Only For Super Admins and Admins
Personal Interactions Guidelines
We all know the rules: no cheating, no obscene language, etc. But what about common courtesy and always doing the right thing in terms of online personal interactions?
These are things that you do not get banned for if you do not follow, but you may hurt people’s feeling and overall look like less than a decent person if you do not.
The following is meant as a guidelinne for all SA/Admins to accept and adhere to. Always try to do the right thing to the best of your abilities and willingly apologize and make amends when you have errored.
- Do not block a user unnecessarily. Blocking users should be a last resort and never in retaliation for a misunderstanding or confrontation. Blocking a user is justified when the individual has violated the chess.com TOS. Example: for posting obscene or offensive material and you have documented their actions and reported them to chess.com.
- If you block someone, try as a rule to do so for a short time period and inform user why he/she is blocked and when you will lift the block. (For extremly rude behaviour a permanent block may be warranted). Do not carry petty grievances forever.
- Never accept hearsay or rumors as fact. Always, wait for chess.com to make a determination or at least confront the person and ask.
- When a SA or admin is being considered for demotion a temporary club is created and all admins except the one in question is invited to discuss the issues and decide the best course of action. The team may or may not decide to invite the admin in question to join the temporary club and tell his/her side of the story. Once the admin team makes a decision this temporary club is deleted.
- If you need to demote an admin, always explain to the person the reasons and whether he/she could expect a 2nd chance at a later time.
- Use warning first before demotions or expulsion.
- Ask users to delete bad posts in a private message (PM), wait a moment and then do it yourself if they have not done. This creates a much better dynamic than if you immediately delete which often escalate the situation.
- When you feel you are insulted or under a personal attack, take a deep breath and wait at least 10 min before posting anything. Or ask another admin or friend who is not emotionally involved in the situation to handle it.
- When someone asks what you think about another user for an admin position, and you have a low opinion of the person, just say you do not think they would be suitable for admin position. Avoid making accusations.
- When you write a PM, always consider that it may be forwarded to others and try to write it that way. If confidential, include that in title and state in the beginning that it is not meant to be shared, but that is no guarantee.
- When you receive a PM, treat it as confidential and if you wish to share with others ask sender if it is OK to do so.
- Apologize if you make a mistake.
- Accept apologies from others if offered after a mistake.
- Never make personal attacks.
- Recognize the work and efforts of fellow admins and members. Tell then in a PM, on group notes and/or give them a fun trophy.
How To Prevent Obvious Cheaters From Entering Club
I Know 2, Account Closed- @LegendChrss and @Coach_Aaryan
General strategy:
It is a good idea to only invite or accept players who have had minimum time on chess.com (say, 1,3 or 6 months). Many returning cheaters (or other trolls) are caught or banned early. Other new users stop being active and would time out if they joined your club and its matches.
What to look for:
1) A player who has a very high rating and mainly wins and extremely few losses/draws (and has played many games)
2) A player whoes rating keep increasing linearly, or jumps suddenly 400-600+ points, and who have played many games
3) Lots of short games involving very few opponents, one of which is always losing and another one winning (say fool's mate).
Below can raise some flags, but in themselves does not offer much evidence:
1) A player who does not have a title, but has 2300+ in online rating
2) A player who does not have a FIDE rating, but 2000+ in online rating
3) A player who is 2100+ and have 100+ concurrent online games (and no title or FIDE rating)
4) Discrepanicies between online ratings and other ratings (bullet/blitz/tactics)... when all ratings reflect many games played and not too many time out in fast games (which could be due to slow connections). An example would be a 800 points diffference with at least 100-150 games played.
None of this offer proof of cheating, but you can use it to determine whether to invite a new member. If you suspect cheating for someone who is already in your group, it may be best not to kick him/her out, but to file a support request with chess.com and let them determine if it is cheating or not.
From chess.com knowledge base:
How do I report someone I think is cheating?
- If you have reason to believe someone is cheating, please report it here and include all relevant info (username, reason for suspicion, etc). We investigate all reports and keep them confidential.
- Please do not discuss your suspicions in the forums!
More chess.com resources on cheating:
https://support.chess.com/search?query=cheating
Public Clubs VS Private Clubs
Everyone should be familiar with Chess.com Community Policies and TOS
https://www.chess.com/community
https://www.chess.com/agreement
What sometimes causes confusion is whether these apply to just the public areas at chess.com or also private clubs and private messages/private chat.
I believe TOS and the Community Policies refer to the public areas of chess.com and do not govern private clubs.
For example:
1) The "Chess.com Community Policies" has "Do not publicly debate religious or political topics" which some private clubs allow (think of some of the discussion clubs).
2) TOS has "post any comments, text, messages, or links in the forums or any public comments that contain any advertisements of any kind, including religious, political, or recruiting messages for Chess.com groups, clubs, blogs, or any other content on or off of Chess.com" while some clubs allow for club recruiting messages and club and/or match advertisements.
3) The Community Policies has "Be kind, helpful, and forgiving" and TOS has no "harassing, defamatory" post. In my experience from reporting, chess.com staff sets a much higher bar for such posts in private clubs versus public areas.
4) TOS has "invasive of another's privacy". In my experience, any quote or screenshot from a private message or private chat that identifies the sender and put him in a negative light would be deleted by staff in the public areas but rarely in private clubs.
5) TOS prohibits "vulgar, obscene, sexually explicit" but some private clubs allow some of such content. Think of Playboy Warrior which I believe allows for partial (or whole?) nudity which is not allowed for pubic avatars or in public forums.
https://www.chess.com/club/playboy-chess-warriors
6) TOS prohibits "objectionable" posts. The private clubs are free (within certain limits) to set their own rules for what is allowed or not.
7) TOS prohibits "post any comments, text, messages, or links in the forums or any public comments that is off topic or irrelevant to the purpose and content of the original content, game, article, blog, or forum topic;". Private clubs are free to make their own rules and some of the Free Speech discussion clubs have no rules against spam.
In conclusion, the TOS refers several times to "the [public] forums or any public comments". My understanding is the TOS and "Chess.com Community Policies" govern all the public areas of chess.com.
That said, there is a smaller set of site-wide rules which govern all content on chess.com including private clubs and private messages and chat. These include a prohibition of sexual harassment, extreme personal harassment, clear racism (including the use of the N-word and other racial slurs).
THNX, Regards, @SirAaravGM
More That Half Credit To @VirtualKnightJoakim
