But, will you say, the blind-knife-juggler needs a place to practice (or the guy who plays something you don't like on the piano, for a milder analogy). However, chess.com need not provide this place.
This is a good point. Blind knife juggling and the piano are expressly forbidden in my house.
we're humans with diverse experiences. of course we won't agree. but we can show respect and patience.
Great post.
Indeed you done a nice job here, I appreciate it. 
Restrictions on starting topics are not good. My first OPs were about what would be considered polite on this site and then some what I thought were fun 900's blitz games. I got advice on what would be polite, and on the games some instructive and encouraging posts from much better players (there are still better). Would I have stuck around without that feedback? Maybe, maybe not.
Restricting the OP topics can be tricky. Instead of moderators, you are asking the chess.com folks to be editors. I think we all agree seeing the "most recent posts" display filled with offers for fake id's or "escorts" doesn't help us participate, but how could that be avoided unless you were to submit a new topic to an editor who allowed it to be posted?
Then what's okay?
Totally silly threads like "I play chess like the Chicago Cubs play baseball"?
Non-chess topics where there are enough like-minded people to make a conversation (math, algorithms, history)?
good idea -
would math problem posts be appreciated, or not
Are you open to suggestions Eric, or has the time for that passed ?
I'm ALWAYS open to listening
2 weeks on the job and already respectfully disagreeing. must be strange to be schwartzen__
In response to Irontiger's thesis, I respectfully disagree that this site should be restricted to chess.
We can grow this site exponentially if we move away from chess. Let's make this one of the biggest and most exciting internet destinations in the world. Chess.com can easily be one of the top ten websites on the internet; but only if we expand beyond chess.
The "chess only" faction will still have a high quality place for chess talk alongside other topics of broader interest. A broader membership will also lead to higher revenues, higher profits, and more money being re-invested into the site, making it better for everyone.
This would not be possible if the site were restricted to chess. Chess is moribund.
Although I doubt erik will be taking advice from sockpuppets, I will answer the content.
1-Yes, the site will grow, or grow faster, if "we" (actually, erik) make it step further from chess. Becoming one of the ten most-visited or biggest by any other measure is certainly not as easy as you might think, but it could probably grow by a large factor.
But is it really an objective per se ?
2-Precisely, the chess-only faction is going to disappear in that scenario. When forums will be flooded under "OMG RandomCelebrity just kissed RandomStranger !!! #gossip #Ihaveanemptyhead", posts such as "23.Ba3 Ruy Lopez analysis" will be drown.
3-Long-term, maybe it will generate more profit, maybe not. But short-term, the immediate effect will be a decrease in chess content, if only by dilution. Maybe there will be more members, but more paying members ? All premium features are chess-related, so it is guaranteed to put off some of today's customers for a not very tangible benefit.
irontiger ftw
sockpuppet lulz
You're not adding valuable input here, I'm afraid.
beyond erik's post, what input do we need? value is certainly relative.
I thought Romo's choice of a slider on the 2-1 pitch last night was a bit suspect.
2-Precisely, the chess-only faction is going to disappear in that scenario. When forums will be flooded under "OMG RandomCelebrity just kissed RandomStranger !!! #gossip #Ihaveanemptyhead", posts such as "23.Ba3 Ruy Lopez analysis" will be drown.
That's why "gossip" threads can go in Off Topic. That way chess doesn't get drowned out. Removing off-topic conversation from this site would be a mistake. Gosh, it would really suck if I went to a chess club and could only talk about chess there.
Gosh, it would really suck if I went to a chess club and could only talk about chess there.
and I thought it was the other way around.... you go to a bar and start talking about chess....no more free drinks.
IMO, chess.com does a great job with monitoring the forums.
