Forum's Quality

  Have you notice the quality of the forum lately ? To me is declining. No fun nor good discussion going on. So far excellent contribution posters are Estragon, waffllemaster, can you think of anyone else ? For me I'll give the Forum a 3 out of 10. What are your thoughts and how would you rate it ?

Since the powers that be have read the riot act to the photospammers, the forums have totally [EDITED.] Brain dead nonsense just drags on and on. And with the Parham trolls all canned, it's just the same lame eternal nonsense about what opening is better and algebraic vs descriptive notation...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Sound like you are giving it a 'Zero' ? 

Just look at the bar to the right here: Zero is too kind.

I only look at it out of boredom or morbid curiosity any more.

Don't forget about the people that eternally complain about the quality of the forums.  They are terrible...Wait or the people that complain about the people that complain...My  hands are starting to hurt

You could set an example by posting some excellent matterial. 

People say this on every forum I've ever been on.

That's true, but they are the best as far as chess forums go. I will note that many uneducated comments have been made recently, and it seems like chess.com is becoming a home for more and more trolls.

In all seriousness these forums are FAR better than redhotpawn etc....At least here there is activity.  WIth volume their will be good and bad

And I was curious...It does seem that only one of your last 10 comments seemed to really "add value" to the forums from your recent activity. 

I did actually find the forums were getting more boring imop(thought maybe it was me and my less "intense" interest in the game).  So this was ONE of the reasons I made my let me analyze your games thread. 

Wafflemaster and Estragon are indeed quality thinkers and posters, but there are certainly others.  Topics tend to repeat themselves such as, "Who was the best player of all time?", but since there is a constant come-and-go flow of individuals, such things are only repetitive to some of us.  All forums have trolls, foul-mouthed posters, angry posters, nonsense posters, hateful posters - but I find it's others, who are not necessarily of the same bent, that keep such threads going.  Some topics are silly, but fun; some aren't worth the bandwidth they consume; some are really provocative. It's all part of the mix and we get to choose which one's we reply to just as well as we have the opportunity to create our own.  

I have found:

   1. The forums dropped in quality when the website format changed

   2.  They would be tons better if they were integrated with the video

        instruction. Questions and answers often move orthogonally to what

        has been shown on the videos. I think its bad policy for chess.com

        to say one thing in videos and then have the forums full of

        poor and contradictory instruction. 

I say again, those of you that are complaining- give us some examples of what you consider quality forumanship.  Examples beat complaining hands down. 

Does anyone have the courage to start a thread? Will it be ridiculed? If it is will i have the answer? It's a scary prospect innit! 

I agree! They lack depth and when they do have depth they are ruined by arguement and ego or patronising comments. 

Kco... This is a good point.. hope it gathers momentum. It's a much needed discussion! 

I myself get sick of idiotic non adult convo's and then i just take the p**s.

Guilty!

Well, a good forum has three principle qualities:

• Formatting + Grammar - While this may not be important to some, a good-looking and grammatically correct forum is much more appealing than one filled with slang, trolls, and random pictures.
• Focus - I posted a forum awhile ago about openings. It now has over 175 posts, most of which are concerning an argument over computer analysis. The forum was trashed by a lack of focus.
• Accuracy + Knowledge - A large percentage of chess.com members are amateurs who offer "knowledge" that turns out to be false. Only the masters truly contribute to the forums.

You did well until you wrote that only the masters truly contribute to the forums.  Come on now, forums are not just for educational purposes.  It is okay to have some fun, just not at the expence of wrecking someone's forum.  Besides, because of the forums someone convienced me to begin playing, and I have met some great friends on the forums. 

I wish gavinator and whatupyodog were here, they would spice things up. LOL

#21 is a joke.