Why can't you see the players on the interactive map anymore? As small and seemingly pointless a feature it is i found it quite interesting. 

Apart from coaches (who presumably want to advertise their location).

Maybe privacy concerns (why-is-it-still-possible-for-people-to-find-us-on-the-interactive-map) have led to the change? Or just too many members to be displayed?

I too liked the feature. I wish it would be turned back on.

Yes, it makes inviting members to regional teams now next to impossible. That change didn't help nor does the silence explaining the reason for the change.

What was the problem with it?

Doing it any other way would not be conscionable.

It located people based on their IP addresses if I'm not mistaken. A serious invasion of privacy for anyone who didn't want their actual location publicly and widely known.

if im not mistaken, I think it located to the nearest  switch substation of the telcom company they used, not to their actual house or office. It gave a general vicinity. I liked it becuase you could spot people claiming to be from another country when in fact they were from somewhere totally different. For some reason cheaters really like to use the country Indonesia. dont know why there, but I sure seen a lot of them. which was unfair to real players from Indonesia.

I also could find members for my cities team, that I would have never come across otherwise. Any computer nerd can still get an IP address if you know how. that is the price of being online.

No, you can only get my IP if I interact with you directly in some kind of peer-to-peer handshake. In order for you to get it here, however, chess.com must disclose it. The nearest switching station or not, it's an invasion of the privacy of those who'd rather their actual location not be shared.

not the point i was trying to make but, I still liked the feature.

it only goes by the address you give!!! it doesn't track you down!! jesus christ, this is chess.com, not the FBI. it failed sometimes because i'd sometimes get a person from mexico or whatever near my town. anyone who just said they were from england for example would be located in one central spot on the map. however if you give your town or post code it uses that, and only that.

did you notice if you looked at NYC for example, there would be an amount of players spread over the different disticts and then one heavy clump in the centre. these guys clumped up gave their address as only NYC whereas the rest gave more precise locations. if chess.com tracked you down it would all be very accurate.

That is correspondence chess.

The dot on the map had nothing to do with the location you entered in your profile. The precise location of the dot did not match the actual address but rather placed you in a general vicinity (mine was at least 20 blocks away). By gosh, if some folks are truly so paranoid then have an Opt-out feature. Or make it so that the map is only accessible for group admins who have a legitimate interest in finding members based on regional considerations.

Remember in the good old days of correspondence chess when players actually used postal mail to send the moves? Those folks were in possession of the real address. I presume this obvious invasion of privacy must have been the reason for inventing the internet so now the moves could be transmitted anonymously ...

It hasn't been fixed yet.

http://www.chess.com/map/players

According to chess.com the feature won't be brought back. Apparently, the paranoid crowd won out ...

It'd be OK if it were brought back as an opt-in feature.  I don't think that not wanting my actual location disclosed is paranoid by any stretch though.  I think it's a resonable expectation of chess.com's stewardship of my private information.

lol

Can you post a link to original staff's statement? I am not aware they have told that.

Edit:

Moreover, it is still advertised in the site map:

http://www.chess.com/sitemap

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