The fighting rules have been updated to reflect the changes that have been agreed upon by the admin team. To sum it all up:
1. Challenges must be responded to in 48 hours or the opponent forfeits
2. All subsequent posts have a 72 hour limit
3. If your opponent or you fail to respond in 72 hours, two points get deducted and two more for every 24 hours until the next reply.
http://helovia.net/misc.php?action=help&hid=24#fighting