Are all players penalized when a single opponent is out of time?

[Wentu]

I received two time penalties in two days and what it seems to me is that one of the opponent is out of time and we all get penalized.
Tables: 159737400 and 159177572
Is that really so? If so, I don't find it fair at all.
What does netiquette suggest here? Should we immediately skip the turn of players that are late? I started partecipating in tournaments only a couple of weeks ago and It already happened several time that my opponent is out of time. I could have easily won those game if I had skipped their turn but I don't think it is fair. On the other hand, I don't want my reputation to be penalized if it is not my fault.
Suggestions?

Thanks a lot.
Wentu

[RobertBr]

It is complicated.

Let us start with how it works. If a single player is out of time any other player can skip their turns. Functionally the game ends, the player who was skipped takes a penalty, all other players are counted as joint winners. This generally works well in two player games but poorly in multi-player games.

Now the etiquette...

In a two-player game this is referred to as clocking. In a real-time competitive environment it is entirely reasonable and appropriate to do this in a two-player game - your opponent has not managed their time well, hit the skip button, take the win.

But...

If it is a friendly game (ie not a tournament, not arena) the clock is really only there to give people a nudge. Its broadly considered bad manners to kick somebody for being a little bit over. Send a chat message, ask if there is a problem, does the person need a bit more time. If there is no response then by all means call the game.

If it is a turn based game then the time management aspect is not quite the same factor. Most players, even in tournaments, will given an opponent a bit of leeway if they are over time. In any case on a turn based tournament the game will time out on its own after a fixed amount of time anyway and the player with the most time left will be given the win. So, you absolutely can time out an opponent in a two-player game, and your opponent has no cause for complaint in a competitive setting but most people consider it good manners to give a little bit of leeway.

Which brings us to multi-player tournaments. It is something that happens, that one player slips over their time, and another player who is in last place skips them, promoting themselves to joint first. That player is often short of time themselves so would finish badly if the game finished or timed out. This is done to improve their tournament rankings, and it is very poor sportsmanship. Try to avoid doing this. Since multiplayer tournaments began at the end of last year there has been a lot of people suggesting the system should be changed to stop this (https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=35289).

[Wentu]

Thank you for the thorough and clear explanation!
I'll try to behave as you suggest: it seems reasonable.