Why does chess.com give such extraordinary control over the thread to the OP?

ivandh wrote:

I've been banned for making an "irrelevant post" when the topic was about missing people on chess.com and I asked about a couple of missing people on chess.com. No kidding.

Did the other posters notice you were then missing?

They should allow OPs to do so. It would be a completely different forum.

I disagree.

I have asked ponz111 in that thread to block Mathman50, because he was too insulting in his reactions, mainly to Schlechter55 who has closed his account partly due to that behaviour. Mathman50 really hurt people. I agree with ponz111 decision to block him obviously.

I don't understand why people have a problem that he asked the staff to get the threat locked. He is free to ask and the staff is free to react. They don't have to approve that and ponz111 is not obligated to track his own discussion. The staff saw apparently a reason to do so. 

The idea of Bean_Fisher to let the OP withdraw is imo a good idea, but maybe only half the solution. I think it is good when someone is watching the discussion. He and for instance george_jetson5 could have taken over the role of OP. That might have been an idea how to continu the threat for those who wanted it to continu.

I wasn't interested in that threat anymore. The arguments were imo not interesting enough. I had heard enough times the same arguments all over again - from both sides. I had some arguments and a math question that were not answered (although george_jetson5 answered that he could not answer my mathematical question). I am convinced that chess is a draw, but I was looking to ways to get more insight in this situation. It is no problem when I might have it wrong. That is a situation in which I learn something. However, I did not have the idea that there was a responsive attitude - from both sides. Positions were fixed, argumentations settled, let the artillery fight begin. So I had the feeling that there was not a real discussion going on in which there was an exchange of points of view. It felt like a repeating clash of two male goats. What use to continu?

Some people just post rubbish...almost all threads get overun by a just one or two people who just keep posting the same things, and going at each other. Nobody else gets a chance. It's insane.

The OP should have the right to block and delete. This is a chess forum commuity. We are here to have friendly discussions. 

This is not a forum for finding the cure for cancer or unearthing some great truth. Deleting stupid posts won't spell the end of the world.

People really really really gotta learn about boundaries. 

I did mention the dissipation of the initial advantage from the opening position.  However, anyone was free to mention this point individually and to also mention the two other somewhat related points. I will agree that these points were mostly not talked about.

The person who closed his account on the internet did not close his account "becxause someone was mean to him."

You were entering the threat after Mathman50 was blocked. I don't think you can say anything you want and that the other person should not be bothered by it. It does matter. Freedom of opinion is in my opinion not equal to freedom of speech.

How do you call bullying on the internet? It has been a discussion in the Netherlands, certainly after some young people committed suicide, because they could not stand it anymore. It can make people really unhappy and I think we all have the responsibility to take at least minimal care of each other, being the awareness that you do not have to hurt someone intentionally. You can put forward any opinion, but not in every way. Why should you? Does it do you any good?

@ponz111: Schlechter55 closed his account because he was frustrated about the level of discussion. He apologized for the behaviour of Mathman50. He wrote that he would withdraw from discussion because he did not want to spend more time on this level of discussion.

The person who left had a was a math professor. The person banned was spouting nonsense but  because I am not a math major--it took me a while to decide to ban him. This was very unfortunate.

George_Jetson5  It is not true that the thread was closed down "because the OP didn't like it anymore."  I am eager for it to be reopened.

I closed the thread for the reasons I stated and you can call me a liar if you want but you are greatly mistaken.

Your friends in the real world you talk to.

Your "friends" on the internet trade insults with you.

Given the annoymous, virtual nature of exchanges in the threads, what more can you expect?

Barely one in 20 people even describe themselves in their profile.  That speaks loudly about how accountable people are willing to be.

You just have to live with what the medium has to offer. Very Simple.   

Virtue loses out to vice on a regular basis in the virtual world.  Deal with it.

It sounds like you have a chip on your shoulder...

Certainly a few threads get overrun, but to say "almost all" is hyperbole. I look down the list of threads and don't see many that are being overrun. If things are really out of hand you can always report it.

On the other hand I have seen a lot of cases where the OP tries to bully everyone into agreeing with him/her. Giving the OP powers over other people's posts would be insane and much harder to rectify.

Bottom line is some people put quite a bit of effort into their posts, and to have that thrown away to satisfy the ego of the OP is pretty crazy. If things are really bad you can call on staff. If they decide not to intervene... maybe you need to relax and have a drink.

Even if they don't intervene in this one, a frosty Heineken is in order.

Yes, I agree "some people put quite a bit of effort into their posts, and to have that thrown away to satisfy the ego of the OP is pretty crazy"

I also agree with "if things are really bad you can call on staff."

Let's not pander to this new breed of power-hungry OP's. 

Re my record.  I was OP for 49 threads only one was permanently deleted.

It was deleted by staff as a group of players were way off topic and personally attacking another player.

I made a mistake re my record at OP  None has been permanently deleted.

The one I thought permanently deleted was actually fixed up and restarted and is still going strong,.

I think it's cool if the OP becomes MOD-like and simply allows the conversation to be free-flowing. Interjecting only if/when there is an "lull", impasse or obviously derrogatory statements are made to others. Of course, this implies that the OP be experienced, and have an even-keeled temperament. To be

@george_jetson5: You are not engaging my arguments. You are focusing on the example, dragging it out of its context, putting it in a context in which it was never relevant, and then doubting about the meaningfullness of the example. Of course do I agree that it is not relevant for the vast majority of the threats at chess.com. That was not the point I was making.

The argument is:

Freedom of opinion is not equal to freedom of speech.

In other words: whereever you are, whoever you are, you will always have your responsibility for other people.

Take an example of the post of zborg. He is exactly going into the centre of the argument. I fully disagree with him, but at least there is a reaction.

@zborg: The reason I disagree with you is that I can't see any point in participating in any kind of discussion on the internet whatsoever if that would be my expectancy. Why should I exchange insults? That is not interesting to me. I would like to meet those other 1 in 20 through the fog created by the rest of the people.

I have been around for some time here and although the level of discussion is quite often not too focused, but that is in real life just as well, I do not have the idea that it is merely about insulting each other. That is imo a gross exagerration of what is happening here. There are some websites, if you go to there, you will experience it more, but there are a lot of sites in which a good exchange of information is happening without any OP.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6136430/a-non-well-formed-numeric-value-encountered is just one example.

(sorry, nature called. heh. anyways...)

To be sure, such an OP has their own personal opinions, beliefs what have you...but i would like to think it is the discussion itself, rather than their own views, that should heard (shared, expressed). Alas, this is more of an ideal, than an actuality.

You seem quite perturbed at the idea of having posts deleted by OPs.

Hmmm....what are you hiding, ey? 

Yeah I am not too much with the reporting thing, I hate running to a nanny every time things are in a state.

As for OP bullying that is not really a problem. Just start your own topic, leave him/her on their own, after their thread dies, they will be a bit more generous in letting people post. 

People putting effort in their posts, are the ones that scare me the most. Often it is just mudslinging. How many of these have we had already? We can't solve problems by passing the buck, asking the staff to rescue us, or medicating the problem with a flight of stupor. 

If not deleting the posts, then at least there should be the option to collapse or hide the infractious post.