Because no matter what you say, someone is going to find a way to get offended by it. There's no way around it; those people are professionals and you can't beat them.

In USCF it's usual practiced to shake hands and say good game. I personally dont care either way if we say GG here on chess.com, but I do get a chuckle every once in a while when I tell somebody that has just beaten me, good game, and they reply Thank You. 

They dont know the reponse should simply be good game or gg. I'm not giving you a compliment by saying good game, it's just chess etiquette that I'm used to from OTB. It's like asking somebody how they are doing (small talk) and they respond with some crazy long drawn out story of there life. I dont really care how your doing, but your just supposed to say I'm fine, how are you? 

LOL. OK now I'm just ranting, Yeah I dont care either way on chess.com if people chat. I'm just here to play chess, but will gladly strike up a conversation. 

on live chess i have been called so many horrible things by so many different players...the chess world is small enough, it makes me sad that those of us commited to keep playing are sometimes subjected to extreme rudeness (or god forbid a new player gets turned off by being called any number of profanities, slurs, insults, et cetera)...

lol

I almost always say good game even if I lose, but it doesn't offend me in the least if my opponent doesn't do so.

I personally like both.  I like to play chess here and there as well as chat and see how my friends are doing.  I have found that playing chess alone is not fun.  It is no fun against yourself. 

Isn't that insincere?  Saying / typing something without meaning it?  Is it not better to say nothing if you have nothing to say?  It is possible to say "thanks for the game" without being insincere or inadvertently praising someone for beating you.  I would rather my opponent said nothing than something insincere.

Yes, it IS insincere. I think that was sort of my point. But don't get me wrong, I do often enjoy games with certain players and I do tell them. "Hey I really enjoy our games together." And we end up playing a bunch more games, beating up on each other in the proces and it's still fun and we chat and play and have a great time. But other games, I mean we play hundreds of games on here, we can't go out of our way to chat it up with everyone. I guess what I'm saying is that not everyone WANTS to chat or some dont know that saying gg is the "chess etiquette" thing to do.

I personally dont mind either which way is somebody says gg or not, because I know it's just "protocol" for most. But if somebody wants to actually chat about the game, I'm more in favor of that kind of conversation.  

 anyone can act tough on the internet...easiest thing to do is forget about em and move on...im sure everyone comes across a troll every now and then

Personally I don't really look at the chatbox and concentrate on the chess 

Its nice to chat - but there's really more important things to worry about. Just turned my tracking for this thread off. Hope i'm not being rude. :)

you know, some of them maybe newbies and some don't understand what "gg" mean.... but I usually send them a trophy with Good game and I enjoyed it whether I win or lose now, because if I win its a good game, but if I lose, next time I'll try to win again!! :-))

Yes gg and a handshake is chess etiquette in tournaments, it is annoying when my opponents dont follow it but people can be rude if they so choose. Also yes, if they arent from the US I have less expectations they know the etiquette.

Yeah, I hate that!; Like one second someone's my friend, and the next second he starts using the internet and turns into a total jerk! This happens all the time! There must be something in the internet that makes people bad!

How can you make such detailed and specific psychological judgements on large groups of people you've never met? It seems like something this accurate could only be said by a psychiatrist/psychologist on a patient or a person on themselves. I doubt anyone would need psychiatric help for being rude on the internet.

All forms of media are bad because people can be rude on them and that's the medium's fault.

http://ask.reference.com/web?q=case%20and%20point&l=dir&qsrc=2891&o=10616

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/case+in+point

My vote for Chess.com Ambassador to the World:  oinquarki.

Yeah, and then you have to come home and interact with fictional people who can only manifest themselves in the form of text on your screen, and they treat you just like the real people; It's so horrible what the internet is doing.