Incredible toxicity in the chess community

At least when you're talking about chess. And it makes sense. An IM is naturally going to have more credibility and get more respect when he offers his/her opinion on a chess topic.  On any non-chess topic, forget it!

Yup. Time to revive this thread. Hasn't gotten any better since January 2020.

Chess (and in particular chess.com) is like a microcosm of a deteriorating society. What was once a gentleman's game where you shake hands over some whiskey is now a consortium of toxic edgelords, incels, racists, and pimply faced trolls. It's basically 1 in 3 players, sometimes 3 or 4 games in a row now lashing out at their anger at life behind chess anonymity.

This place is no better than a decrepit cesspool like Reddit. I've had death threats, anti American tirades, been called anti white racial slurs, been called anti black racial slurs, and this is in addition to the hundreds of "Lols", clock runners, and being called a "coward" for refusing your petty revenge fantasy rematch offers. I had a nearly titled 2200 player call me pathetic, stalk my account, and harass me weeks after our dispute on the forum. This was a guy who purported to sell coaching for $15 an hour (if you'. I've had players promise to harass me under alt accounts.

And it's very true that overall the decorum on a forum like this is just non existent. Asking any question or venting under any circumstances is like a forcefield that electrocutes you if you breath on it. Newbies and intermediates are constantly kicked while they're down. If they express frustration and hint at leaving, instead of some constructive criticism its "bye Felicia, just go next time". The hive mind and toxicity is at a cult like fever pitch.

I disabled chat a few weeks ago just to try it out and I'm never going back. I can concentrate better knowing I'm not going to get an unpleasant message at a critical moment. I'm pretty sure it's also made some of the players who would prefer to stall and trash talk me, just resign instead, since they aren't going to get the satisfaction of doing so. Can't do anything other than that about the number of sore losers hurling abuse, that's just the internet for you. The popularity of chess has skyrocketed at a time when online gaming culture is extremely toxic, so unfortunately there is some overlap to treating chess like a videogame. The good thing is, they can never hack it so they end up quitting.

However, I have different views about the forums toxicity.

In every thread I've seen where somebody says they can't seem to improve and are thinking of leaving, they get plenty of advice and constructive criticism, even game analysis. The negative comments start to appear when the user has ignored or dismissed all of these comments.

'Venting' about the site conspiring against you and half the people you play being bots or cheaters is currently in vogue (especially among low rated players) and imho is the most pathetic thing I've ever seen in chess. It's self-pitying, paranoid, rude, egotistical, and absolutely screams that competitive games like chess are simply a bad fit for your personality.

So yeah, absolutely here be trolls and tribal fascists and 'edgy' children. But honestly, none of those really bother me. The fascists aren't allowed to get too political which limits their ability to spread misery, the trolls are either entertaining or easy to spot, and everybody just ignores the kids when they act out.

I don't see a hive mind here, either, there's plenty of different approaches people take. It's just that opinions tend to converge when you get members who make the same self-indulgent, baseless complaints which have been posted a thousand times before, and then refuse to be helped or informed. That's the toxicity.

It's not just Chess.com, the entire internet is full of ugly, negative trolls. But here's an important piece of chess (and life) advice: pay no attention to those nasty, negative trolls! They mean nothing. Chess improvement requires a certain amount of hard work and self-discipline. And if you allow yourself to be distracted or discouraged by trolls and naysayers, you won't improve