erik, we are frustrated

You're a teenager. You're a kid to me. I know you think 16 is very old, but that's not how I see it.

Age is relative. 16 is old for this site, and even though I'm not that old, age doesn't really matter. A 50-year-old can act like a kid, an 11-year-old, vice versa. It's maturity that matters (besides abiding by the ToS of being at least 13).

And of course the only numbers Erik cares about are bank account balances. He doesn't care if you're 16. So don't worry about it.

As much as that old copy-pasta from Erik says the members are diverse (which they may be) the community (as in forum community) is not. It is made up of young children and retirees. Very little in between.

I've found a lot of chess players to be middle-aged men. Probably not as much, but they are there. I think the oldest I've seen is Denver.

There are some even older here...

Look, at your age, you can still relate to little kids, so your saying "age doesn't matter" is meaningless.

Something like 90% of of the topics here are total garbage to me... to the point that it's annoying to even read them. To the point that I wonder if many of them even speak English. It's that bad.

It's really really REALLY bad.

You have no idea.

At one point I was taking GMAT prep tests online... not because I'm interested in business, but because I was seriously confused about what was par for reading and writing English.

Of course here "par" is anything a 10 year old could do. So it's no wonder I was confused.

Sure, most chess players may be middle aged.

Most forum people, in other words most community members, are either below 20 or above 60.

I know several Vietnamese kids here that are learning English. My hat's off to them!

It is impossible to get accurate demographics without access to tracking data (advertisers) and that is probably hit or miss. But I would guess 30-50 year olds make up 25-30% percent of the active accounts on site, easily. Under 18 is probably higher.But most of them aren't posting a lot in the forums and the posting they are doing is normally more meaningful.

I suppose older members value quality over quantity.

As for the demographics, I just made an assumption. A lot of chess players (amateur, club, and some higher) that I've met or seen are either young kids in elementary school, or middle aged adults. Personal experience here, so it's definitely not an accurate data set.

You should contact them. They can probably explain to you why "hat's" (with the apostrophe) is incorrect there.

I definitely haven't been here as long, but I can tell things are bad when people call each other "grammar nazis". That's on the low end of the spectrum. Most people just say "hi", play forum games, or just randomly interrupt a thread with an irrelevant game. That's excluding the toxicity.

For example?

My hat is off to them > my hat's off to them

Ah. Sleep deprivation?

Yeah, that's true.

I've never hard the idiom used that way "my hat is off to you" but it makes sense and is probably fine, you're right.

I thought the topic below could've been an interesting thread or at least fun but look what happened after my comment - all one liners. So I untracked.

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/my-pfp-was-taken-away?page=2#comment-52815120

You try to infuse some life into topics but then it just dies. Guess this one will die too.

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/off-topic/africa-is-the-best?page=3#comment-52815330

It really doesn't take that much effort, does it?  Guess that's why at meet-ups people are still looking at their phones instead of talking. Conversation not interesting enough? Or the people themselves?  Sigh. 

I think it can be summed up as low effort posts.

Warn and mute kids (and the 1 or 2 adults) who do that and the community would be a much better place.

Please ignore the post above.  The bunny's alter personality took over.  All's fine and dandy. 

Perhaps I should do some investigation on under what circumstances would a mute be toned down after a supposed threat.