Do people still play on FIDE online arena?

I've been hearing that their membership is a total waste of money and that no one plays there anymore. Is it more worth it to get an ICC membership or chess.com membership?

[Please note: discussion of competitor web sites in the public forums here is against Chess.com policy. I am locking this thread - David, moderator]

Well, I do. I only recently discovered it. What swayed me to choose them was their emphasis on stopping cheaters. They are the only site I have seen where this has been a primary focus. For me online cheating is the most serious problem of online chess, and Fide Arena is the first site where I feel like I haven't run into cheaters. The main problem is their lack of a mobile app, I wish I could play on my android tablet.

No. One year ago i joined there. There was promotion, new features and shiny website promosing revolution, anti-cheating stuff, and bunch more likeable things.

I was thinking what a great place. No lag, official rating, official titles, no cheating, In every 5 days or so you can play vs NM/FM/IM/GM's in simul and blitz. There were even some free lessons from them. Only problem was lack of players but i though hey now is promotion soon probably after summer/fall plenty of players will join. The word will spread etc. I even got Moderator icon and title.

But all was lie. Actual FIDE members did not increase over time. Master simul and challenges vanished few months ago. Anti-cheating program is totall crap. If they caught cheater there is just simple warnings and perhaps 10 day off if he continues and that's it. Many cheaters still cheat in long time controls and are uncaught. There is only 1 person "admin" who does almost nothing really. Email support is not great. FIDE tournaments - only the Amateur and Junior was good  but they all vanished this year also. Nobody respect fide titles.Only several people join daily fide tournaments which are notthing special. Less and less people are online day after day - Around 600 from which 50-100 are fide members. Only couple IM's and GM's and they don't even pay for membership. Website is not updated. Just nothing. Fide is dead. Only good thing is lack of lag and cool 3d pieces/set and you can actually see every single fide member his real OTB rating.  

the worst thing is after your membership expires - your official rating and title also vanishes from fide page. I got free months memberships but i will not renew after it expires. Not only that but after latest software update now if your connection interrups you no longer can continue and reconnect and game is lost.. 

And, as I've mentioned before, nothing has changed in the area of server security. Fide Online Arena still rates a big, fat "F" in server protocol support:

https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=arena.myfide.net

Additionally, Fide Online Arena requires you to download a Java app? No, thank you.

EscherehcsE wrote:

And, as I've mentioned before, nothing has changed in the area of server security. Fide Online Arena still rates a big, fat "F" in server protocol support:

https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=arena.myfide.net

Additionally, Fide Online Arena requires you to download a Java app? No, thank you.

Chess.com dosen't rank that high either.

If you want to pay to cheat your way to an online title then by all means join and enjoy!

The OP was mostly asking about Fide Online Arena. I didn't comment on Chess.com.

P.S. - Chess.com rates an "A" from SSL Labs: https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=www.chess.com

Also, Chess.com will be completely ditching Java in V3. Cheating is another issue which I won't be addressing.

Hyprocritical to put down a site based on it' security, but here you are on chess.com.

EscherehcsE wrote:

Derekjj wrote:

EscherehcsE wrote:

And, as I've mentioned before, nothing has changed in the area of server security. Fide Online Arena still rates a big, fat "F" in server protocol support:

https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=arena.myfide.net

Additionally, Fide Online Arena requires you to download a Java app? No, thank you.

Chess.com dosen't rank that high either.

The OP was mostly asking about Fide Online Arena. I didn't comment on Chess.com.

P.S. - Chess.com rates an "A" from SSL Labs: https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=www.chess.com

Also, Chess.com will be completely ditching Java in V3. Cheating is another issue which I won't be addressing.

There's nothing hypocritical about it at all. Fide Online Arena rates an "F" from SSL Labs, and Chess.com rates an "A".

this is an older post ..I will tell you I maintained well over 2200 on there for months and months ..right up until they finally introduced the ratings ..all of a sudden people I was playing and beating consistantly ..I was losing to!

..I found  my time seal seemed to not be working properly and I complained LOTS! ..also  a person moved 10 moves in .1 second ..thats 1/10 of a second ..pure impossiblity! another gained time on his clock! started with 1.8 sec all of a sudden mega moves poured in as he kept gaining a tenth of a second at a time ..

I lost on time I had 6 sec to his 1.8 and I ended 0 to his 2.5 left ..others got amazingly stronger ..all in all I dropped 300 points in a month !

..pure BS . and ya I am accusing lots of people on that sight of straight up cheating ..master strength players getting beat out by verified 1900 hundred otb blitz players ..pathetic desperate cheating chess play

..so even though I signed up for 2 years.. (before they did that fide rating online) . I quit ..they can meltdown an I will smile about it!