Open Discussion (“OD”) is a highly active group allowing its members to discuss more controversial topics, including political and religious ones, than are permitted in the main chess.com forums.
OD is no longer monitored by chess.com staff, now being administered by an admin team composed of OD members that enforces a few common-sense rules but not otherwise interfere with content posted.
OD is rich with interesting discussions and great if you wish to learn new things, see new perspectives or sharpen your debate skills. You will also meet a set of exceptional and intelligent individuals.
Be forewarned: although we want all OD members to strive for the ideal of being consistently reasonable, rational, and civil, and although the admin team does take action when necessary, OD is intended to allow its members to say what they have to say the way they want to say it within the confines of the rules. So, those who are easily offended or of a very sensitive nature are advised to be prepared for some heat of the moment unpleasantries without returning in kind. For similar reasons, users are required to be at least sixteen years old in order to join OD. In general, we also require users to have been chess.com members for at least three months before being admitted to OD.
The rules are:
1. Do not use sexually explicit, vulgar, abusive, threatening, hate speech or bullying language and/or images. (This includes forum titles/content and any abbreviated or misspelled words where the intended meaning is obvious.)
2. Do not deliberately set out to disrupt/sabotage the normal flow of discussion by going off-topic, this includes various kinds of trolling/spamming or posting unrelated memes/videos. At the request of the OP, such posts may be deleted.
3. Do not insult, defame or personally attack your fellow OD member. (Do not include an identifiable OD member in forum titles).
