You bring up Facebook's time line, but, there are a few things you are wrong about it. First... it may be optional for now, but it won't be for long. Second, from a design theory standpoint, it's actually a TERRIBLE design, and completely opposite from the new design here. The Timeline has too many things going on, and is not a clear design. Where as this one might be different from what folks are used to, but is actually a pretty clear design once you get used to it.

Also, as with all software design, the more complicated it is, the more bugs its going to have. And, chess.com is a VERY complicated site, much moreso than Facebook. There is so much going on here and so many moving parts that keeping track of it all would make your head spin. There is no way to release a design like this and NOT have problems. It's just not possible, and when you say things like " It took them a year to get it to this clearly broken state that obviously won't get fixed soon considering how long they took to make this." You show that you have no idea what is involved in a project like this. Just because it took a year to design and impliment doesn't mean that it will take another year to get the bugs worked out. It won't.

http://www.chess.com/home/cancellation.html?type=membership

Well, I never used timeline, but just from what I've seen I haven't had any trouble understanding what i was looking at. I don't particularly like FB anyway. If you paid more attention to my post, you'd see that I focus more on the bugs rather than the layout. I'm not concerned with how complicated the site is. Fact remains that they released an obvious buggy format. If it takes me a few minutes to find about dozen bugs on a single page, then they should have been able to spots those as well. There's simply no reason to have released it before it was ready. We're not talking about a few extremely rare glitches that could only be found in a public release. This new layout is the buggiest site I have ever known at the level of popularity it's at. (Actually I estimated that it will take them about 2-3 months to remove most of the prominent bugs)

I'm guessing you work at both chess.com and fb since you know about the underlying code?

As for your last statement, you do realize that they never fixed quite a few bugs in the old version ever. Calling a bug a feature isn't a realistic way of solving the problem.

I guess all of us that have complaints about some of the things that don't work or have new stupid designs are wrong.  Chess.com just sent a message saying the new changes are all wonderful, and between the lines it basically says those who complain are just people who can't adjust to change.

I don't work here anymore, but I am the QA Lead for another software company.

There weren't any serious bugs in the last version. A few minor glitches here and there, but most sites have those. 

QA well that explains a lot. Have you read the comments? It appears there are literally hundreds of different bugs that are being reported. iPhone users can't even use the site it would seem. Don't you think it was a bit of an oversight to have not tested it out on an iPhone.

I don't expect a new layout to be bug free, but this is absurd. So unless there was some urgent need to release this layout right now, what was the reason to roll out such an obviously unfinished product and tell people to just deal with it while they work on it?

I have read the comments. I would argue that having hundreads of people reporting a few bugs (which no one denies exist) is not the same as having 100s of bugs.

As for the iPhone thing, I can't speak too much to that, since I have an Android. But, I will say that in general, there are a lot of modern websites that have issues with smartphones and even tablet computers. This is why those sites release seperate apps for those devices. Chess.com has an iPhone app, and people should use that. I would never expect this site to work in the browser of my phone.

A few? I found about a dozen in TT alone before I quit looking for new ones. I suppose that the iPhone not working at all could be considered just one bug. I don't have an iPhone either. I'm just reading the comments.

The issues people are having with the smartphones are related to the rollout it would seem.

This site has an app for the Android.

At the bottom of the screen is a little pawn, and is says, "Unlock all of chess.com" What does that do??

Most of the issues I've seen reports of come from users trying to access the site as a website from their mobile devices. When folks use the app, I've not yet seen any issues (though, that's not to say there aren't any.)

I am aware of the Android app, and I use it a lot, what I was saying is that I'd never access chess.com through my phone's browser and expect it to work. Nor should others.

As for TT, I have no doubt there are issues there, it's probably the most complicated part of the site. That doesn't mean that there are 100s of bugs on the site though. 

ITT:

whiners whining about changes for the sake of whining because they don't like things that change.  

I read the message as being "those who complain are just people who we don't want on this site"

Well in some cases, "they" will get their wish.

 I'd guess that it takes you to where you can upgrade your membership?  I don't see that pawn... but I wouldn't expect you to either...

yes but now a lot of them bugs have been cleared up

If they manage to get fix everything that doesn't work, then we'll just have the silly changes left. Like removing timestamps from posts, removing all information from icons in the trophy showcase, the glaring white . . . all the changes that were done on purpose.

 For sure!

Gee folks, what do you think their motive is?

Erik likes to tinker.

Gee, do you know Erik?