My argument with a member... for the bulletin!

Hey all,

I want to know what you think:

http://www.chess.com/article/view/the-masters-bulletin-may-2014

See conversation starting there  -- I think I make our approach and perspective pretty clear regarding the Bulletin and it NOT being included in a Diamond Membership, but maybe I am missing the point here?

PS -- If you check out our group now here http://www.chess.com/groups/forumview/may-2014-issue you'll see I wasn't full of it that contributors (IMs and GMs) would be interacting with members  as a bonus to subscribing to the Bulletin!

Hahaha, wow q-p. Thanx Daniel. Hey, whatever happened to Daniel Tapia?

                  A non-paying member using the f word with staff.  He's been here for 2 weeks, and I'm gonna kill his cat.

Those are fuggin' funny. I like mustard & gonna kill his cat! Oh.... hahaha..oh man, gotta go on that one

Here is my problem with having to pay extra for the magazine. First, would the articles that are now being written for the magazine have previously been available to preminum chess.com members for free. The perception, at least on my part, is that content is being removed from chess.com and being moved to a "magazine." Secondly, its not a magazine, its a set of articles you've grouped together onto one webpage. They're articles produced by chess.com, which are supposed to be included in the price of membership, but because they've been grouped together, I can no longer read them without paying more. I don't have all the facts, but that is my impression of the situation.

I have to agree with privatepyle99. It feels like previously available content from the contributors won't now be available. I recognise that you probably will now get extra contibutions but feel that it is unlikely to be 100% of the content. And even if it is 100% from extra sourced members, other articles in the future that may have come as an article for members might become a part of the bulletin instead. 

From a personal standpoint it doesnt affect me yet as I am a lower rated player and wouldnt yet get the benefits. However I hate to think I would be missing out on what was previously a part. Personally I love chess.com.

Just my two cents. 

Also by the way Daniel, thanks for interacting with the people instead of just the staff and saying I am right. Being willing to listen makes this a community I am willing to be a part of.

I see people's concern, but the magazine has been running for months and I see 16 articles from titled players in the articles section, in May alone. 

I bought the diamond membership for the video content. I don't feel like i am missing out.

The masters bulletin is a rip off and few if any will pay for it. 

Danny is a bit masochist getting this exposition to (bad manner) criticism.

Well, I have to clarify a few points

"They're articles produced by chess.com, which are supposed to be included in the price of membership, but because they've been grouped together, I can no longer read them without paying more."

Falacy, you are not paying for a premium membership to be able to read the articles. Have you? In that case I have very bad news for you. The articles are available for free! yes, yes, you can even access to them without login in or have an account

Well, to calm you down, the premium membership allows you a web without ads, videos, tactic trainer, chess mentor, vacations...

On the other half, chess.com has a agreement with some people to produce articles for the webpage (IM Silman, GM Bryan Smith, GM Serper) which are regular columnists and publish on a regular basis. Obviously they have some prestige and won't produce articles of less quality, plus they are not the same that write the Master Bulletin.

Then, it may seem that I'm here to defend Rensch. Far from it. He can do it himself, and the Master Bulletin is not an interesting product for me.

It could be consider a rip-off if they were lying you about what you are about to buy. But, the do offer some numbers for free, so you know what exactly what you are buying. Then you may consider it more or less worthy, that's subjective, but not a rip-off

I think it is good effort to try to connect with some of our higher-rated members. That means GMs and IMs have to do a lot of work to write instructional content, and that's not free.

This is product brought over by Chessvibes, so it's not really accurate to say that content is being taken off Chess.com. Since hiring Peter and myself, I hope you've seen even more content, with more links to related content for easier navigation, with better flowing articles that read well.

I don't expect you to take my words to be impartial! Download some of the free issues and see what you think!

I like the idea of the Master's Bulletin.  And since the chess.com descriptions of premium member benefits do not promise free issues, it is fair and reasonable to charge extra for it.  The reason I don't subscribe to the Master's Bulletin is that I already subscribe to New In Chess, which more than satisfies my desire for excellent articles about, and by, world-class GMs (and of course it is quite expensive too).

As far as I can tell, the Diamond Membership and Master's Bulletin have always been separate. I could understand why Diamond members would be upset if the Master's Bulletin diverted content and subsequently yielded less value to the Diamond member, but I don't see any evidence that this is the case. That is, your Diamond membership experience will be the same regardless of whether the Master's Bulletin exists or not.

Subscribers to one or both services know exactly the value they're receiving from their membership fees. Am I missing something?

I'm going to buy May issue it to read John!!

When paying for diamond membership you read that you get "Unlimited access to all Chess.com features!". I think it is quite understandable that some people get a bit upset when they realise that they don't get access to everything. That being said, even if I had a diamond membership I don't think I would mind that the subscription for the bulletin is separate. I think that is reasonable.

Based on the complaints, it sounds like the solution which doesn't offend anyone is the solution you have found.

Do NOT include the Bulletin in a diamond membership.  That way, people who don't want it don't have to pay for it and people who do want it do.

Although maybe you could give it to David Pruess as part of his diamond membership.  Don't tick him off with capitalist behavior.

I guess I misssed it somewhere on this page (http://www.chess.com/membership?c=icon) but where is "Unlimited access to all Chess.com features?"

Additionally, Features and items in the Shop are two different things. The Master's Bulletin is it's own subscription. If they were selling Chess.com polos in the shop, we wouldn't expect unlimited access to the polos? :D

I personally have no problem with the Master's Bulletin costing extra. It would be nice if it was free, but hey ho, so would everything else in life.

I can see where people are coming from in a way, Diamond members are already paying the top rate for Chess.com and are probably a bit upset about the prospect of coughing up more. However, as someone who has only joined very recently (march) I was very happy paying for the Diamond membership features, which were clearly listed, the Master's Bulletin not being among them.

I was very happy to receive instructional videos, Chess Mentor, unlimited tournaments etc, and do not feel I am missing out as it was not something I was expecting to get anyway.

As someone has also mentioned, it is probably aimed at a select group of players anyway. I don't think I will even contemplate buying it at the moment as it will probably be of such an advanced level that the concepts would not be clear to me. Perhaps something I will consider at a later date.

At the moment I am happy to do my learning through all the Chess Mentor courses, Tactics Trainer exercises, articles, videos, live chess, unlimited tournaments I can enter (plus create), computer workouts etc. I would much rather the Master's Bulletin gets paid for by its select audience than have everyones Diamond membership fees increased to cover the extra costs.