But there is a lot of room for improvement in the live chess chat policing. Like most of us I've had people quite vulgarly insult, demean, etc. me. Since the stated policy is don't file a ticket if the behaviour can be stopped by disabling chat, I never file a ticket. Since in all cases I did/said nothing to them and they had many notes indicative a fight, I can only image they were not one time offenders. When last I checked (quite a while a ago but a good year after the incident), all of these people still had their accounts open and were free to type away.
Wow, amazing speech there Erik. Unlike other people who take the TL;DR aproch I read the whole thing because i saw that what you said was important and worth reading. Of course to every long piece that someone writes there are some parts that need improving and comments. This is what I have to say.
I speak for trolling, I don't know if all trolls think the way I do but this is what i have to say for the chess.com community. Some trolling is bad and offensive as are some types of trolling like spamming (just posting meaningless stuff over and over again) but the right type of trolls are benificial to the chess.com comunity. Imagine a chess.com without the type of trolls that i am mentioning. There would no longer be times when they are not appreciated but there would also be no one to troll the mean people to death. They would hount chess.com with no one with the gut or the right words to take them down. Also chess can sometimes get a little dull after talking about it for hours and we start to wish that there is someone to say something that can lighten up our mood. It doesn't have to be very funny, just something that lifts some of the weight of our shoulders. Sometimes no one recognizes it and trolls still remain hated, but that uncousious post that isn't a serious chess anaylisis or commentary makes us more happy and glad that there is a chess.com comunity to keep our spirits up. I am not much for speeches but this is what i have to say for trolling.
Ajttja
To be fair, a troll isn't a troll isn't a troll. There are different levels of trolling. For example, the thread asking about how to teach chess to his 1-month-old kid and turn him into a GrandMaster. That is clever and much needed comic relief.
Another kind of troll is someone whose purpose on the forum is to completely ruin discussion and mess with other people at any opportunity. Sometimes these people are just lost in their own world of misery, and want to bring others down with them -- or occasionally, it's one of the "want to watch the world burn" types. These are the types of trolls that are a problem. They bring people down and crush the sense of discussion and community on the forums. These trolls should be moderated and limited -- or, ghasp -- muted, suspended, or banned. It's certainly not "fair" or "conducive to free speech" when one person is juggling knives blindfolded down a large public sidewalk, and sometimes throwing those knives at other people. If that person is allowed free reign, then most people will stop walking down that public sidewalk.
I am not sure I see your point. You were just trying to make a larger gap between different kinds of trolls. There were still a few things you are missing. There aren't different levels of trolling. Yes there are different kinds of it like spamming, a lower class for the stupid (i won't offend anyone since there are unwanted). What differs between trolls are intent. Some troll to bully people, some troll to put their jokes in a way that they get attention, some troll to be famous, and some, like me, troll to let the good people be in a good mood and the make the bad people get trolled to death (when they leave the forums and leave everyone alone) As for your sollution to the bad trolls, that is terrible. Muting them is not a good option, what you need to do is show them that they do not rule or they will either come back or be martirs and inspire other mad trolls. Daeth got banned but his legacy still lives. What is needed is the troll them and not respond to them, do not close any forums that they post in and do not lock them. People like me will kill them, like using a cat to get rid of the mice instead of closing the holes in the wall where the go into the house.
Ajttja
I was pretty much agreeing with you. And yes, even if the only difference between trolls is their "intent" (and then, their actions), that means there are different "levels" (or "types," whatever word you want to use) of trolling. I agree that some type of "trolls" can effectively be a part of a community. It is true though, that some trolls out there, will bring a community down. If you believe otherwise, you haven't been part of enough online forums. And if you believe that people should be "unbannable" from a forum, again, you have not been on many forums. Every single online forum has moderation. You show me a popular forum, and I'll show you a forum where people have been banned. This applies to every single large forum out there, even the most "risque" ones. You don't think people have been banned or suspended from 4chan, reddit, etc? Think again.
Of course there is a group that will be making judgement calls -- there always will be. There has to be, because it beats the alternative.
The bickering, I think.
Bah! In a forum like this? No one here would be bickering :D