Vacation Warning
I suggested a similar feature before. Currently, I put such notices in my "Notes" and then send a "Message" to opponents--but I play very few games here.
Suppose I plan to go on Christmas vacation from 12/22 to 12/30, next week I add a note "Away from Xmas 12/22 to 12/30". Now if I happen to be down a couple pawns in one game my opponent is less likely to think I'm "abusing" my vacation time and he knows to play a little faster if he wants to try to finish the game before then.
I would like to tell my opponents I am going on vacation because I think it's a polite thing to do. With all the threads you have around here where people get upset about their opponent going on vacation because they are losing, I think it would be nice to head that off. I will be going on vacation in the near future and if I'm not doing well in some of my games (could be likely), I don't want it to seem strange to those opponents.
It would be a feature you could use if you like, but there is no requirement to use it. It doesn't really make a difference if some people don't want to tell their opponents they are going on vacation -- this feature doesn't affect them. And for the people that do want to inform their opponents, it would be beneficial if we could do it easily, and in a way we can be confident would be seen.
"he knows to play a little faster if he wants to try to finish the game before then."
This is actually my one concern. That people could see upcoming vacation notices as a tactic to speed up someone's play. But you could already do that in messages, so I don't think the feature I suggest would hurt.
I think it would be nice to have a feature that allows me to put up advanced notice to my opponents if I will be going on vacation. I realize that I can write in the messages box, but then I have to do that for each game and it isn't the most visible thing. I would like to be able to check a box that says I'll be going on vacation in X days and have a box come up underneath the board in all my games that says this (similar to what you see when your opponent is on vacation).
Try email or a private message
I mentioned that in my original post -- that I could write an individual message to each opponent, but that a nice feature would be to be able message everyone simultaneously. The chess.com staff has explicitly asked what features users would find useful. I don't expect this to be done soon or maybe ever, but at least I know that the staff here doesn't have to come up with ideas in a vacuum.
I think it would be nice to have a feature that allows me to put up advanced notice to my opponents if I will be going on vacation. I realize that I can write in the messages box, but then I have to do that for each game and it isn't the most visible thing. I would like to be able to check a box that says I'll be going on vacation in X days and have a box come up underneath the board in all my games that says this (similar to what you see when your opponent is on vacation).