Dear Miss Mannors (or anybody),

I'd like to play online more than I do. The reason I don't is because too many people want to chat. I don't. It distracts me, I type too slow and it burns up my clock.

When somebody says, "Hi", should I ignore them or should I tell them I don't want to chat? (I play at Gammon Empire. I could not find a "no chat" option except for watchers.)

How about putting something like this in a text-document and copy-pasting it into chat every time you start a match:
"Hi! I will not be using chat for the rest of this game since it distracts me from the actual game and I type slowly. Good luck!"

Good idea! Thanks!

But that "Good luck" part. Hmmm... How 'bout "Hope ya lose your..."

Before you start type "hi, gl" if they beat you to it type "thx, u2". after that ignoring them is fair game

I've done that, but it still makes me feel rude. I guess they understand, though. I think I'll do it that way.
Voice chat would be great.

I am surprised you have that issue, I don't play online for money but do play a lot of online based tournaments on SHG. I rarely have an opponent that says more than an opening greeting, an ending good match, and the occasional "match management" comment, like brb, the entire match chat for a longish match for me is something like:

hi, gl
gl2u2

brb
ok
ty
yw

gm glin
ty u2

or something similar, hardly taxing anyones typing skills.

Ha!! You don't know my typing skills!!

Really, though, I don't have any gripes about the sort of stuff you posted, but occassionally, somebody wants to converse throughout the whole thing. I'll admit that I have, at times, enjoyed the conversation, but it ruins the game. And it's the game that I'm there for.

One time there was a person who obviously was using the chat feature as a distraction weapon. I simply turned off the sound (No more "ding-dong") and scrolled the chat box off the screen.


Edit:
Hmmm.....Maybe I'll do like Wilco said, except my message will be "No offence, but I'm not here to converse."

Edit:
Nah. That doesn't sound good, either. I'll go with Nick's idea: Say "Hi" then turn a deaf ear.

Once or twice I've had someone who didn't even have the courtesy to reply to a hi, and I promptly put them on my banned list - who wants to play some miserable little sod with no manners? Mainly though, I've been surprised by how polite and good-natured most online players are, and I like it when people wish me luck - it puts me in mind of the old-style chivalry of duels and pistols at dawn etc...

Thanks for the input. Now I KNOW that ignoring a "Hi" would be percieved as rudeness. Would it also be rude to ignore inconsiderate attempts to distract me from the game? Heck, if voice chat were available, I'd have a blast with that!!

Hi,

i play on gamecolony.com and i always select the option "disallow chat messages while playing".

I did it because i was getting annoyed by all those people that are typing things like "you're so lucky" and such,

greetings k.

Considering not responding to "hi" as being rude is just silly. Do you feel the same way when you play poker online ? I play bg online to improve my game and obtain interesting positions for my database not to pseudo-socialise.

@ MordellWeil -

yup, you're just the type I had in mind... - and why do you assume I play poker?

Well, I guess there are at least two of us "miserable little sods with no manners" on this forum.