Why the bad reputation? It seems fine.

Back in the days when I was registered at the other big chess website and active in their forum, there would be at least one guy a week who would post how horrible chess.com is, how toxic and the moderation and the website and lag and everything. They would always start comparisons and talk bad about this site here, mainly of course because not all of the features are free, but moreover they talked bad about the community.

I quit there a year ago and made a break from chess - now I decided to rather come here as I am fed up with people and moderators there. What I don't get is - that I don't really experience any remarkable toxiticity, lag or anything else. The forum is a little bit empty, but so was it over there. So far I experience it here to be better, not worse, so I really wonder: Where were all those romours coming from?

Where people just jealous and spreading nonsense or is there some truth to it? Or was it bad in the past, but got good now? Anyways I will stay here and I like it here. The rating system is more realistic and people on here seem nice for the most part.

What are your thoughts on this? Can anyone explain to me all this and/or intodruce me kind of ?

This is a pretty big community, a lot of accounts on chess.com. You are bound to find something you don't like. Wait a bit, you've joined 1 day ago.

But to be fair, people are mostly friendly. There are a lot of kids and very young people here so some topics will be a bit more on the childish side. We have some trolls as well, but that is bound to happen online. There will be some chess talk as well, if you seek it.

In any case, welcome, hopefully you will have a pleasant stay.

Yes I realised that too very quickly. It is a little bit like the Off-Topic Section on there. However, who cares - young players often play much better than the old analysers there haha and aslong everybody is friendly in the forums... I guess I can deal better with some trolling children than with the neverending bitterness and ill nature over there. I think there is a huge difference between funny trolling and real hostility. I just wonder what kind of behaviour everyone was talking about, bcs so far I haven't seen anything worth mentioning.

"In any case, welcome, hopefully you will have a pleasant stay."
And thank you

Meh, hardcore lichess users feel obligated to trash chess.com since lichess is free and the only way it will ever survive is if they can continue to grow the user base and beg for more donations daily. Chess.com is far superior

Joined a day ago and you make good thread content. You’ll do well.

You may encounter some bitter people here and there. Elitists, trolls, eristic-minded debaters, downright unbearable people, but everyone else for the most part are friendly people. Plus, what I've just said is purely based on my experience during my time on this site, so yours might be different for better or for worse. Regardless, welcome to chess.com and I hope you enjoy your time here.

As for the lag, chess.com does tend to play out moves slower than the other big chess website. A premove would take about 0.1 to 0.2 of my seconds, don't know if this also happens to everyone else. But in the other site, it takes none of my time at all. Not a big performance gap between the 2 imho, but a fairly noticable one nonetheless.

Sadly I don't have PayPal or any other online bank account to buy premium membership. So my alternative is to just use both sites. 

Plus I much prefer the variety of piece styles the other site has to offer, unlike here where the pieces often tend to be the exact same design but in different colors/shades/textures. But that's just my personal preference.

I've been stuck here for 2.5 years (don't look at the date of registration) and I'll just say that what you've been told is not true.

The moderation is good. There have never been any logs in 2.5 years. The site is cool.

The community here sounds good to me. There aren't many unkind people here. But be careful, the community can suck you in and it can happen that you stop playing altogether.

Yes, not all features aren't free, but it's enough for me to just play and that's it...

I'm embarrassed to ask, have you been to lichess.org?

Pretty sure that's the "other big chess website" that they were referring to.

I love chess.com.  I've never had a problem.  Got told 'You suck' once when playing - just ignored it.  The lessons are great.  Lots and lots of advice - lots of knowledgeable people - great value for money in my humble opinion.  Welcome.

Ah yes, totally missed it, you registered 1 day ago!

Of course, welcome to chess.com, and enjoy your time here

In principle, I'm sure too, but I'd like to be more specific. Yes, I know, there is chess24.com, but I don't consider it that big and competitive. But, well, you never know.

I'm honestly surprised that I rarely come across those kinds of people in my games. I guess most of us just have a mutual understanding of not saying a word during games.

I send people who insult me to...)) But this has happened 5 times in 2.5 years)

They said that "They (the chess.com haters) would always start comparisons and talk bad about this site here, mainly of course because not all of the features are free" and as far I know, Leeches (butchering the name on purpose) is the only online chess site where every feature it has is free of charge. Doesn't make sense to trash talk chess.com for not having all features as free if you're a regular user of 24 cheeses right?

Ah, well, yes, you're right. I just wanted to say that the forum there is really kind of mean, compared to chess.com. And it's even emptier there than it is here. And the rating system, I like it much better here than on lichess.org. It makes more sense to me and is more realistic with FIDE ratings.

I have an account on chess24, but I don't use it, I really don't like it.

While I do use Leeches from time to time, somehow I never felt the urge to visit the forums. Might check it out later to see for myself.

I only use chess24 for the base - it's good there. That's all.