What's up with the disabling chat people? Seems like every other blitz game I play, sure enough there's some guy who clicks the disable chat feature. He doesn't even give me a chance to make him hate me. It's like going to a party and the first thing the host does when you walk in the door is put tape over everyone's mouth. What a swell guy!

I don't disable chat but I prefer to play in 'silence'. 

LOL is all I can say to your analogy with the party! I've also experienced it in turn-based games - though I had made no provocative comments..

LOL. I'm with you, gbidari.  I don't particularly want to talk during a game but I do like to exchange greetings at the start and maybe share an odd comment here and there. The only person I ever felt like disabling was a guy who was not only beating me but kept offering to show me where I'd gone wrong. Once would have been bad enough but he wouldn't take no for an answer and kept offering. I was glad to finish the game and get rid of him.

When a game/tournament starts,and I am white might say hello,if black,I wait for opponent to start the comments,otherwise, try to stay offthe chatting.

If your opponent disables chat before you've even spoken, don't take it personally :)

I know of many parents and teachers that bring children onto the site to learn and play chess. One of the first things they ask me before their youngsters are on here, is how do they disable chat. 

A lot of members, for no apparent reason have been subjected to verbal abuse in their game chat. If this has happened on more than one occassion, they really don't want to take the chance of it happening again, and rather than having to explain to everyone they play, the reasons why they are disabling chat, they just disable at the beginning. It only takes one abusive comment to put a player off wanting to play in that game with his opponent.

Some members want to be able to come onto the site, play a game of chess without having to worry what they are going to see in that chatbox when they look at the screen.

Some think of a childs safety first

Some are protecting themselves against possible abuse

And as Niekro said in post #2 some prefer to play in silence

It is still each players option to disable chat, for whatever reason, so please don't think they are being rude.

It doesn't bother me for the reasons Kohai put above; I understand it.  The only things I normally say during a game are usually at the end to say 'gg'.

A

Can one ABLE chat after it has been DISABLED?

In live chess - no not during that game. Also note, if you check the "always disable chat" setting, this has to be un-checked, save settings-refresh page for the chat to be enabled again

In online games - no once the game chat has been disabled in that specific game it cannot be re-enabled (as stated on the banner notice that appears when you click on 'disable chat')