artfizz wrote:
Only another few thousand respondents needed to make the results statistically significant. "
paul211 wrote: Just out of curiosity how many people participated in the survey?
Just over 50, the last time I looked.
How Can The Forums Be Made Even Better?
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Jun 24, 2010
0
#103
A wealthy gentleman was badly bitten by bugs while riding on a certain railway line. Arriving at his destination, he wrote the company an indignant letter and received a prompt reply. It was, said the letter, the first complaint the company had ever had of this nature. Inquiry had failed to reveal any explanation for this unprecedented occurrence. Nevertheless, a number of new precautions were being taken to make absolutely certain such an unfortunate incident never happened again. The letter was signed by a high official of the railway.
The gentleman was well satisfied with this reply and was returning it to the envelope when a slip of paper fell out onto the floor. The hastily scribbled note on it read: "Send this guy the bug letter."
http://www.snopes.com/business/consumer/bedbug.asp
Jun 24, 2010
0
#104
re: the bug letter-- four decades ago my Dad moved across the country to take a faculty position at a small public university, where he taught for more than 30 years until his retirement. Part of his initial hiring specified that he would be reimbursed for our family's moving expenses. After we arrived and things settled somewhat he submitted his paperwork and receipts for reimbursement. He waited and waited, prompted them a couple times, received assurances that it was in the works, and eventually the issue just died away without him ever being reimbursed.
Almost 20 years later as a result of some ruling, state employees were granted access to review their personnel files. Many of the faculty, like a lot of employees, were curious to see what their files contained, and my Dad was among the curious. Tucked in among old reviews and other items he found a hand-written memo from a previous VP of Academic Affairs that said, quoting loosely, "Don't pay (our last name) his moving expenses". 
Jun 24, 2010
0
#105
Cystem_Phailure wrote: ... Tucked in among old reviews and other items he found a hand-written memo from a previous VP of Academic Affairs that said, quoting loosely, "Don't pay (our last name) his moving expenses".
I trust he tracked that former VP down via Facebook, Friends Reunited, Bebo, MySpace, Twitter, etc. and saw that he got his just desserts!
(Oh hang on, wrong topic!)
Schachgeek wrote:
You'd think that eventually the community would learn what is ok, and what is not ok in the forums and at some point down the road those forums would thus require less attention from the mods.
The constant influx of new members to the community prevents it from learning anything. The constant restarting of threads that have been discussed several times previously is pretty clear evidence of that.
Jun 24, 2010
0
#107
Schachgeek wrote:
You'd think that eventually the community would learn what is ok, and what is not ok in the forums and at some point down the road those forums would thus require less attention from the mods.
If two-hundred thousand years of human existence has not yet accomplished this then nothing will.
Jun 24, 2010
0
#108
Schachgeek wrote:
You'd think that eventually the community would learn what is ok, and what is not ok in the forums and at some point down the road those forums would thus require less attention from the mods.
wormrose wrote: If two-hundred thousand years of human existence has not yet accomplished this then nothing will.
Was that an ape I saw playing chess?
artfizz wrote:
Schachgeek wrote:
You'd think that eventually the community would learn what is ok, and what is not ok in the forums and at some point down the road those forums would thus require less attention from the mods.
wormrose wrote: If two-hundred thousand years of human existence has not yet accomplished this then nothing will.
Was that an ape I saw playing chess?
It could be, but they only play for banana's
Jun 24, 2010
0
#110
wormrose wrote: If two-hundred thousand years of human existence has not yet accomplished this then nothing will.
Wow! It's easy to forget how long electronic forums have been around!
And to think, I've only been active since the phone-in BBS's of the mid 1980s, back in the days when there were real flame wars and the good insults hadn't all already been used.
Jun 24, 2010
0
#111
paul211 wrote:
Human existence as defined by the homo sapiens, the modern human that is wise or intelligent or rational or aware of what is happening dates back to about 100,000 years.
Earliest known anatomically modern human fossil is 195,000 years old.
Wisdom, intelligence, rational or aware do not define modern humans (snicker) or any other creature. We are not highly evolved. We have just started.
Ants are highly evolved - they have been around for 100 million years.
Jun 24, 2010
0
#112
My comment was in responce to Schachgeek's comment which I probably did not quote enough of it:
Schachgeek said:
"That's my point about accountability, the mod should be able to articulate the reason he or she is taking action. Another example might be an abuse report that is not addressed...they need to be able to articulate why.
