Real Forums, Real Knowledge, Real Impact

Honestly, the forums nowadays seem like a joke and I know some people may not agree with this and that is fine, but this "community" is becoming more silly, vague and irresponsible and just toy around with topics on chess. Now, this is not talking about everyone as there are still people and many people at that who give valuable and useful information and give their time (mostly most masters, chess.com administrators and some good 800[beginners]-2200[near masters][more or less] players who value the game and its growth in the community than others). But again, there are so many people as well that just look at a forum's for points, or for some forum fame, and that is just so funny to me. Nobody cares for that really because people do the forums for knowledge, for purpose, educating and learning in chess. But it seems like people either have the wrong forums talking about topics that don't matter or just all of a sudden change a topic and shift it to an irrelevant topic, or just put random things in a topic that is not important for the long-term. What type of influence or role is that in the chess.com site?

I stopped doing the forums because of how funnily people changed this platform that is actually supposed to be useful and worthwhile and for 60-80% of the time (yes I did some calculations) it just seems like chess.com has random topics and nothing of value, especially for the younger players! It just doesn't make any sense in my opinion, and it is fairly interesting because when I came here 2 years ago I don't recall it being this bad, and it is problem as who is going to change this way of going about the forums? Besides the people who do them?

Yes again I know there are many people that engage in the forums and help, and create and make meaningful content, and I respect them and what they do in appreciation! But I am not talking to those people I am talking to trolls/memers (in which is not bad at times; at least for memers), and people that just waste time (this is not beneficial), or look at points (a good amount of people do this and it just worsens the quality in my opinion of written context, because people are too busy looking at points and how to get them as fast and often as possible, very sad in my opinion; at best points represent it is a mark on the community [depending on credibility and how many people you've helped] and what you done for it but people take that too seriously at times). Though it is something to do at times and is fun (don't get me wrong) it shouldn't be something I look at every time I am on the site, as this makes the site lose credibility in my eyesight. Yes, I do like personality and there is a time for joking, playing and performing, but it just doesn't seem like people take the forums as seriously as should be taken. Therefore it is a waste of such a use on a platform such as the one's chess player use to communicate daily (for some those who have the time.)

I get it though, this can be a sort of form of social media (I guess) but at the same time, the real knowledge and truth is not being shed on chess and some people just don't help out in all honesty. I am not specifically trying to demote something just trying to promote what should already be happening in all truth in the forums.

Just take away the communication of the forums and you get old communication via PM's and that is a lot less effective to communicate for the majority (if at all possible). But when we have such a platform to use and improve upon that is open, it is not being used correctly and is often taken for granted. It can be seen as sad or just not taken as seriously, but if people want to do things just for points, what can we do? If you want to do things by points just play a mobile game or PC, Play station or Xbox video game, but don't come on chess.com where good and serious conversation can be to make a transition into a lesser platforms due to random topics and conversations. Generally speaking I don't think this is anyone's niche on this website, because we play chess (right?), and learn from it and supposed to be teaching to make a better and stronger chess community but that is not happening as well as it could in my opinion. Sure teaching can be a niche and spreading valid news could be, but not these other influences that don't help if you want to be technical about the forums.

Perhaps someone will understand where I coming from with this and honestly if people want to play around you can go on different platform's for that specific trade for consideration of others. It's key to keep things relevant to chess and good to understand the effectiveness of what it could bring if people just took it a step more seriously in the right direction. I am not asking for much really, nor the community for people that may believe this, I am just asking to take this a little bit more seriously. Meaningless topics will be meaningless but topics that teach, express, learn or demonstrate something chess related is worthwhile even after a couple of months than dead threads on chess.com. [Dead threads= Useless or irrelevant information that is only relevant for a limited time or just threads that don't matter to anyone anymore.]

I hope people that take the site seriously can do this at least, and I know that everyone may not have the time to do such things, I know I can't! But I will say that for the times that we are on the forums can they at least be semi-professional or good? Is this that bad to ask or will the chess.com "community" be focused on reliance of memes and dead threads for the rest of it's existence or at least heading into a 3-5 year stretch (even you want to think about it more long-term)? I mean it is quite simple what the problem and solution is, I am not asking to get rid of this entirely, I am just asking the question where is this going? Where is the value in this community? Is it based only on forum points or those values for the short-term? It just doesn't make any sense and it definitely doesn't help people who are beginning the game and want/need legitimate help. People refuse to help, and it is not helpful of course, so instead of just wasting time posting nonsense (in my opinion) I think people should take more consideration and help the community of players more often. In opposition towards (having the majority of) random topics that will most likely be meaningless after a few weeks at best and useless in a couple hours at worst.

Again I have no beef with anyone, and I honestly I could care less (with respect), but knowing that the chess community is just not focusing on these things is a big alarm. If it is not taking seriously the quality of chess in the forums as well as other places eventually will lead to less quality and I do believe less people will come to chess.com over time and it will affect the chess community when it reaches it's peak (if it has not already).

