hl=en_GB&authkey=CPKDiJgF
Apparently, I can't do URLs due to not posting where posts count I guess.