"You'd think that eventually the community would learn what is ok, and what is not ok in the forums and at some point down the road those forums would thus require less attention from the mods."
My Point
We have amassed an accumulation of knowledge from (at least) 195,000 years of experience passed from generation to generation which we scornfully refer to as "society's rules" which is basically just "doing the right thing".
A child is born - learns from it's parents, siblings and friends.
Goes to school - learns from teachers, parents siblings and friends
Ignores what it has learned - learns from police, judges, prison system
Joins a forum topic at chess.com which is closed by the moderator with an explanation of why it was closed - finally understands 
Jun 25, 2010
0
#113
Schachgeek wrote: You'd think that eventually the community would learn what is ok, and what is not ok in the forums and at some point down the road those forums would thus require less attention from the mods.
Loomis wrote: The constant influx of new members to the community prevents it from learning anything. The constant restarting of threads that have been discussed several times previously is pretty clear evidence of that.
Schachgeek wrote: Valid point, but I think it was LisaV who suggested we also have forum sticky's (ies?) that are required reading before creating another "why wont my opponent resign" or "my opponent is using vacation so it must be cheating" or "my opponent moved his king two squares, then his rook jumped over the king is that legal?" threads.
How would it be if chess.com had a Tips Window - (a bit like pop-up ads). This feature could be enabled by default for new members, but could be switched off (or restarted) at any time.
It could offer snippets from the site Help, such as: why using books and DataBases during Turn-Based Chess is not cheating - and these could appear during posting in the Forums, during game play, etc. If they could be made relevant to the current activity, that would be fantastic (but virtually impossible!)
For example,
Did you know? The rules for playing TURN-BASED CHESS on this site...
#1. You many only have ONE Chess.com member account. #2. You may NOT get any help from any person or any chess engine throughout the course of a game, including tablebases. #3. You MAY use books, magazines, or other articles. #4. You may also use computer databases (including Chess.com's Game Explorer). #5. EXCEPTION: If both players agree for the use of a chess engine in an UNRATED game then it can be allowed.
For maximum impact, only ONE of these rules should be displayed at a time.
Jun 25, 2010
0
#114
"If I am correct, this topic - and ones like it - are a measure of the health of chess.com - its blood pressure, if you like. The existence of this topic - and its predecessors and successors - indicates that there is both a sufficient supply of 'newbies' to whom this topic is fresh - and an adequate residue of 'oldies' - to whom this topic is stale. I predict catastrophic consequences for chess.com if this topic were ever to die out completely." - Fizz's Feory
Jun 25, 2010
0
#115
artfizz wrote: How would it be if chess.com had a Tips Window - (a bit like pop-up ads). This feature could be enabled by default for new members, but could be switched off (or restarted) at any time.
It could offer snippets from the site Help, such as: why using books and DataBases during Turn-Based Chess is not cheating - and these could appear during posting in the Forums, during game play, etc. If they could be made relevant to the current activity, that would be fantastic (but virtually impossible!)
I think a system like that would be great. There is a lot of information on basic procedures and rules here on chess.com, but it is extremely poorly organized and it's difficult to find material. The current help pages and the skimpy FAQs are pathetic and should just be dumped if they aren't going to be expanded and improved.
It might not be that difficult to have tips appropriate for the user's current activity, at least on a large scale-- for instance, info specific only to vote chess would not appear when someone was on screens related to live chess, etc. You could have several sort of top-level categories like live chess, online correspondence chess, vote chess, groups/teams, forums, etc. each with their own sub-set of tips. And always with a link so that the user could go to where all the tips for that subset were collected together.
Jun 25, 2010
0
#116
wormrose wrote:
My comment was in responce to Schachgeek's comment which I probably did not quote enough of it:
Schachgeek said:
"That's my point about accountability, the mod should be able to articulate the reason he or she is taking action. Another example might be an abuse report that is not addressed...they need to be able to articulate why.
"You'd think that eventually the community would learn what is ok, and what is not ok in the forums and at some point down the road those forums would thus require less attention from the mods."
wormrose wrote:
My Point
We have amassed an accumulation of knowledge from (at least) 195,000 years of experience passed from generation to generation which we scornfully refer to as "society's rules" which is basically just "doing the right thing".
- A child is born - learns from it's parents, siblings and friends.
