Concerning several things that happened to me in online dominion, aswell as some things that I've read in various other threads, I have become curious as to what kind of behavior is considered to be bad manner and what isn't. Since I don't see much use to discuss this in a vaccuum, I will list every case to address it individually, and write what I personally think about each point. This is of course just my opinion not a universal truth; the goal here is to start a discussion.
I have not found a thread similar to this one, only some threads discussing single points, though I don't think a little bit of repetition will hurt anyone.
1. Resigning the game early
I have had long discussions about this topic in other forums about other games in the past. I still think that having a problem with early-resigning can only be the result of a lack of thought and/or consideration. You don't sign in a contract when joining or creating a game, therefore you can't be forced to stay in it any longer then you want. Even from the point of maximizing efficiency it doesn't make sense, since you wont learn as much from a game which is already decided than from a new one. If you lost due to misplay of any kind, you can already take home your lesson at that point, and if it was just bad drawing, there is unlikely to be anything useful you can take home from playing the game to its end.
Obviously, all of this only applies for 2-Player games.
2. Playing engines that take super-long/ending the game quickly by 3-piling.
I've combined these two into one, because my thoughts on both are almost identical: if you hesitate from doing either of those because you consider it bad manner, you are degrading your own game, because you are deliberately ignoring options that the game offers. Both complicated engines and 3piling are simply the right way to play in certain situations. On a personal level, I also can't understand how someone could ever get the idea that 3piling is bm, because it's one of the least luck dependent and therefore most elegant ways to play. Nevertheless, I have heard people complaining about both in the past.
3. Playing extremely slow for no game-specific reason
This is probably the least controversial point on the list. If you drag out the game on purpose just to frustrate your opponent and force him into resigning, you are deliberately stealing time, and that is as bm as it gets. There's not really much more to say about this.
3.5 Semi-Intentionally dragging out the game due to lags
What I mean by this is, if the game freezes every few seconds, but it only happens during your turns. This might be an entierly differnet story for some people, hence the new point, but I think the answer is the same. It doesn't even matter if the lags are your fault are a result of goko failing, the only mannered thing to do in such a situation has to be resigning.
4. Ignoring the chat
By this I mostly mean people who just ignore you when you ask them a simple thing. I used to get really annoyed by this, since I'm not especially talkative or sth, and it's not hard to write a short answer to a simple question. Still though, for all I know the other player might not understand English or have a broken keyboard, so it's really far fetched to assume any sort of bad manner, just because your opponent is not doing something. So while it can be annoying, I don't think it's bm.
balls. you can't chat from ipods, so it can't be bm.
5. Quitting the game without writing gg
This point has a lot of history, depending which background one is coming from. I come from playing a lot of SC2, where it is widely considered to be bm, yet at the same time over half of all games end without anyone writing gg. I've also talked to people who don't understand the possible reasons for "ragequitting", thus considering it to be a liberate display of bad manner every time. This is so because it highly depends how emotional/invested you are about/in the game, be it sc2, chess or dominion. I am very invested, and having been on the receiving end countless times, I can fully understand not being in the mood to congratulate your opponent for winning every time, so I don't have any problem with people who just leave. I also don't always gg myself, it very much depends on which mood I'm in. Either way, I think it's wrong to expect your opponent to be okay with you winning, irrespective of how you played, since you can't know how hard he takes the loss. If you really need it, you can silently think gg to yourself.
6. Writing an "offensive" gg after winning the game
Ok, so, I put this last because it's the point where I'm most likely going to be swimming against the stream, because I absolutely hate it. There is nothing worse than writing gg first after you won a game, I hate it so much that I have to stop myself from writing something rude every time. Why? Because you are congratulating yourself for winning, and even more, you are asking your opponent to agree with you, by writing gg himself. The main problem here is that, other than in RTS, a lot of players aren't even aware that someone might have a problem with it, and might just think it shows good manner either way. It's also hard to claim that they are wrong, because there are no objectively valid arguments, and no-one can be forced to respect what is a kind of weird online consensus. Because of this, I can't claim it's bm, no matter how much I dislike it. What I mostly do is avoid this situation by leaving early (I tend to resign games >90% when I'm losing), or politely ask my opponent not to do it in the future. Also, sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who has a problem with this...
7: Complaining about luck (proposal)
Yea, there's that too. People actually do this very frequently. I could take it more seriously if Dominion weren't a game in which you lose at least 30% of your games because of luck. If someone does complain about it, I usually agree with him (If I feel that it was indeed luck), but also tell him that there's no point complaining, because, well, you're playing Dominion. I definitely don't consider it bad manner, and while I for once can't directly relate here, it would still be wrong to make fun of someone in that situation, as it's wrong to rub your win into someone's face.
8: Not having "#vpoff" in the title of your game, but disallowing the vp counter anyway (proposal)
Well, I'm biased here, because I think vp counters are really dumb, but trying to objective, I must admit that you really should put it in the title, mostly because there really isn't any reason not to. Even if just a few people have a problem with it, since you can avoid it so easily, there's no reason to cause a disadvantage for said people. I haven't really thought this through previously, but from now on I'll make sure to put "#vpoff" in the title whenever I host a game.
Oh, and unless you know him, you obv. can't assume bm whenever someone else doesn't do it, because he might simply not know about the extension.
So, that's my thoughts. Whad'd you think? Even a simple bm yes/no statement for every point would be interesting. I can also add some points to the list if I missed something worth talking about.