It feels kind of insulting to be called a beginner when I've been playing for years and years.
A "beginner" is someone who's not long started playing chess. That's really all it means. The term beginner has nothing to do with skill or ability.
Beginner-intermediate-advanced-expert... It's clear that it is a scale of skills and ability, so even the first term ( beginner ) in this context should be understood in this sense. "Beginner" in the sense of someone who is still at the beginning of a path, i.e. in an early stage. If the road you have taken is 100 km long and you have only covered 5 km ( It doesn't matter how long it took ) , you are still at the beginning, don't you think ?
Anyway, if the term "beginner" sound offensive, let's replace it with another one ( "basic", maybe? ). The substance does not change. Despite the progress I've made since I could only move pieces or a little more, I still consider myself a basic-level player, taking into account my current limitations in the game.
A small objection to @wishiwereficher , too:
To be honest, if 85-90% of the players here play like me, I don't think there are many experienced players in proportion to the total number. I'd say that they are no more than 5%. And now, too, we need to understand what is meant by "experienced".
But it's a matter of perspective, as usual.
I do try to learn from my games and improve and over the years, I think I have. I'm certainly better than when I started playing.
And no, there's no shame in not being all that great at playing a board game. Most people play chess for fun after all. It's not a big deal and I still enjoy the game regardless.
I see your point. But I've got doubts about how right your idea of "great" is, when you seem to name so some below average level in chess. No offense meant pal.
(But my own idea of "average" might be some outdated, when it used to be, before the online chess, a good 1600 FFE in France (and there was no ratings under 1000), which was not possible to compare to the FIDE ratings when it began at 2000...)