- Goes to school - learns from teachers, parents siblings and friends
- Ignores what it has learned - learns from police, judges, prison system
- Joins a forum topic at chess.com which is closed by the moderator with an explanation of why it was closed - finally understands
5. Rejects society's norms and become an evil, criminal mastermind?
Two requirement on the forums to reduce the risk of anyone being seduced into following the dark side:
- the ability to reference individual posts not just pages (e.g. chesscom-posting-rules - albeit that this particular topic is only one post long)
- whole topics and individual posts preserved after their originators have gone. The Ancient Royal Library of Alexandria flourished from 3rd centrury BC for about 700 years yet chess.com struggles maintain a few postings for 4 years!
Jun 25, 2010
0
#117
artfizz wrote:
whole topics and individual posts preserved after their originators have gone. The Ancient Royal Library of Alexandria flourished from 3rd centrury BC for about 700 years yet chess.com struggles maintain a few postings for 4 years!
I'd gotten the impression this was by choice. It seems to me somewhere or other I read that the info that disappeared was still saved by chess.com and could be restored if/whenever they desired, so I assumed having someone's comments and threads disappear was intentional-- part of the consequences of their becoming an unperson.
Jun 25, 2010
0
#118
artfizz wrote: whole topics and individual posts preserved after their originators have gone. The Ancient Royal Library of Alexandria flourished from 3rd centrury BC for about 700 years yet chess.com struggles maintain a few postings for 4 years!
Cystem_Phailure wrote:
I'd gotten the impression this was by choice. It seems to me somewhere or other I read that the info that disappeared was still saved by chess.com and could be restored if/whenever they desired, so I assumed having someone's comments and threads disappear was intentional-- part of the consequences of their becoming an unperson.
It is by design - but I think it not the best policy.
Account Limitations
You acknowledge that Chess.com may establish general practices and limits concerning use of the Service, including without limitation the maximum number of days that email messages, message board postings or other uploaded Content will be retained by the Service, ... http://www.chess.com/legal.html#termsofservice
Content
You acknowledge that Chess.com may or may not pre-screen Content, but that Chess.com and its designees shall have the right (but not the obligation) in their sole discretion to pre-screen, refuse, or move any Content that is available via the Service. Without limiting the foregoing, Chess.com and its designees shall have the right to remove any Content that violates the TOS or is otherwise objectionable.
http://www.chess.com/legal.html#termsofservice
Termination
You agree that Chess.com may, under certain circumstances and without prior notice, immediately terminate your Chess.com account, any associated email address, and access to the Service. ... Termination of your Chess.com account includes (a) removal of access to all offerings within the Service, (b) deletion of your password and all related information, files and content associated with or inside your account (or any part thereof), ...
http://www.chess.com/legal.html#subscriber
A quick review of the "Most Recent Posts" (which I personally find a convenient way to keep up with the forums)
1. Good Positional Opening vs. 1. d4 and 1. e4 --- yay! A chess topic
2. Who will win -- A 7 page topic of complete nonsense. Nothing to do with chess, it is just a fight between a couple members. It now discusses sending waffles and pancakes to mars
3. Feeback: Pointing out an annoying grammar mistake. -- It's my own fault for even participating in such a thing.
4. Danish&Half-Danish Gambit - best defense? -- yay! a chess topic.
5. Masterful Resignations -- yay! a chess topic, but kind of a weird one.
6. fun little miniature with a nice mate -- yay! has to do with chess.
7. frozen screen -- can't we just submit a help report for these kinds of things?
8. Reason for joining Chess.com -- Maybe better in a blog? There was really nothing of value here.
And the last two were daily puzzle threads.
By far the most posting activity was in the flame war. I guess that's the Internet for you.
the PC has to reboot and that takes several minutes... once it's finished I still have to arrange all my stuff on my displays... so I figure it's a good time to get that sleep I've been needing... next morning I am in control once more... after arranging my timers and clocks and calenders and weather stations... I click on the browser icon to begin a long hard day of surfing... a message appears... "Windows is installing the latest version of your Opera browser. Please wait."... oh, what the heck... I'll use Firefox while Opera installs... a message from Firefox claims that Firefox is already running on my system... who am I to argue with Firefox?... let's see... how about we try Chrome?... despite their claims about the speed of Chrome this is taking way too long... but there is an opportunity here... I can make use of this time to go make that coffee I've been craving... I'm heading for the kitchen when an electronic voice announces that my anti-virus database has been updated... ahah!... that's what's been slowing things down... and when I get back... "Java installer is preparing to update your system"