Petition to lock the various "ban low rated players from forums" threads.

THIS IS NOT A PUBLIC ACCUSATION, RATHER A GENERAL RESPONSE FOR THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE THESE THREADS TO SEE, AS I AM BLOCKED BY MANY OF THEM FOR SOME REASON. THE TITLE IS A SATIRIC/PARODY VERSION OF THE MOST COMMON TROPES IN THE TITLES OF SUCH THREADS.

We've all seen them. For whatever reason, a good portion of the chess community seems to have such a big ego, they think that low rated players cannot discuss any topic meaningfully, even something completely outside of chess. 

Ignoring for a second the madness that is this take (and the very quick blocks that occur when you disagree with them directly), let's just talk about their main argument.

The most popular by far is "under x ratings are always trolling/never contribute meaningfully to the forums". This is a blatantly subjective argument that is presented as a fact. You cannot word something that is based on your personal experience as fact, especially when it is something so ridiculously general as all people under x arbitrary rating. Also, the frequent use of never and always is incredibly misleading. Never and always are almost never true about anything in life, and are usually just used to perpetuate stereotypes, just like the one these people making these threads are perpetuating, the idea that low rated players are automatically worse at contributing to discussion outside of chess entirely.

Ultimately, while I don't know for sure, my guess is that they have a core belief deep down that their chess rating is a sign of high intelligence, and that people who have a lower rating will be less intelligent and therefore less valuable to discussion. Ego is really the most likely explanation, as you'll often notice the rating range of these people tends to be on the very high end of intermediate to early advanced, which is generally where most people who study the game really hard and make it their whole life for awhile peak. 

There's no need for silly restrictions on lower rated players. Anyone has potential to contribute to any discussion regardless of rating, and what you've seen of people at that rating yourself doesn't dictate reality. Life doesn't bend to your experience, least of all with something as varied as low rated players.

The only people agreeing with these statements are of those who have spent countless hours getting a high rating in chess and are too naive to realize that they were once a rookie as well. I agree with the statement completely, as these stupid claims should not be posted.

You're probably right about the naivety thing. The title is satirical however, I generally don't believe in censorship even of ideas I think are stupid, I wrote it that way to reference the tropes in how these types of threads are always titled

Bump

idk. i kinda like the freedom of press.

theses debates are getting better and better

They'd still be up, just locked. All of these "Petition to ban (low rating) from (certain aspect of chess.com)" are useless and most of them are well-disliked by the community, so I don't see the point in keeping them up/active, as they all end up devolving into a "nu-uh this is a good idea" and "no it isn't" after a while. There's no justification for limiting players and putting chains on them for being worse at the game than other people.

I honestly hate those petitions to ban low-rated players from the forums. It's an offensive stereotype that people with low ELOs have nothing meaningful to contribute to the forums. I'd say that the forums are essential for new players, because you can ask questions and get advice there. Or you could be like me and become an OTF goblin, your choice!

Exactly, they almost never state why the removal of low-rated players is justified. They never give any good evidence as to how low-rated players act on forums other than stereotypes.

They always say "ohhhh Under (insert rating here) trolls too much or does x that makes y angry" which is absurd given that thousands of players are below e rating, and limiting an aspect of the site for the people at or below e would lose the site money, and piss the players off.

Don't worry we know

To be fair, I am 99% sure that all of those posts are just ragebait, and the OPs just want reactions.

Um, actually, I'm pretty sure you can't have a rating of 2.71828182846... ☝🤓 (e is a mathematical constant, I'm just joking.)

You do have a point. I remember Very Very Stern, he just kept yapping and yapping and yapping...

Honch's and VVS's didn't feel as trolly as some of the other ones (e.g. chomp). They felt the need to create stuff like that due to their superiority complex.

I had already used x and e felt natural lmao

Evil Very Very Stern be like: "I believe that OTF is the best thing ever created, and whoever would wish for its removal would be foolish."