If it's a gunboat game, especially a live game, it's probably to get everyone's attention and to signify that they really, really need to stop playing.

In a press game, it's probably meaningless.

I HATE IT!
One of the few issues I have with this site is that cancel/pause (which are external features) are put beside draw (which is part of the game).

However, when someone votes all, I generally read it as 'help stop by any means necessary' (if there's a respectable bunch) or 'I give up but hope to survive on a techincality' if not.

I use it in gunboats to signify that the game should end if there are CDs.Do it to get peoples attention that the result of finishing the game is not a true measure of one's ability but rather the fortune or misfortune of being in the wrong country if there are CDs that tilt the board.For the most part experienced gunboaters will pick up on this and either draw or cancel game.

I kind of don't like it when CD's just APPEAR out of nowhere if they are gone for a couple years. It totally throws off troop position and everything. Is there some way to, if they are gone too long, to not allow them to play after?

Ah, the eternal question...should CDs cause the end of a game. I propose that if it is an unfair advantage to have a CD located next to another player, it is also an unfair advantage to have a poor player located next to another player. Or, perhaps, a highly skilled player located next to you. So let's not expect everyone to compensate for unexpected situations...lets insist that it be fair and stop playing any game where any player leaves :)

Forgive the tone, but I think over HALF of the games I've played in have had a CD....

Pringle does bring up a good point...but from the opposite side of the spectrum. You get the advantage of having a non-neighbor to feast off of, and then if you defer it, the darn meal wakes up and fights back! Unfair! This is the great part of CD's: one can complain when someone else has them...or when oneself has them!

@pringle.It might not be the original player some may have taken over postion.Some players do this to mess with game.Others in the hope that they can be part of stalemate and gain some points out of it.No sure if it affects your GR or not to take over a postion.

Figle +1

Cancel/pause are NOT diplomatic tools.

In the games that most concerned me that I was missing something, CD's do not seem to have played any part. So I can interpreting the Draw/Pause/Cancel votes as "please stop this game while I am still surviving" since they are PPSC and one player is very close to winning. Does this change any opinions?

Sounds like someone being a bad sport to me

Yeh, just had a look at it - I'd be 98% sure he's just trying to manipulate his way out of it.

As mentioned earlier, I hate that sort of behaviour (discredits votes when they may be serious) so personally I'd go out my way to eliminate them

In a live game it could still mean "Unforeseen circumstances have arisen and I can no longer continue. Please accept my humblest apologizes and consider ending the game where it stands rather than push on while my country goes into civil disorder."

Note the use of the word "could". It could also be as figle suggests.