Regardless, thank you chess friends and members for hearing me out (for those who do). I know the message may be a little bit deeper or stern but I think this needs to be said as who else is going to say it? If people truly don't care they just won't and then a broken community will come (if not now in the future). Surely this can be avoided right? Well I guess we are going to have to see.

Until then my chess friends and fellow members...

@TheHarbingerofDoom

You bring up a good point my fellow member; I guess there is only a limited area of things we can prove on from day to day point of views. But the biggest point I was trying to make in the least offence way is to try to sway people to stop then nonsense and foolishness that happens within the community. 

I know everything can't be done to stop it, but if we can bring the number down, and have more effective and useful outlets of information on the forums, specifically for the benefit of gain in the community, I think it could be a big help and more people will like chess.com and make it bigger.

Spreading the word of this is one way to do it, and from this the more you spread the word, the more people listen, and hopefully the more people will take in affect. Even if they don’t take affect at least they will know and can determine to make a change eventually, if it is not immediate.

But sadly people will be trolls if they want to be trolls, or randomizers if they want to, we can't stop everyone from not doing their role in the chess community, but at least some bells and awareness as well as some effective ways to go about the situation can be done in hopes to help the community and younger generation of chess players, even in my own opinion.

As for your specific questions I say that we should focus more on the learning of lessons, game analysis and have a plethora of topics to choose I don't sweat that. But when it comes to ethics and how people should go about being on a website, people should be more cautious and open-minded about how people are positively and negatively affected on the site. Therefore it is much more of an importance than many people would initially think. 

Again speaking on forum topics do believe that it will reach awareness if people care enough about it, and the more people to know the less excuses they have. If people don’t care about it, it will just show their true colors more and more, it just seems like there is less order and more carelessness, and that is not a good trademark to have on a website such as chess.com that relies on people for a lot of reasons.

@GMproposedsolutions

Hopefully my fellow member, that is just the hope and though it seems impossible it could be improved.

But perhaps people are just not taking this seriously because of younger kids, or minors that just don't communicating real information and knowledge seriously. It is a real problem, and though it is unreal some persistence and change of pace for something useful will absolutely helpful upon this platform, even if just by a few percents (%) but that's the goal. The goal being to start small or to start something at all and to continue from there with meaningful stability or some type of order in the forums and in chess.com community as well. 

As I do think the forums reflect the community and it is not a good look in general, yes there are good apples but the rotten ones unfortunately overlook the good apples. Not saying people are rotten (because I don't know them fully and don't judge people on that accord), however what they do on the site is not productive at times and it wouldn't be well.

But thanks for your opinion on this topic, one more step to the truth of I guess how some chess players views this forming and short paced community more now than ever. 

@Rubicon0367

Good point, of course chess.com is on google.com as a smaller platform out of millions and quality is more important than anything else in forum discussions. However most people don't go on google to seek the forums but just go to the forums specifically on chess.com (in my experience). Due to this I think people on the chess.com platform would have much more influence than people who search forums on google as random forums are posted in the forums discussions all the time internally on the platform and wouldn’t have an influence on google. Due to this more people on the official site would see the unproductive forums, then google’s top results.

I guess giving a survey on how important or how orderly the chess.com forums are could be a good idea and then the chess community could see how productive or unproductive it is, in all truth. I guess making a google forum survey could be helpful for those who actually care about the productivity and efficiency, reliability and meaningfulness about the forums, and to a certain point if I do his I think people would.

But I will have to see on that.

@TheHarbringerOfDoom

I hope so to my fellow member, it needs to be resolved. Why must people of the same race (human race) be at each other's throats, we are supposed to build up, help and encourage, not plot and plan to destroy ourselves or hurt anyone else, especially for a platform talking about chess.  

Anonymity makes everyone feel invisible, but their conscious will tell them if they did something good or bad for the majority. However even so there are some people who just don't care and aim to hurt, or if they don't aim to do it they don't mind to do it, and this is terrible, just crappy and un-orderly, but what can we do?

Spreading awareness of this is key to prevent foolishness and lack of order and it all starts with the care of making a better community, so thank you my fellow member for your contribution, for hopefully some people to realize what is going on within the chess community. 

I've been a chess.com forum denizen for about 13.5 years and a forum moderator for 11+ years.

The intent of the forums originally was to provide a place for chess aficionados to meet and discuss chess-related thoughts. Each forum was given a specific title indicating the content that belonged there and rules were established concerning conduct.  That's when chess.com had 100 members. As the numbers grew into the 1000s, then the millions,  the common denominator drifted from being "chess" to being "social chat."  The worst has always been either eliminated preemptively or as soon as it was noticed.   While trollish behavior in itself isn't particularly bad - and who's to draw the line where acceptability begins and ends? (actually mods do that all the time)-  I must agree that the ratio between pertinent (+) content and nonsense (-) has tilted greatly towards the negative side in recent years.  One reason for this is that when chess.com first started, the forums were the "face" of chess.com and as such received a lot of attention from the admins.  There were also a dozen moderators and far fewer members.  As the site grew exponentially over the years, there were, of course, more members, but unfortunately fewer moderators... it's not a responsibility most people would want even if they think they might.   Simultaneous to this growth was the popularity of chess TV, streaming, Twitch as well as promotions of events, chess masters/personalities, making the forums, once the jewel, suddenly just an afterthought.  

