Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I interpreted the new membership to only require that you annually purchase $50 in merchandise, or you could pay $50 up front and get a coupon redeemable for $50 in merchandise.
Chess Cafe Has Gone Rogue
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Dec 21, 2014
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#24
I ordered the 4 1/8" chess set which is a fantastic set for the money for 39.02 and added a couple more items that were at give-a-way prices and that qualified me for the membership which also comes with another $5 off coupon. The sales they have been having are way under cost.
Dec 22, 2014
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#25
The ownership is not new. I wrote for Chesscafe, for years, and I allowed them to keep up my articles while they were free. But once they started charging $50 I asked them to take down my articles. Most likely all others who write for them also have the same or similar rights to their work. It's one thing to charge for new contet, but I don't think it's appropriate to charge for the archives if the original authors hold most of the copyrights to that work.
Feb 11, 2015
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#26
Another problem with charging for the archives is that it results in a lot of broken links on websites that have linked to ChessCafe articles over the years. Nowadays you get taken to the paywall if you click on such a link. I agree with OneArrow's copyright concerns as well. Most of the articles specifically stated that the writer owned the copyright to them. If I was writing freely-available chess articles for a website, chances are that I'd be doing so with a fairly liberal "open source" type of copyright policy (i.e. people could freely access my articles and could quote from them up to a point as long as they gave credit to me and the website that was hosting them) and would be pretty miffed if they suddenly went behind a paywall.
I think it's a lot more ethical to leave the previously-free stuff freely available, and then put the new articles/format behind the paywall. I guess that the site owners probably think that people are less likely to pay up for the sake of accessing new articles if the old articles are still available for free.
It is a difficult topic area- organisations that provide valuable services need to have ways of funding them, but there can be a temptation to find solutions that make profit margins a significantly higher priority than the benefit to consumers.
Incidentally, the "website traffic" stats on the internet suggest that ChessCafe.com has indeed suffered a significant drop-off in traffic since the paywall came into operation.
Feb 11, 2015
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#27
9kick9 wrote:
You can still buy chess equipment without paying which is good.
That's the best way to buy it.
Feb 11, 2015
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#28
Bronco70 wrote:
I didn't realize that. You are correct E.
From the site.
MEMBER BENEFITSand I would have to pay for the shipping cost ?
Feb 11, 2015
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#29
kco wrote:
Bronco70 wrote:
I didn't realize that. You are correct E.
From the site.
MEMBER BENEFITSand I would have to pay for the shipping cost ?
I guess so. Maybe not such a good deal for overseas customers.
Hopefully the actual writers are privy to this.
Feb 11, 2015
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#32
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Their archeive can be 'archieved' though
https://web.archive.org/web/20140714190611/http://www.chesscafe.com/archives/archives.htm
4 months ago · Quote · #16
I see that the PDF articles are archived as well, which is very handy- so whatever happens, we won't lose free access to the earlier articles.
not anymore, each article now cost a dollar to read it.
Feb 11, 2015
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#33
Am I just old and out of touch or is it now considered normal to get everything for free?
Feb 11, 2015
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#34
@DrSpudnik: I know exactly what you mean.
However, in the case of ChessCafe, at the very least, they could have maintained zipped archives of previously free content. It's kind of crappy to just up and change the rules in the middle of the game.
On the other hand, what if ChessCafe just closed its doors? Then you couldn't get their articles at all, new or old (ignoring wayback), and everyone would lose.
Feb 11, 2015
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#35
what a liar. from dan heisman website.
he following Novice Nooks are still archived for free:
each link will take you back to the chesscafe and you had to pay up.
Feb 11, 2015
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#36
TitanCG wrote:
Hopefully the actual writers are privy to this.
They know. Dan Heisman has mentioned it several times on his show here on site. It's out of the writers control.
Feb 11, 2015
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#38
kco wrote:
what a liar. from dan heisman website.
he following Novice Nooks are still archived for free:
each link will take you back to the chesscafe and you had to pay up.
tisk tisk tisk
***Note: Beginning Oct 2014, the links take you to Chess Cafe, where you must sign in/purchase material to read them***
You can still buy chess equipment without paying which is good.
This I do not understand.
Meaning that you can buy things from their store without having to pay for a membership. All of the articles on the site used to be free to view. Now you have to become a paying member to read anything of value on the site.