Didn't even know there was such a thing as Following.

That's probably what I ought to do too! Normally I just delete the game immediately. Haven't received the "deleted too many games" message... yet!

@taposi I know I am coming from way out in left field here, but increasing the first move time to three minutes is NOT an improvement I welcome! I play two-minute games, meaning, if my opponent fails to move I need to wait the entire two-minute length of the game before the thing gets canceled? I guess I will have to be more proactive and delete games manually when they are slow-starting.
thanks though...

@pangloss Truly irritating, yes. From the perspective of a desktop player, this is something that often happens: I set up a table with my preferred timing and settings, and wait for opponents to join me. Often I will be doing some editing or something else in a different window, while waiting for the "ding" that tells me I have a game request. However, at times a game will start on its own with no such audible notice; I won't know there is someone there until I hear a move tone (Your Turn) or that irritating "applause" sound indicating their first move was a bingo. From earlier discussions it has become apparent that these opponents, who get placed at my table with no notice or request, are people who play in the app and are allotted to games by some mysterious Sorting Hat or something. This is rather irksome; for one thing it means my opponent may have been looking at their letters for up to a minute before I even knew they were there--which, in a two-minute game, can be significant. So I usually elect not to play those games; either I will delete the table right off, or I will just wait out the timer. But the game usually self-deletes after one moveless minute; three minutes seems excessive!

@pangloss Actually I do like to get the clicker when I am within a few seconds of running out of time. I play on my desktop usually, and am not sure whether my experience replicates what you hear in Android. And I haven't paid a huge amount of attention to exactly when the timer-warning sounds, how many times it clicks, etc. But I do keep the sound high enough that I can hear it (and of course my move notifications). The clicker towards the end sometimes helps!

@pangloss presumably it depends on what type of game one prefers. For rapid timed games, desktop is the way to go IMHO

I certainly have had the cheat accusation (as well as some harsh language from people who apparently thought that, by playing words like ASEA and ABED, I was creating some sort of monstrous abominable hybrid). Continued chat followups I'm not sure about. Maybe you should be flattered!

@pangloss I'd have a hard time dredging up an exact date, but my first Lexulous ID would have been created right back at the time when Literati died on Yahoo Games. That was, what, 2015 or thereabouts? A number of other players in Lex. are also former Literati people so they would have a better idea than I. I lost my old ID during the transition to the new board and can't dig up any old records.

@mapmakere interesting suggestion. But if your opponent seems oblivious to it and you (being the good friend that you are) want to warn them about it, then it seems likely that you are more on the ball than they are, and you probably don't need the dinger to alert you. Eh?

@mapmakere Back in Antediluvian times there used to be an Abort option: If both players agreed, the game would be canceled and wouldn't appear as a win or a loss for either player. I imagine that's what BL is wishing still existed.

@bettyl I'm not sure if this is at all relevant to your situation, but what I have noticed beginning this morning is that when I log in to Lexulous, instead of defaulting to the Live section (where I always play), the first screen that comes up is Email games. From there I can just easily click on the Live tab and get taken to the place I am used to. Not sure why this is happening now.... but it is! (odd)

@rjlwins How are you receiving these invitations? For many of us, we log into Lexulous first and that makes us available for invites from other players who are logged in at the same time. Not sure how yours is working.

@mapmakere same here. well, right-clicking brings up a menu, in which one of the options is Emoji. On the rare occasions when I feel like using one, I tend to go with Windows/period.

@karen-taylor It appears that this happens when players are joining games via the mobile app. I have had it happen frequently at my own hosted tables, and my policy these days is simply to delete the game before anyone has moved (or after the first move), which in either case doesn't affect the bottom line. It is a little irksome because it means you will have to set up a new hosted table. But the app players apparently don't have a choice; the site will sit them down at any available game!

@tracy-wambolt it would surprise me if that option ever becomes available, though it would be a fascinating thing to try! Presumably you would redesign the board like this only by prearrangement with the other player. But it would introduce a new wrinkle to the game if experienced players found they had to be on the lookout for new bonus square positions. Interesting idea!

@swimflower is it usually after you win a game that people block you? Some people are highly irritable and will do that.

@henrryyy What does Minecraft have to do with it?
Anyway, the proposed solutions do seem to have a ring of plausibility about them; but they don't really strike at the root of the question. When two players play each other several times in a row, Lexulous automatically alternates the starting player. The concern here is that some people may be game-shopping, dropping into other people's tables where they know they will get the first move and then moving on. See earlier responses in this thread.

@haftoplay Once upon a time it was possible to be seated at two tables simultaneously. Back in the days of Yahoo Literati, you could even play multiple games at the same time, or have two tables open in hopes of having a better chance of getting someone to join you for a game. I am not sure if this was ever possible in Lexulous, though. Certainly not since they introduced the current version, v2 (sadly).

@bonhi Yes. Of course this doesn't help much if you are not in the habit of playing a series of games with the same opponent. Not everyone does it that way!

@pangloss
Note under where it says "Rating Change."