My self-defined purpose has evolved from simply eliminating unwanted content to stimulating members, those who claim to want the forum to be more than the nonsense that permeates it, to be the change they envision.  If you want intelligent, relevant, worthwhile discussion, provide the content that inspires those things.  The forums aren't self-determining organisms, but rather the sum product of the members who post.  

I like how you even used times new roman.

Got to jokes.com

@batgirl

You do make a great claim to what you say, but I guess that is the problem, I guess people will not change their ways, but how can we change their minds to stop this un-orderly behavior? Like you said it is dependent on the person, but I feel like a difference can still be instilled.

I know we can't or [I alone] can't reach out to the millions but people just need to figure out different ways in my opinion as I feel like it is deterring the quality of content and making a dent in the chess.com community. 

It is quite a good story you have made on the history of the chess.com forums and its makes complete sense in all-reality. Unfortunately I guess the only way to make a change is to take it step-by-step and day-by-day gradually and hopefully people can make a change, even if it is just small, as it is much better than nothing. 

From this I do believe it is important and though the sum product is of those who post, it just doesn't seem like we should stop there. Perhaps there is something that can be done one day soon. I just fear that the forums will not be taken seriously ever again and because of this even too I just don't want to do them, as there is a lack of order and like I do believe you are stating, the more serious people don't want to get involved because they overshadowed by the foolishness.

Even so to the point I would've thought being a chess.com moderator would be cool, but now from a person that has 11+ years of experience I am considering my efforts. Regardless I do like helping people and getting them on the same page, but alas there is only so much people can do, even if the only person talking about this is me. 

Thank you for the background information, could be very useful, and perhaps more (now or later) can recognize the legitimacy and the importance of these claims the community of "Real" forums and knowledge bring. 

Yeah I guess so @GMproposedsolutions

A matter of wordplay and interesting ideas, in the world of legitamicies that would be very terrible.  

"but alas there is only so much people can do"
One can shrug or one can do something. How much isn't as important as the mere act.   Just as one vote is pretty much meaningless, 10,000 one votes may be significant enough to spark a change.  But if those 10,00 people had shrugged, nothing would happen.  

@Ripley_Osbourne

I assure my fellow member I never copy and paste my work, and honestly it is nothing new to be said but I take time with my work of writing as I do think it is important to get the word out, I would never copy and paste as that is just the lowest of low, and I assure you that is not what I do. But everyone has their own opinions I am just stating the fact of the matter, it is up to you to decide what you believe.

Also it is your opinion as well to say why would people want to learn from me, however you don't know me my fellow member if you did you I don't think you would say this but again it your opinion and that is fine I am just stating the reality. TeacherofPain is not a name for pain it is a word to define the hardships of life (and chess), and teaching other to go through pain because I have experienced pain. But of course you wouldn’t know this so it is ok to assume.

You have your own opinion but it is not exactly valid in all points yes some people don't read large texts, have short attention spans and can (but not necessarily are) be shallow. I have not lost faith in people as why would I, my fellow member; does it make it better if I have no faith in them, then if I do?  

Everything else you said either was not relevant or helpful so, to put it simply yours was helpful but not impact at least to me. 

But thank you for at least looking at the topic and stating down key points, it is much appreciated for you and others as well to shed some light on the topic of this new changing community in chess.com. 

@GMproposedsolution

True, people are seeking fun and there is nothing wrong with that but even stated by @batgirl there are more negatives than positives and I did an analysis stating that 60-80%(a month analysis) stating that most of the topics was just not accurate or according to chess in relevance or the community.

Honestly with this stated there needs to be balance I do agree but nothing or less of trolling, manipulating, bossing around or hurting and other problems in the chess community as these are terrible. 

If the balance was half analytical game analysis, and helpful advice and perhaps joking or sarcasm without trolling and a the other negatives that would make everything great, but since it is not the case just trolling and all other negatives need to come out, at least that would be ideal. Of course we cannot get rid of all of the negativity, but at least can we add to the positive, this was one of my key points in my initial post and then sort out the negative lady for the correct balanced.

You are correct in this but the more awareness and care of it will show how much of a process it would be willing to change for the community. 

As human assessment , knowledge, and analysis are near rubbish level in comparision to x100 times more reliable and fast engines. Even top tier players like Hikaru says , " wait, wait where did I do wrong, it is already +1.00 etc". 

If top tiers see their assessment is rubbish, majority of amateurs' assessments, arguments and discussions become more rubbish.

@batgirl

Very true I do think that makes a big difference in the change of how people view things and because of this I this I will try to continue, thank you for the encouragement and hopefully if even not me, someone learns something from a new movement in order and try to restore some balance in chess.com to the best of our abilities. Of course not for anyone one person or group but for the help of the chess community, improvement, and maintenance of it over time.

Peace to you and others in this forums as well... 

For what it's worth I generally agree. Though sometimes I do find value in the topics