The Downward Spiral, Part 2 - a Better Solution for EVERYONE.

I posted this in my other thread, but I'm making this its own thread here in case anyone missed it/isn't inclined to read the thread.

I'll make it clear that I support the creation of a forum for these games. When I said, 'move elsewhere,' I didn't mean 'cease being members of this forum,' if any of you were thinking that. 

But, it is not a matter of if a forum will be made, but when. This push has been in the works for, what, six months now? And if none of you guys are going to do it, then I will. Better to try now rather than later. If the current 'trend' is anything to go by - now is most definitely the time.

I also posted in my thread about a possible solution to the Most Recent window:

Instead of completely removing the window, one possible solution would be to require users to 'subscribe' to a certain forum in order to see what threads are being posted in. So, when someone makes a new account, or if they're browsing offline, they're not subscribed to any forum, and the Most Recent window doesn't show up/is empty. If a user were to subscribe to, say, the Chess Books & Equipment forum, they'd see the first 3, maybe 5 thread titles show up in the Most Recent window. They'd see things like, 'Shereshesky's Mastering the Endgame worth it?,' 'The Secret of Chess,' 'New (& cheaper) DGT e-board,' etc.. Below the title would be the original poster, the forum it has been posted in, and the time e.g. "Chess 2: The Sequel," new line, "Ebinola in Chess960 and Other Variants, 20 minutes ago"

Or, instead of having the window be on the side, have it be another page on the site where you can find the top threads for each forum you're subscribed to. You can search and sort by keywords, forums, or most recently posted in. If you're not subscribed to anything, you have no need for it. (Mostly) Out of sight, out of mind.

Let's also extend this to clubs, because clubs also have forums. If in the event a forum for play-by-forum games is not made, interested users can subscribe to certain clubs for certain variants, or you could have one big hub for these games instead. And I don't think it would be too congesting to make maybe one or two threads saying, 'Hey, this is our club for this variant, if you're interested, please join us here for games/discussion.' You could also drop a link in threads which explain the rules of the variant.

When a forum is made to separate these play-by-forum games from actual discussion, anyone is free to subscribe to said forum. If they're not interested, they're not interested, nothing that can be done about that.

I saw a moderator post here yesterday, @MGleason, that's a rare sight. I would appreciate a member of staff's opinion on this.

I'll also add that this should not only solve the issue found here, but found EVERYWHERE ELSE on the site. If feedback on this is positive,  I intend to go elsewhere on the forums with this idea.

I think it would be nice to have a forum where people can play forum games without having that clutter the most recent postings. This seems fairly trivial to implement, but my guess is that users who didn't want to see the messages were simply blocking the forum game players.

You said you had blocked a dozen people and then unblocked them. Did their messages disappear from the Most Recent box or did that not solve this problem for you? I'm not suggesting this is the "right" solution but it's "a" solution if it does hide those users from you.

This is a #1 a Chess site. The fact that they put in Chess960 and then other variants shows that there's enough popularity there for people to play variants. This isn't the only site to play variants on, either.

Sooner or later someone will create a site that lets you create ad-hoc rules in layers (board size, pieces, starting positions, capture rules.... ) and then people can just play anything they can imagine there. I don't think Chess.com will do it. 

Until then, unless Chess.com thinks they are losing players from people playing games in the forums, they won't change the current policy. It's like you said before, we are a rare bunch of variant players, we are lucky there's even a subsection for us.

I blocked them for the reason that I wanted to keep myself as level-headed as possible. If I make a stand on something, I am very stubborn, I won't change my stance on that so easily. I expected a lot more vitriolic rhetoric, but those who replied have been fair in their responses.

Given the contrasting views on the issue, the only way to really find a solution is through co-operation and compromise, not just with people on this forum, but with people all over the site.

The blocked users' threads however are not blocked. When you block someone, they can't post in your threads and they can't PM you. They still show up in the Most Recent window. And even if they were - it would solve the problem for me, but not for other people.

That site already exists. For one, there isn't really any need to have the site enforce rules. This can be perfectly left to the players. The forum here doesn't enforce any rules. So it is just a matter of providing an electronic board of the right size with the proper number of piece types. I already provide such a site.

But it turns out there is zero interest to play there. Presumably because there is no audience.

What site has the ability to create layered rules for Chess variants? (I'm talking about live play here, not ChessVariants.com systems.)

Bump.

Seconding a link to this site as well.