Kata bots slow to play (incl. ladder games)

I joined the 19x19 ladder to have some good games, and against human opponents I absolutely respect their right to play slow, but Kata Mecha, whose rating is 500 points below my own and seemingly for good reason, is wasting my time (43 hours left on its clock). This may have something to do with the fact that the bot is playing lots of simultaneous games, many against other bots.

I feel particularly justified in complaining here since 1. I paid for membership, 2. it's a ladder game whose resolution is keeping me from other human opponents, 3. even if I resigned, I think it would just lead me to another game against it in order to climb in the ladder. If the bot is going to play this slowly, I wish it would be removed from normal ladders.

I totally get your frustration.
Although a different situation, I myself have recently been in two games in which I had clearly won the game but my opponents continued to play for over another year (the games took over 2 years to finish). They were human players who it seems were relatively new to the game of Go, and decided to play 37x37 games. :-/

Anyway, here is an important thing to remember, when we start a game we agree to the clock settings. The rules and the clock settings are the same for bots and humans, so be careful with who you agree to play. If you get assigned a game with somebody (or bot) that you don't want to play you can resign, and if you resign before you move the game does not count against your rating, AFAIK. So you can keep resigning against the bot, and then it is only a very minor inconvenience of two mouse clicks.

I hope that helps.

Thank you! Let's just add for consideration, 1. ordinary 19x19 Go is a rather long game, so the operation of bots on ladders is of particular significance for the site's well-being; 2. the KataGo template involves value-estimation, so the bots should have some sense of their own winning prospects. If the bots' estimates are "reasonable" in ordinary play and can detect large territory gaps, then they should be made to resign when their apparent win-rate is below 1%. OTOH, if they are not reasonable (e.g. because of insufficient training), they should not be deployed on the ladders.

Kata Mecha has even dipped into vacation time to extend our game. Their profile says they are a site 'member' and 'on vacation'.