How many of you play with the chat feature disabled and why do you do it?

I do it and it's not because I am antisocial or don't enjoy chatting with people. I simply hate it when my opponent makes a rude remark or insults me. Most players are not like that, but some are, and for some reason it's almost like they can correctly guess the moment that their remarks will hurt me the most. It's just a game, I know, but when my heart is rushing and I lose a game, I don't like being kicked while I'm down.

never ever ever

The chat bar at the bottom of the screen?  I disabled it right after I joined and haven't turned it back on since.  I don't care what my opponent might type in, but I found the bar obtrusive, as I generally keep a fairly small window open.

I've never disabled the messages in the move box, but I would if I got a jerk.

Can one player tell if another player has disabled chat or the message box?  Or do they just get no response and don't know if they're being ignored or if their message was never received?

Disabling the chat box is nice in that it brings the Analyze button up to an easier place to "reach".

  I rarely run into rude players (I make it a point to play premium members), but if an attempt at chat is not returned after a few moves, I'll disable chat to spare myself the gg sign-off at the end of the game.

That's also my question. I play with chat on, but after a game, whether won or lost, I generally type in "gg, thanks!" I don't always get a reply so I don't know whether my opponent's chat is disabled. I would also want my opponent to know if my chat was turned off, and that I wasn't just ignoring him or her. 95 percent of my opponents are extremely courteous; as for the rude ones, I appreciate them for giving me an occasional dose of reality. Learning to keep your cool when others lose theirs makes you a better chess player.

Yes you can tell weather the 'disable chat' is turn off is when the wording disappear.

I've only had one person act like a jerk since I've been on chess.com. This site is much better in that respect than others I've been on. I don't disable chat, however I don't particularly care to chat while playing.

I only disable the chat once too, most peoples are friendly sometimes we have a few words, others nothing, no problem with that. 

If you play me, you can write anything you want in the chat window. I don't take it personally, it doesn't annoy me and to be honest, I never played a rude person before, at least not that I remember.

I'll just be polite to you, write gg at the end, and never play you again. Sometimes the people are really funny. If you turn chat off, you never know what you are missing. Ignore the bad, enjoy the good.

And I really enjoy chatting with the few friends I made and continuously play.

Most of the time I leave chat on. If the other person becomes a distraction from the game then I will turn it off. I prefer to communicate through messaging or email.

I have run into a few scenarios with this:

1. Someone just throws out insults early on. I just turn off chat and beat them, haven't lost a game to a person like this yet...

2. For whatever reason when I play longer games folks seem to want a draw after about 10 minutes saying they "forgot I had karate practice" or some other sillyness. I simply ask them to resign, if you can't finish the match then you shouldn't have started it is what I am thinking. Then suddenly they claim they were lying about having to go and will now destroy me! Chat goes off and again, haven't lost a game to these people yet either.

3. After resigning getting trashed on. This one is the worst. I played a nice game against a guy and one who resigned when it was hopeless for him. He challenged for a rematch, I accepted. When it was over for me I resigned. After resigning he blew up saying I was a coward for not letting him checkmate me. Weird.

4. If someone else disables chat at the start of a game I just cancel it. I want the courtesy of being able to say gg at the end of the game, if we can't be civil in the chat box, I'd rather not play at all. Sure most of the people who turn it off right away probably have had bad experiences, but I'm still interested in being respectful at the beginning and end.

I have the chat disabled in live chess because when I play blitz games - I need to concentrate on the game, not on what to reply on chat.

if the person is good looking, I never disable chat.

Good point Estragon.  I resort to the idea that... I'd rather look at a picture of an attractive avatar anyway.  :)  lol  I have a good friend on here who is rather good looking but puts a picture of some silly purple thing as his avatar...c'est la vie...I would not be the wiser.

i never disable chat.

i see it as an option, to use or not to use.

i'd rather just ignore rude comments.

my interest is having fun with chess, and a little chit chat on the side just to be human.

I remember this one game that I was playing and I made a blunder which in the next few moves ended the game with my opponent getting a checkmate. A mistake is a mistake, it happens but the other player felt the need to say something childish and stupid. I was more shocked that someone would have the audacity to make a ridiculess comment. I still keep my chat enabled realizing that most players are fundamentally sound with their comments. 

Two days ago a player said "oops" when I made a terrible crap move.  I disabled chat.  I was in a irritated mood, I guess.  Normally I'd be amused.

I only type "oops" when it's me that's made the mistake - an' that seems to happen a lot !! - well bloody sight more often than I'd like  - an' I never disable chat, this s'posed to be a social game

After I've just lost the worst game of my life against a player whose performance was only slightly better, and whose skills were stretched to reach that low point, and he or she types "gg", I wanna start cussing rudely, but I don't.

Disable chat is an option and will be used if some distracts or is annoying and pictures are interesting then you know who you are playing I can understand some of us don´t like afafbouardi because she is a minger. LOL