Incredible toxicity in the chess community

Reminded me of this.

As for  me... i have got very useful advices about what to do... when you don't know what to do after first ten moves of the game when pieces development is over. )

No one russian text-book didn't tell me these things.

Woollensock? Is it his real name?

no, prob not

hopefully yes

(totally a 'no, but actually yes' moment)

Just block and report those that are toxic and make friends with those that are nice ^_^. That's the best way of navigating through websites that get more and more filled with toxicity.

thats what i do!

Unfortunately, the chess community is a microcosm of the world we live in. Therefore it is not immune to the terrible angst of our age. However, as it has been noted in posts before this one, we can strive to find shelter if we provide shelter.

So true.

I've never been a particularly good player. I was used to snob class players looking down their noses at me. So it was interesting that when I met David Bronstein at a simul we interacted as equals.

Well said

Not for long .

No-That would be an example of changing basic nature. 

On an ignorant stance, perhaps.

I'm confused on to what you are saying. Narcissism is basically just being self centered...

...true, going further becomes prohibited because it was spiritually based.. I just look forward a proper movement that’s going to properly remove ones that dwell on negativity, and this thread here is by all means dwelling on that, not solving the toxicity, but cultivating it.

I discovered you meet much nicer people at the lower levels. I've made most all friends after crashing my score to 100. Around 600, they start to get an attitude.

These forums are full of children unfortunately. Unsupervised children will be...children.

Yeah... what’s sad is the rating system and giving points, building others egos, when, had this site a set up by categorizing players, BEGINNING  I II III  INTERMEDIATE  I II III  ADVANCED  I II III  there wouldn’t be cheaters, nor a lot of what goes on here because so determined to have their ratings higher, instead of making chess just an enjoyable game, less to stress about, and more to recall the fun OF chess, not the egocentric must be the best here sadness.

Lol... I once had bout fifty correspondence going, with about eight of those very fishy playing, the where you play someone and they have some experience to move, and about half through, instantly as if increased skills an additional four or five years more experience they all a sudden had. I was so ticked off decided to throw all fifty, making ridiculous moves, and after those I decided to continue lowering my rating to see how low I could end up, lol went to just under a thousand, and started in 1500s, then I again began to play games. That Lol lasted about a month, and this all was before I even heard of sandbagging! 😂 

Points to me are not at all needed, and if others played UNrated I would be delighted to!

I'm taking for granted the title of this thread, "Incredible toxicity in the chess community, " refers specifically to the chess.com community.  

Wiki defines internet toxicity as "... a phenomenon of online flaming and inappropriate behaviors that often contain hostile language, swearing, and even threats. "

That being the case, there is absolutely nothing "incredible" about chess.com's toxic levels and, in fact, in my 24 years involvement in online chess, chess forums and chess groups, I find the toxicity level exceedingly low especially factoring it the sheer number of people who come here. 

I've conducted forums on several other sites over the years (e.g).  Most of them have been rather sedate but none of them involved even a tiny fraction of the population here.  I've been part of open chess forums that were truly toxic and, as a result, uninviting.    

Are there trolls here? Sure.  It's the internet and for these forums to be lively and varied, as well as heavily visited, a certain allowance is made for a bit on nonsense.  When the nonsense gets out of hand, it's snuffed out.  

Will people say things that you don't like?  Sure.  At my public job people are often saying things I don't like... and they aren't even anonymous.  It's part of life.  If it gets out of hand here, it's snuffed out.

Most of what goes on here isn't toxic at all, it's just juvenile. 

If you don't want to hear it, block those people or stay away from threads that raise your blood pressure.  Threads that actually defy posting rules and terms of service are usually quickly locked or deleted; members who either constantly do the same, or do so in extreme, are usually quickly muted or ejected.  Any such instance can be reported to mods or, if extreme, to Support (too much unwarranted reporting to Support, wasting their time, may have its own unintended consequences).

People can have fun here without name calling, belittlement or creating drama, but a little of any of these things isn't toxic and probably unavoidable while still maintaining a thriving community.  

Batgirl for the win