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ERIK"S second forum http://www.chess.com/article/view/why-should-you-upgrade-your-browser If you are reading this, then you are using a web browser. It's your portal to the web. Your surf board for surfing the net. Your car for driving the internet highway. Your... you get the point. It's what makes the internet work. But does which browser and version you use really matter? ABSOLUTELY! And let me tell you why. Newer browser: are MUCH faster make pages look MUCH better are MUCH more secure Ready to upgrade? Click here to download the fastest browser - it's FREE. Not convinced yet? Read on! The internet started out as just plain text. Then they added links. Then they added images. Then they added support for animated pictures of puppies wearing birthday hats. Then they added flash. And javascript. And java. And every year what can be done with a browser gets more and more amazing. It's no different from television. First it was just radio noise. Then black and white. Then color. Then VHS tapes. Then DVDs. Now we are at 2 inch thick HD TV's with 7 surround speakers playing theater-quality BluRay movies in 3D at home. If you are still using an old browser, you are using an old black and white TV. Or a beat up 1975 Toyota Celica car. If that's all you've ever used - that's fine - you don't know the difference. But now imagine that I can give you a brand new 2013 Ferrari and put a 60" HD 3D TV in your living room - and it's all FREE. That's what you get when downloading a new browser - a faster, better performing experience, and it costs you NOTHING. Ready to upgrade? Click here to download the fastest browser - it's FREE. Not convinced yet? Read on! If you're still reading, you might be thinking "Hey, I'm fine. I'm not missing out on anything." I'm sorry, but I can only say that you don't know what you are missing until you try it out. If you are still on an old browser like Internet Explorer 7 or 8, you're getting a 10" black and white TV view of the Internet. Your pages are probably 5x slower than they would be on another browser, and they have graphical issues, and are open to lots of security issues. So, you are getting a much worse online experience. But in addition to that, I want you to upgrade because it helps Chess.com. How could that possibly be? Because when our users use old browsers, we have to try to keep supporting those browsers even though the code and technologies to do that cost us a lot of time and resources. If everyone were on a modern web browser, all of the time we spend making sure that things don't fall apart in a 5-year-old browser like Internet Explorer 8, we could instead invest in building more chess awesomeness - game modes, training tools, etc. But we spend at least 20% of our time trying to make sure that our code works for old browsers. That's like asking James Cameron to shoot the film "Avatar" with additional cameras and then edit it so that it looks just as awesome on square 10" black and white TV as it does in the huge IMAX 3D theater. Even Microsoft is desperately trying to get people to upgrade away from older version of Internet Explorer because it's embarrassing for them. Check out: http://www.beautyoftheweb.com We have already stopped supporting IE6 and IE7, and after next month we will no longer try to make things work in Internet Explorer 8 either. Internet Explorer 9 has been out for a long time, and Internet Explorer 10 is nearly here. So if you've been on IE8 for the last 5 years, time to download a new one. Download a free faster browser today! → Chrome Firefox IE9 STILL not convinced? Then let me explain some more! Web pages are nothing more than a bunch of text and instructions that are sent from one computer (ours) to another (yours), and then quickly rearranged to present you with what looks like a spiffy clean page. Ta da! But that isn't really what your computer gets. This is what your computer gets - thousands of lines of: When you click on a link on a webpage, and that sends a signal to our servers (a bunch of super computers sitting in a chilly dark warehouse in Los Angeles, CA!). Our servers then figure out what you were trying to do, and then start building a webpage for you, and then send that web page back to you. That web page is a bunch of text, as well as a set of instructions for other things to download: images, code, data, buttons, etc. Your browser then takes that page and all of the other stuff and mixes it all up into the web page you are looking at. It's kind of like trying to bake a cake from a bunch of ingredients. When you are using a new, modern web browser then when we send you the instructions your browser knows exactly what it means and can handle all of the ingredients, mix them up quickly, and put them in a super fast oven... and within less than a second you have a nice cake! But when you are using an old browser, it's like we are sending instructions, but your browser/chef is a 4 year old child who doesn't have access to any sugar and has an oven that gets no hotter than 150 degrees. So it takes him forever to understand the instructions, then he mixes it all up without sugar, and it takes 8 hours to bake, and tastes bad when it's done. -------- Well, that's about all I can do. If you're still not convinced and refuse to download a modern FREE browser that will make your internet life significantly better, there isn't much more I can do :) I don't gain anything personally from trying to give you a free TV and new car... I mean new browser. If you want to wait extra time for your web pages to load and look at uglier pages, that's your choice. But I promise you that it's well worth the 5 minutes it takes to download and upgrade your browser! Here's a YouTube video that compares modern browsers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnt4A0t9HZw Again, I personally recommend Chrome (as do most Chess.com users). It's the fastest and I think easiest to use, and it's now the #1 browser. Firefox is also nice, but it's a little bit slower and harder for older computers. Internet Explorer 9 is a step up from IE8, but is still much worse than Chrome and Firefox. Safari is also good. Opera is nice, but has some odd quirks that make web development painful. Download a free faster browser today! → Chrome Firefox IE9 Best of luck and see you soon on Chess.com. Enjoy!

