This has been rehashed over so many times by so many players, myself included, I'm sure the perfect solution is lurking somewhere in the depths of these forums.

The best solution is to avoid CD's. Play games with people you know, or at least people that post in the forum. Play WTA games. Play big pot games.

The kind of CD that deserves a penalty are the kind where people give up. The type of people that would give up and CD, are the type of people that give a damn about this point system.

... this shows that there's a serious lack in the structures of these said Forums ...

I don't think it's as problematic an issue as some people suggest.

Sometimes an ally goes CD and you suffer, sometimes a neighbour goes CD and you benefit by taking his SCs. Over the long term, the effects for any individual player probably even themselves out.

Plus I've had plenty of enjoyable games where I've joined as a CD takeover.

Geofram; how exactly is WTA games going to disincentivize CDing? A Cd player is going to lose his points anyway. Unless you mean that they will be less likely to join in the first place?
Besides sometimes CDing is unavoidable due to circumstances outside of the game. Although its not a great situation to have a player bail out part way or when the going gets tough (and noobs are more predipositioned to do so, due to them getting their points back no matter what) its definitely not as bad as multi-accounting which is just plain cheating, or meta-gaming, which is not entirely playing fair.

@digitsu - i think that's what he meant, that they are less likely to join.

CD is inevitable. but there are a lot primarily in the games with newer players - this is because people join the site, and either don't like it so they don't come back or they aren't doing well in a game and so they abandon it. it's safe to say, i think, that most more experienced players wouldn't do that, so when they CD it's a result of unforeseen circumstances, and/or lack of planning.

@jamie - i like to play the game. yes, winning is nice, but i don't like to win b/c of someone going CD. so for me, whether its my ally or my nemesis, or someone on the opposite side of the board, i don't care - CD makes the game less enjoyable. a game can still be enjoyable with a CD, but it definitely takes away from it, in my opinion. and although i am fortunate to not experience many these days, when i first started playing on this site there was a CD in every game it seemed. sadly, even in some games where the players are very experienced, people CD.

i think trying to reduce CDs is really good plan, and if there are particular penalties, that would be ok with me. i like the idea people have put out a number of times of allowing you to set as a restriction for people joining a game how many times they've gone CD but that won't help with the new folks who haven't yet. i guess the real solution is to organize games with players who you are confident won't CD, but even that isn't fool proof - i recently lost a game that was well organized and had a very committed group of players because of 2 CDs in the game.