I think Dmitri is right, why not just leave it to us to hit refresh when we need it. Each time a page is refreshed it uses site bandwidth and with auto-refresh on, it means many people are using bandwidth even while away from the computer....lack of an auto-refresh would reduce this greatly.

Sharon, that definatly can and does slow a site down. The more bandwidth being used means more demand on the server and ultimatly can slow it down. It may not be responsible for putting a site offline, but can slow it down to the point where some cant access it, or very slowly at best.

Personally I like the auto fresh. I do not have to sit there and manually do it constantly. I can walk away for a minute or two and do something and come back and see if anyone has moved. I think however the problem was said though. There are people who are logged on and using the site and not even at home or at the computer. For common courtesy people who are not going to be playing should log out of the site. I know I have taken games from the waiting room when I looked and saw the player was on the site. However they must not have been playing because no response from that player for over an hour. So staying logged in even when you are not playing on the site is discourteous and deceiving.

I have to say i like auto refresh, but don't see the real need for it so i don't use it. I am not constantly at my PC, but when i come back to it i just hit the F5 key on my keyboard - hey presto - auto refresh.

Some computers can alert mobile phones, so players know when it is their turn - mine does, so I can hopefully avoid keeping people waiting.