Chess.com advertising

FICS is ad-free and is also free to play, it's not like chess.com is the only place on the internet to play for free.

I think that chess.com's advertising is horrible, and they deserve to have their ads blocked until they set up a decent ad system. The only nice ad I saw on this site was for Wholesale Chess, and I also clicked it a few times, just because that site looked interesting. But let's be realistic, how many chess players are interested in browser based games with half-naked cartoon girls?

The argument that chess.com is doing us a favour by letting us play for free and that we should be grateful doesn't really stand up, because there are other sites that also do this, but have far less intrusive ads, or none at all ( FICS ). Also, this site wouldn't be worth that much without the basic members.

Lol I might be interested in such games, however I rarely see ads in fact. I think that if you configure your browser to disable pop-ups you can actually avoid seeing most of them.

Thats the way you have chosen to pay for your site. Should'nt the staff get paid for what they do?

There are, in my opinion, good non-advertising ways to promote the premium membership. I remember the day when I took it up. The computer analysis never used to work when I was a free member even after trying a number of times (it was supposed to be limited at 1 per week but still never got it). Then one day magically I got one of my games analyzed and I became a diamond member right away :) I think such things work better than advertising. Just my 2 cents.

Yep.
This site has ads? I don't see them.
Pop-ups? Don't see them either.

if you see offensive ads, please report them immediately using the "Report Ad" link. thank you. 

There is also playchess where you can play for free ( I don't know how many features are free, though ).

I've played more than 100 games on FICS and have yet to encounter a problem. Also, most people there are very nice, and there are also tournaments and a League.

Care to give an example of a feature that only chess.com has? The only point you can make is that there are all on the same site, but I don't really care if it takes 2 clicks more to do something.

"The net's not an information superhighway anymore. It's a frickin toll road. If you don't want to pay, go a different route. If you can find it. " - Already found it, it's called Ad Blocker. :)

chess.com is the only site I know of that offers Correspondence and Live Chess (both with the opportunity to play against titled players), Tactics Trainer, daily articles and blogs by titled players, weekly ChessTV live broadcasts by titled players, computer analysis of Live/Correspondence chess games, all for free. In fact, my only other experience on a site for Correspondence Chess games was one where I got a message from the site telling me that an Ad blocker was detected on browsers that I accessed the site from, and that it was my only warning to turn them off or get banned from the site.

I think the original poster's points were actually quite reasonable, at least compared with some of the shriller responses.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with chess.com advertising, but the site would be well advised to consider the content of their ads and the style of their delivery if they wish to be taken seriously by potential customers with several other well established chess server options.  It would be a pity if a site as promising as this shot themselves in the foot in such a needless manner.

However, more disturbing is the community bashing a member for merely pointing this out - chess.com's main appeal is their community, not their interface, or the numbers of GMs online, or a cute spinning globe or what have you.  For this same community to act so condenscendingly to a kid who was obviously trying to be respectful in his posts is more of a concern to me than any pop-up ad.

I don't think it would be fair to call Tactics Trainer and Chess TV. since only a very small portion of them is free. But there are other tactics sites out there, some of them better than TT.

The live chess features are still basic, most of the other servers are better in this regard.

The computer analysis feature is really bad in some aspects, and a free engine is faster and a lot more accurate.

The only things that, in my opinion, make this site worth visiting are the articles, blogs and forums.

Poor you. It must really be a hard life you live, when a website only offers one regular free broadcast a week, where one or more titled chess players interact live with the audience. And it's just so unfair that when there's a major tournament, you only get free live coverage/analysis of the first round by more titled players.

A 7-days trial during which you cannot talk with anyone or a "fixed" copy of Fritz which enables you to play doesn't mean that playchess is free. In fact it is very expensive.

Fics ... well, if you really have time to wait. Few people play there, almost all strong players go somewhere else.

 Obnoxious in your face adds are so very annoying. I think it drives away more pontential members then it brings in!

Same thing applies to the morning news on tv, I either have to keep my finger on the mute button, or just read the news off the net.

 Annoying add creators are idiouts!

I've never had a problem with ads because I spend about 90% of my time in live chess :)

Thank you all for contributing to the conversation. Even the not-so-intelligent responses helped stimulate discussion. This is what I hoped for.

As some have pointed out the outlandish advertisements could be turning some away from the site or stopping them from getting a membership (such as myself), as a result, hopefully chess.com will take some steps to ensure that everyone receives fair treatment and (near) equal enjoyment of the website. 

Intelligent people are the people who see things the way I do.

and intelligent people buy the membership to get rid of the ads and get more features. 

Very good kco! So much of this thread has been filled with a bunch of "not-so-intelligent" whining. It's nice to see someone (besides me) make an intelligent post.

I am a paid member at the moment and I will not be able to renew my subscription which is due to expire shortly.

I will have no problem putting up with adds as the site is so good.

I will miss some of the great features that paying members get access to.

Their is a free trial offer that new members are offered I think and this lets you see what is on offer so you can not loose.

I have tried some other sites but this my my opinion is the best!!

When my circumstances change I will be very happy to pay again and in the meantime I look forward to seeing the adds. 

I first gave up my Gold Membership dissapointed by how little action Chess.com is taking on cheating across the site.... they claim, and so it appears, to be mainly concentrating in ridiculously high ratings.

Together with that I stopped playing Online Chess and decided to exclusively play Live Chess..... now, the stupid amomont of banner or intrusive 'recommendations' asking us to buy a membership every time a match finishes is making me to seriously consider leaving Chess.com.