some people are just plain greedy. they always want more. you give them a free cookie and they whine because you didn't give them milk too.

i don't even want to think about how much money it costs to run this site or how much time Erik has sunk into this site upgrading and maintaining. it is a great site and i would love to become a paying member and once things are more stable financially for me i will. not because i want to get rid of the ads but because of the all the other tools that Erik has incorporated into the site. Mad Dog 96 since you feel that it is blackmail to remove the ads for paying members, would it make you feel better about Erik if he made a special paying account for you that would force you to look at all of the ads? maybe he could make it so you click on an ad before you can make a move.

LOL @ the OP.

Actually, ROTFLOL.

Chess dot Scam
by Brian Wallace

All around the world today, people are taking to the streets to decry what some are calling “unmitigated an unlawful civil rights abuses” on part of an entrepreneurial chess website one can find on the url http://www.chess.com.

Organized by a group that calls themselves “Anonymous”, these protests are designed to call attention to “unfair” and “UNBEARABLE” practices this seemingly innocent site promotes and have been organized worldwide for September the 5^th of 2008 in as diverse locales as Turkey and the United Kingdom.

“We’ve simply had enough of chess.com preying on people for their slimy political gains,” one protestor said who refused to give his name. Protestors feel that they have to protect their anonymity through the use of masks, fearing legal and violent reprisal for their demonstration.

We asked Professor Bouchard of the University of Michigan’s economics department what he thought of the protests.

“I find myself quite sympathetic to their cause,” he told reporters, “Chess.com hides behind the veneer of being an innocent entrepreneurial venture in a capitalist system, but this is just what they’d like you to think. Behind the scenes, their shady deals with ad revenue actually serves to create the same class division that Karl Marx decried between bourgeoisie and proletariat… a two tiered system wherein decadent premium members laugh at the helpless non-paying members, who are absolutely burdened with the shackles of advertisements.”

We asked Doctor Doc MD, an optometrist with the Peter Lougheed Hospital in Westminster, to weigh in on the physical side-effects of chess.com’s business practices.

“I believe that we could actually classify this as physical abuse,” he told reporters in his office, “The way these ads attack the eye, capture it’s attention, and beam their insidious offers through the optic nerve to the neocortex is only the beginning. The long term effects include a reduced attention span, anxiety, and a tendency to make whiney posts in the chess.com forums, which is to say nothing of the possibility that some victims might actually be tempted to – God forbid – actually purchase the services the ads offer.”

Protestors link the source of the injustice to one man, who goes by the name of “erik”.

Julie Davenport of Massachusetts explains: “He tries to come off all humble, y’know? Spelling his name with the first letter uncapitalized… always leaving little smiley faces after his posts. But like everything on chess.com, that’s just one more lie, just one more way of hiding the truth.”

District Attorney Rufus Evans offered an official statement, “We will be laying charges against chess.com for these heinous, criminal acts. I frankly can’t understand how the lowlives that call themselves chess.com staff – mobsters, really – can sleep at night when they’re withholding the ability to create groups or tournaments from innocent chess players. They should be ashamed.”

Further developments pending, Brian Wallace, CBC 2008.

hahahahahaha!!!! oh man, that is the post of the day.

LOL Rael!!

i can play all the free chess i want. this site is amazing, in that i have played games and had very friendly conversaton with people from all over the world. this would have been a dream come true as an adolescent. i find the fee to be reasonable and fair value.

Hehehe, you've been owned by Rael :)

Erik is greedy because he won't pay for this site out of his own pocket, and pay for the expenses with his own funds. How could Erik be so outrageous!

Brian Wallace: absolutely hysterical satire. ROTFLMAO!  Erik will be laughing also.

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

ROFL!!!!!! Now THAT was a hilarious post, Rael!

Some people are just clueless, I guess. I wonder if he complains to the porn sites about THEIR rates? LOL

I started a thread just like this like 3 months ago, deleted it though. How do you think chess.com runs, it needs the money and people get annoyed by ads so if you pay for a premium membership they take them away and give you other perks.

Said well, Gonnesuke!

Okay, my friend, would you like to live in the old USSR, or East Germany, or old Romania to find out how life really is "without" advertisements?  I personally can promise you that you would come running back and begging for advertisements after a month or 2 in those old regimes. Sure, we all get tired of them. But get real, Erik didn't start this and get this site going without some ad help just like any other site or business.  Be glad for your freedoms here.

Let's not make a mountain out of molehill...ads are a small price to pay for what you get to do for free on here. And if you don't want to subscribe, then get Modzilla's ad blocker and use that. It's free also.

Maybe better to concentrate on some real serious issues of life, the kinds of things that are driving families into bankruptcy and other undue troubles. These ads are a piece of cake to deal with.

Yes, chess.com is ethical.

Don Erik has a very nice site. WE all enjoy it a LOT.

Erik is alright with me...

On with the discussion people.

To maintain this site probably costs a huge amount of money.  What Erik does with the remaining profit is up to him (I hope he supports his local farmer's markets & is saving up to start a chess themed eco-village but that's up to him ).

Economically People are largely in this condition financially because; they want to give responsibility for there finances to others such as ur boss, Governments and so on. That and people are spending more then they earn or can afford to pay off fast. People need to mind there own business more, which takes more financial education from us.

As for this forum post; You have an un-greatful attitude! What u get for free is more then we actually would be entitled to elsewhere! Add's are annoying yes but all the features you gain are more then worth the inconvenience you get from them. I have been to other web sites both chess related and non-chess related, so i know this is true. Chess.com staff are great to us here.

Lol is this thread still going? I was drunk when I posted it, I'm perfectly content with chess.com and appreciate that it is a truly great site.

There is not a single free (internet) service (ok, maybe a few rare exceptions) that runs without ads. You cannot have free webmail without ads. You cannot see TV without ads. You cannot read newspaper without ads. Football matches have sponsors who give big ads on the fences! Obama did not win election without sponsorship.

The sponsors give the ads with the hope you click on a few even if to close it .

Get paid webmail to remove ads. Get premium cable to see movies with (practically) no ads.

Pay, and play chess without ads.

It is actually unethical to post such topics in the first place, as so many people (including Erik) have to spend some of their time to explain why having ads in free services is good for everyone's health .

I don't know a lot about chess, but i love it. And my life is more colorful with chess.com. Thank God. Thanks to you Erik. You're fantastic, man! May God bless you and your family. Peace..!