ERIK"S MAIN FORUM ON THE CHANGE Chess.com started in 2007 as two friends working out of our garage. In the last five years though sooooo much has happened: we’ve built dozens of features, added 20 full-time team members, and grown to almost 5 million members! But one thing HADN’T changed: the site design. Before yesterday, we were still using the same design and html that was created more than 5 years ago. And in web years, that’s FOREVER ago. We started working on the site redesign a year ago. We worked through a lot of designs and mockups and iterations. And the one thing I kept telling the designer was “Don’t get crazy. People like it. Don’t change too much!” We wanted to give the site a freshening up, but without doing a complete overhaul – a modernization, not a revolution. And while we know not everyone agrees, we think this new design keeps the best of Chess.com and improves in a lot of ways. Lots of sites change frequently and in big ways, and that is hard on users of the site. I was recently speaking with the lead designer of a huge website (one that you probably all visit 10x a day). They just did a dramatic change to their whole website and changed everything completely. And some people were really really angry - he even had death threats against him! But now, a few weeks later, most people have become totally accustomed to the new site and people use it even more than they did before the redesign. But I've also been on the other end of changes from other companies and sites and I know how frustrating it can be! (Heck - I started an online petition to get New Balance to return to an older design of running shoe that they discontinued. They didn't, of course.) More recently I had a site I use a lot change - and it was a HUGE change. And I hated it. So you know what I did? I sent them an email that specified what things were broken, and what I liked, and what I didn't. And once they fixed those things that were broken and I spent a few days using the new site, I loved it. Now I'm not saying "We've changed. Tough. Get used to it." Not at all. I know that this feels like a big change, and some people prefer the old version. I hear you, and I understand. I want to let you know that we are working hard to fix every single bug. And we are listening to your feedback and trying to find solutions. So please give us a few days - both for us to fix things, and for you to simply give the new look a chance. One thing that is still broken and we are working on feverishly are the custom themes. I LOVE the themes - they are such an awesome and important part of Chess.com. And we are working to make them look great with the new design of Chess.com. And we are also going to be publishing more official Chess.com themes. So be patient for 24 hours while we work out the bugs. Then we will turn themes back on and you can tinker with the details (logos are a little smaller, etc). There are other little bugs that are still persisting (like links to Vote Chess, friend lists, some graphical glitches, etc). We have 5 people working non-stop to fix it all. One other thing that has been brought up a lot is the new "Home" design. Some like it, some don't. But a lot of people are asking why the Notes are in the middle. Well, that is just temporary. Soon that place will be filled up with more of a feed that will give you lots of interesting information like when your friends win a great game, or when you hit your highest tactics rating, or when you got a trophy, or when your friend posts a question, or when a new tournament is starting. It's going to be the activity center of your Chess.com experience. In addition to the visual changes, we have also made a lot of changes under the hood, including: massive overhaul of our PHP code for faster server performance complete re-write and modernization of the HTML/CSS for faster browser rendering preparation code for complete internationalization of the site in all local languages foundations for making the site more mobile-enabled Basically, the site is about 2x as fast as it used to be for most people! Anyway, I wanted to write this to let you know that I have been carefully following nearly every comment and piece of feedback about the redesign. I care about Chess.com more than anyone else (it's my baby!), and I care about each of our members. Everyone at Chess.com is working hard to improve everything. But again, we know that at this moment it doesn't feel like that for everyone. I know some people are disappointed. All I'm asking is that you give us a chance to make everything perfect for you, and that you give it a few days to grow on you. Chess.com is a great place because our members are great. I appreciate each of you and what you do for Chess.com. ErikCo-Founder, Chess.com PS - I strongly encourage everyone to enjoy Chess.com with the fastest browser available - Chrome. get it for free here: www.google.com/chrome -it will make your Chess.com and overall internet experience much better... the link is here http://www.chess.com/news/big-change-today-6465

We need to advertise this group friends Here is how you and me can advertise/ and or get new members to join In a blog Spread the word through messages, meebo, and live chess chat, group chats, etc Advertise in groups Advertise in chess.com forum Tell your friends Advertise with your profile Keep on advertising guys!!!!!!!!!!!!

All members should be acceptable towards the new and these are the poits for which a person should like the new format. 1.we should try the new 2.there may be some disadvantages but we should have patience for the new to develop.