Comments In The Tactics Trainer

I was just curious what the policy was for leaving comments in the tactics trainer section.  I noticed beneath every tactical puzzle there was a commenting area set up exactly like these forums are, so I assumed that it was ok to leave a comment related to a particular puzzle.

I've done about 300 or so of the tactical puzzles since I've been here at chess.com and have left maybe... 15 comments overall.  Mostly to help others out if they didn't understand a certain tactic but once in a while I will leave a "Great Puzzle" or "Wow I wouldn't have seen that in a million years" comment.

So... I got an angry message from a chess.com moderator last night saying that I was only allowed to post questions about a particular puzzle, nothing else.  In other words that the commenting sections were only reserved for people who didn't understand a particular puzzle, that's it.  Apparently this guy tracks ALLLLLLL the thousands of puzzles so he can help people out with any questions they might have on tactics.  Which means he obviously came accross my 1 or 2 "Great Puzzle" comments and got mad because he felt they were meaningless for him to have to sift through.  It hadn't even struck me as a possibility that one person would take it upon himself to track all of the thousands of puzzles and sift through all the comments to answer questions.  Not that there's anything wrong with that, I'd just prefer not to be harrassed through private message because I've somehow stepped in his way.

So my question is is it really necessary for one chess.com moderator to take it upon himself to solve everyone's problems in every puzzle in the tactic's trainer??  Don't these problems work themselves out naturally by having other members taking part in the tactics trainer, help out?  I know I've answered quite a few tactical questions myself as I've come across them and I've seen many others do it as well.  Personally I think the more comments the better.  It makes things more interesting.  So was this mod some overzealous "helpie-helperton" or am I completely wrong??? 

(Keep in mind if there is an actual error with a puzzle the "report problem" button is already right there next to the puzzle.)

lol

u posted such a LONGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG comment...XD

Well I actually bothered to read that, and I have to say that is kinda annoying that they would do that. I mean good for them for trying to help the community and all, but yelling at someone for being active doesn't seem like a good way to accomplish that. :(

Haha ok ok my original post was a bit long sorry.  I took out 2 big paragraphs so now it's actually readable.    Thanks for the comment chaospsychochick.

Didn't there used to be some kind of report question button on Tactics Trainer? That would really make it easier for the moderators and the users. From using the Trainer for quite a while now, most comments are indeed just casual commentary rather than questions. I feel bad for anyone having to sift through all this frivolous chit-chat.

Yup there is a "report problem" button which I assumed  would go straight to those in charge of removing bad puzzles.  I figured that was all that was necessary but apparently there is a chess.com moderator who has taken it upon himself to track and sift through EVERY comment on all of the THOUSANDS of puzzles strictly to help people out with any tactical misunderstandings they might have.  Once again I don't mind this I'd just rather not be harrassed through private message because one or two of my comments got in the way of his noble cause... 

Yeah, I was kind of annoyed too when I got that message. I posted that I thought a problem was overrated. It was a one move pin the queen to the king using your rook rated at like 1750 which seemed silly to me. 

It was kind of upsetting to me to be yelled at for voicing my opinion. I mean seriously, Isn't that what the comments are there for??

Hello Much_afraid. Yes, chess.com has tactics trainer moderators and yes, some of them did answer a lot of comments. That's why comments like "great", "stupid" or other like these simply consume the time of those persons in vain. If you have a comment, especially if the problem is unclear, please write down a variation, a possible sequence of moves.

I came across your page when solving a tactics problem for which you inserted a comment. Your comment was right, that problem was a bad one ... which now it's gone.

Thanks costelus, I've come across a bunch of your comments too in the tactics trainer and they've been very insightful.  Yea it wasn't as if I was commenting on every puzzle and leaving inane comments like "good one" or "easy".  I can see how that would be detrimental if everyone did that.  There were just one or two puzzles that struck me as pure genius and I couldn't help but post my appreciation for it.  About 10 minutes later I got a rude condescending email from the self-proclaimed tactics trainer moderator and I didn't appreciate it.  I see bondiggity ran across this as well which means this moderator probably sends off the same standard condescending message to everyone who doesn't comment to his liking.  Which seems to me to be rather counterproductive to the community he's trying to "improve" as chaopsychochik stated.

Anyway I'm over it now.   Thanks for all of your comments.  I guess more than anything I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't breaking any rules.  Had it been an ordinary member who sent me the message I wouldn't have thought twice about it but since it was a chess.com moderator I had to look into it.  The last site I played at, Gameknot, was notorious for their overmoderation and I didn't want to see the same thing happen here.  Thankfully this just seems to be one guy on a mission to overmoderate yet not necessarily representing the stance of chess.com.

I know whom are you talking about. Look however in this way: that person approved or modified thousands of problems for Tactics trainer. For each problem he ticked the box "Notify me of new comments". Do you know why? To see what are the opinions of the users about the problems he approved and to modify them if he made a mistake. Now, when you receive tens of comments like "easy" or "overrated", you get frustrated, since you lost valuable time reading useless comments. You could have done something useful instead. And this is the explanation of that message. It came probably after reading tens of empty comments. Message that person with meaningful comments, for instance saying that you don't understand a certain move and he will explain it to you.

No problem is overrated!! If a problem has a high rating, it's because people do not solve it. And yes, there are problems which involve a simple knight fork or other immediate move rated like 2200+.

this is NOT chess.com policy and i will make a necessary correction immediately. i'm very sorry to anyone who got this kind of message.

Somebody's in bother....

Thanks a lot erik for looking into this, much appreciated! 

I agree with the moderator. All the "omg so easy" etc posts are a complete waste of space.

I don't mind the "easy"comments etc on tactics trainer, and a "wow"or similar comment of appreciation is good too. I don't really see a need from a mod to get involved from these. I just don't like when the copy+paste is applied to people's scores. These are a huge waste of time and space and I think would warrent a nasty message from a mod (many of them actually break the puzzles too!!). Though I think that 99% of the comments should be related to thoughts about the puzzle itself (such as posting variations/explanations) and this should be kept in mind when posting. 

EDIT: Oh sorry, just realised this was a necro thread. Guessing the discussion on this is well over!