I agree, there should be way for admins to easily contact all members.
But, I also agree that some alerts should be turned off. The notes are sometimes used as a "chatroom"(?) between 2 people, probably not realising how annoying it is for the rest of the group.
I agree with the whole notes situation, however we do have forums to back it up with.
I'm also trying to limit my groups as best as I can these days and focusing on the ones that need most attention in my view.
Group Note alerts are the most annoying thing ever. People chatting all the time -- isn't that what the Group's forum is for? But that's hardly ever used.
Let's first abolish group notes, and then talk about the rest of the alerts.
Group Note alerts are the most annoying thing ever. People chatting all the time -- isn't that what the Group's forum is for? But that's hardly ever used.
Let's first abolish group notes, and then talk about the rest of the alerts.
I keep those annoying group notes turned off !
I turn most of my alerts off. Sure, I am in a fair # of groups, but that doesn't change anything. I simply am not interested in joining team matches at this time. Without the option to turn off alerts, I would probably just quit most of my groups.
In TDT, we have a lot of forum topics. We also have a "chatting club" topic for the members to chat. However, people still like to use the group notes to post. Maybe it is because it is an easy way to grab other people's attentions. But if a lot of people turn off the group alert, not many people are reading the notes. That can't be used as it is designed. I agree that we should disable the group notes feature.
How about the Group News? Is that rubbish too? Don't you want to hear anything from your group admins? If there is no alert on/off feature for the Group News, would you simply join fewer groups? I like the members with fewer groups. 
I think over 95% group members have their notes and forums alerts off, about 80% turned off team matches and vote chess alerts.
People on this site are so easy to join the groups. But most of them are not responsible for the group activities.
This problem has made a lot of people who really like the group environment upset, especially those group admins. They have to work really hard to get some group activities going. [Remember that, the group admins are not paid for working on their groups.] And some groups are just going dead or really boring. 
People on this site are so easy to join the groups. But most of them are not responsible for the group activities.
This problem has made a lot of people who really like the group environment upset, especially those group admins. They have to work really hard to get some group activities going. [Remember that, the group admins are not paid for working on their groups.] And some groups are just going dead or really boring.
Part of that is also that there are far too many groups (3414 I think), most of them without anything special to distinguish them from other groups. The number of groups grows until most of them are going dead or are really boring.
Maybe, for non-admins, members should have a time delay before being able to post a note again, maybe an hour, maybe a day....
Motes are by far the most annoying alert, but if it's used properly could also be the most effective in communicating with members. But in most of my groups, I turn them off.
Once in a group about 6 people were using the notes as a chatroom. I also sent a note, asking them to stop. Promptly there were 6 new notes, one from each of them, appologising, and shortly after 6 more informing everybody that they have now deleted their previous notes. I guess some people just don't get it...
In my opinion, group notes are not a bad thing. The purpose that you join a group is to meet other people. If you don't like to chat with other people, why do you join the group. Of course, we all should be considerate, not to post too many rubbish messages.
Now, the discussion should be focused on the Group News. Should it be a tool used by the admins to send the messages to all of the group members? That means, no one should be able to turn off the group news alerts.
I can see why Chess.com help the group members to turn off the alerts. That will reduce a lot of messaging on the server. Some groups already have over 1000 members, even 2000 members. If an admin sends a message to everyone in the group, then the message will be generating over 1000 messages on the server. It will occupy a lot of space and consume some network and CPU resources. So the site doesn't want that happen. Why does the site allow the groups to be so big? What is the end of the group size? I probably worried too much. Just play chess here.
Group Note alerts are the most annoying thing ever. People chatting all the time -- isn't that what the Group's forum is for? But that's hardly ever used.
Let's first abolish group notes, and then talk about the rest of the alerts.
I keep those annoying group notes turned off !
I'm not really into groups so much, but I had joined the Chess Mistresses group with a sincere desire to participate... when I once complained the notes were getting to be a bit much, how do I turn them off...one of the admins of that group went ballistic and told me that I shouldn't be part of the group if I am turning off the alerts. I promptly dropped the group.
There are a lot of groups on Chess.com. Some groups are very helpful to the members, not only on the improvement in chess, but also on their socialization and friendships. I am currently in only one group * The Dream Team *. That is enough for me.
However, a lot of the players on chess.com enjoy joining many many groups. It is understandable, because chess.com allows players to join multiple groups without limitations. That makes those players happy(?) to be in tons of the groups. However, they don't have time to listen to everything in these groups. Then, they turned off the group alerts.
The impact of this behavior is not on these players themselves, but on the groups they are in. They have added the head counts to the groups. But they are not doing anything to the groups unless you ask them using some other ways. Sending group news will not get their attentions. You have to send PMs to them...
"Come on, time to play some team matches. We are counting on you."
"Oh, no. I am in both teams. I can't join the team match."
Well, this will really make the group admins annoyed. I have quit from being a super admin from my beloved team.
But why do the admins need to send PMs to the group members. Why does chess.com allow the users to turn off the group notifications. Noisy. Then why do you join the group(s)?
Maybe, some alerts like Group Notes, Vote Chess Games, can be turned off. Group News is for the messages to everyone in the group. It should not be able to turn off.
What do you think?
I would like to hear the responses from the chess.com staff.
(BTW, Chess.com is really a good chess site. Very friendly and a lot of good facilities for improving chess. I really like this site.