Chess.com mute policy for private group admins

The main problem with announcements is, that they're only visible for those members, who're using Chess.com with a browser.

On the other hand, the only way to bring someone, who is using the App to a match ... is sending a personal message with an active link.

Chess.com's demotivating attitude towards clubs, their admins and leagues lasts (without any element of improvement, benevolence oder even understanding) already for years.

@tricky_dicky is completely right, but most likely Chess.com's attitude isn't some kind of an unintended problem in details, it looks to be an intended decision to limit admins and their interactions with members.

What I do is to have large general (all-member) ANNOUNCEMENTs then...

For complex competition (ranges and groups), direct folks to use a particular FORUM topic dedicated to the complex competition - where communication can be voluminous. This allows for further break-out FORUM topics, etc.

HOWEVER, this requires that the original FORUM topic is used as a rally point, and contains URLs to all the other FORUM topics, tournament links, etc.

Then, periodically refresh links to the pertinent ANNOUNCEMENTs and FORUM topics in the NOTES section.

This enables members to self-select into communication channels appropriate for the competition (or other activity).

@hreedwork, that's a good workround. However it dosn't stop admins being muted for sending group PM's

@rohithbala, reposting the mods comment is fine, but it doesn't really contribute much to the disscussion.

I agree with the OP. Sometimes I get around 10 requests per day from people who want to join the club. So, I need to send a welcome message to each individual, but the site allows only maximum of 6 messages per day! This makes it difficult for me to contact the new members, and welcome them to the club and communicate with them individually.

@Behrooz_Sadeghi: What? Newly there is a limit to "6 messages per day"?

Looks, that I've become already really inactive.

I mean not much you can do when you're at 1%

charger was broken so I sprinted up the stairs to grab another one, coming down fell on my back

@Behrooz_Sadeghi I had to send out welcome messages as well, and I sent to 10 people with no issue. What is this 6 messages a day thing? Never heard of it.

In favour 👍

@rohithbala, When 7 people apply to join your club, and you want to send them a welcome message individually (before accepting them), you can send only 6 messages per day.

That's not directly relevent to the OP. You seem to be discussing messages to general members BEFORE they join the group.

This is a good suggestion. I run a private club, and while I’ve never been muted by chess.com, I have been unable to message members because of their settings.

A few ideas I have:

1. Make this be a portal inside the club itself. Just as you can make announcements in the club, and it sends messages to everyone in the club, there should be a portal where you write your message, and you can pick any member of the club to be a recipient. (In other words, it shouldn’t be in PMs itself, even though members would receive a notification in PMs.
2. If there is a concern about sending too many messages, limit the number of messages that can be sent in a day or a month, in a similar manner to how club invites are limited.
3. Make this feature work not only for club members, but also for club applicants. For those clubs (like my own) which have an application process in place to vet new members, it can be difficult and sometimes impossible for an admin to go through this process when the applicant has “Only my friends can message me” turned on.

I've never heard of that being the case. But you should be making each message unique or it may get flagged as spam.

Since when have we only been able to send 6 messages a day?

Yes, my messages have all the same text: "Salam and welcome to ....." I can only send six of them per day.

And since they are sent BEFORE accepting the members into the club, the issue does not pertain to OP.

Also applies for messages for people after joining, like asking people to join a match.

As @Martin_Stahl said in #33 you have to make it unique; can't just be the same copy paste over and over, change up some words, make the message longer or shorter, etc.

Why should we have to do this? Some of us run big groups and have to send hundreds of PMs. Its not practical to make us change every single message. 

By the way, I have taken such measures before and I still got caught by the spam filter.

Use a proper filter that doesnt punish admins, or dont use one at all

My feeling is, and has always been, that if a person joins a club, that they they should be accessible by club admins at all times by direct message. I have always supported this concept and I have never understood why the website would allow a person to join a club and then insulate themselves from any contact with the club. That functions like an oxymoron. If a person doesn't like the way a club operates then they can leave. That is a fundamental freedom and an important natural process.

If I see a member doing something wrong, and if I try to message them to discuss it with them, and they have blocked me, then my only option is to remove them from the club. And I don't have any way to explain it to them.

As an admin I spend a lot of time and effort to create and maintain a few clubs. I do this for free because I enjoy doing it, and because I'm trying to accomplish something. The right of a member should not supersede/undermine the right of the admin when they have joined the admins club.

It would the equivalent members being able to block chess.com staff and moderators, such that staff would be unable to send warning messages and such. Club Admins basically function as the staff members of their own microcosms of chess.com.

People ban people since they power hungry