The Death of Chess.com

[REPOSTED BY ERIK - KEEP THIS, IT'S IMPORTANT]

A recent poll on chess.com's main page asked "What's the best part of chess.com?"  As of this writing, 33% replied that the community was the most important thing, while 23% answered that meeting other chess players was most important.  Several of the features that have received heavy investment from the site, like 'chess mentor' or the 'computer workout' scored much less well at 7% and 3% respectively.  It seems clear that while chess.com is widely used for the simple study and play of chess, a large percentage, even a majority, are using it to interact with other people. 

Live chess 2.0 seems explicitly designed to change all that.  The features which previously facilitated the interactions of players have almost entirely been stripped from the service.  Private chat and group chat are now a thing of the past.  Even the chat window which survives has been relegated to a small, fixed size window in a corner.  In the short time I've spent connected to the new server, several people have publicly said that they intend to cancel their membership.  Several more will surely follow suit.

In the past I have quietly critiqued some of chess.com's policies which seem counter-productive in view of their business aims.  I don't want to enumerate them here, but chess.com's staff does seem to take a rather elitist, normative view of what its service should be for; all other users, chatters and the like, be damned.  Perhaps it's that the core managerial staff is so young, they are more easily swayed by their zealous idealistic notions of correct vs. incorrect use.  An older or more cynical businessman might simply be trying to make a buck by giving the users what they want.

I'll admit it.  While I clearly enjoy using chess.com for chess, I equally enjoy the social features of the site.  In the absence of these features, I question whether I will choose to use this site at all in the future.  Perhaps chess.com will successfully whittle its users down to that bare enthusiast base who are interested exclusively in the impersonal play and study of chess.  Perhaps they will be able to succeed financially with these die-hards as their sole means of support. 

Perhaps Erik has decided that he can't make a buck off people like me.  Well, for his sake, I hope he's right.

Anyone who has said they will cancel their memberships are clearly misguided idiots. I can't count the number of times it has been said that Live Chess will change over the next couple of weeks.

Private and Group chat a thing of the past? No, that will be back in a few weeks. As will the Players and Games tabs. This has been stated multiple times by the chess.com staff.

They explained fully that they had to strip it down first, to stabilise the server, and then build upon that. And yet, people still decided to use their incredible selective hearing and tell us that live chess has been ruined.

It has not been ruined. It has just taken a step backwards for a few weeks. Be patient.

It's a virtue, don't you know?

Nytik

i'm sorry you haven't been reading the messages we have sent to keep everyone up to speed, but i'll respond here.

live chess 1 was terminally ill. it was built on bad technology and we couldn't move forward with it.

live chess is a big mountain to climb. we took a path, got half way up, and realized we were headed off a cliff. so we went back down the mountain and are headed back up on the right path. we aren't quite as far along, but we're now on a foundation where the features we add will work. we had to start as basic as possible - just play, and a little chat. then we have to make that 100% stable. then we can add back everything else.

private chat will come back.

group chat is coming back.

multiple games are coming back.

slick interface option is coming back.

multiple public chat channels are coming.

tournaments are coming.

teaching tools are coming.

but again, one step back to prepare for many steps forward.

if you can't deal with that then i am sorry. we do need patience at this time. it isn't easy to make changes to websites (ask facebook - everyone went ballistic!).

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as for the management of the company, you've mis-characterized us. we aren't here to serve the elite chess players. we're here to provide a place where anyone who enjoys chess for any reason can come and feel welcome. we try to please everyone, but we can't. i know you don't feel as welcome here because you have been extremely abusive and foul-mouthed towards the staff and other members and we don't put up with that. but for those who are here and are a positive influence on the community - all are welcome.

my recommendation to you is #1 be nice. #2 be patient. good skills to have in life, and on chess.com

 People like you? You mean, people who are using the site for free?

My bad.  I'll shut up about it.  

You might have admins in live chat say something about that to folks who gripe... I never got this impression from them.

I'm sorry my explanation on your first forum wasn't good enough for you. I hope it's clearer now that Nytik AND erik have said the same exact thing.

ryanMK - sorry. your post was accidentally deleted. you made the same points very well. thanks!

If Nytik and Erik agree, it must be true.

 Sorry, I thought he (somehow) deleted my post, or the thread, or something. Sorry for my sharp words.

This follows from the fact that if I say something, it must be true. (And perhaps, if Erik says something, it must be true.)

"This follows from the fact that if I say something, it must be true. (And perhaps, if Erik says something, it must be true.)"

Can we now change the thread title to "Love in at Chess.com"? I'll bring some John Lennon for the jukebox.

re: the 'love in' comment.  pbbht.  Whatever.  admins still annoy me.  

But I'm glad to hear I was mistaken about the future of the site, and I appreciate erik being straight with me about it.  

I don't think erik is fairly or accurately representing MY behavior as 'extremely abusive' toward 'other members.'  I've been extremely abusive toward the admins, but not often and not when they didn't have it coming.  :P  

Administrative over-zealousness I think is evident from the fact that my post was deleted and my account closed (and subsequently reopened) over what was really a thoughtfully worded and entirely non-inflammatory comment.  Just because I was wrong doesn't mean I deserved to be unceremoniously booted/banned from the site.  

So in summary, I was mistaken, my bad, my apologies.  Still, the admins should lay off the quick-draw-mcgraw routine, shooting down everything they don't like the look of.  

actually, I think the title is the most inflammatory part.... it's rather unfortunate that that's the only part that survived after I'd deleted it.

at the risk of repeating myself endlessly, I appreciate erik's response, and I was mistaken.  The thread will hopefully now die a quiet, uninteresting death.

You clearly haven't been on this site very long, have you? *Sigh* Nothing ever dies quietly on chess.com...

ERIK , thank you for the hard work , that you and staff have being doing.

at chess.com.

You would think this is the League of Nations. Its a chess site. For playing chess. A game. I am going to renew my member ship as soon as my tax rebate comes in. Then I am going to play chess. As long as the server works and I can play chess then I will be happy. The size of the chat window??? Do people feel that lonely? ( ;

only the truly pitiful like myself.  

Okay, I'm kidding.  But yeah, social interaction is important to people, and there's a small but very earnest community of chatters here.  I'm probably one of the more vocal offenders.

And you cant chat with them now because?

And to further underline my point, you and I are now communicating. Chess.com hasnt stopped us doing that. The size of the chat window and being lonely was a joke. The idea that a bigger chat window would make people feel more connected.

I'm not sure how we arrived at this subject, but i'd like to wash my hands of this topic as much as I can :)