@madhacker,
Depends, if the opponent agrees to both players taking help, I don't see why not.
Global Depression, Going Broke and Diamond Membership
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Then both players are cheating...
How so? It's not a tourney, so they can decide their own rules, can't they?
In unrated games, yes, in rated games it's against the rules.
kco wrote:
why diamond why not just go Gold: $5/month or $29/year ?
Good question. I want unlimited tactics, not 25 tactics per day.
As a beginner, I win more games by doing lots of tactics, and seeing those patterns in games.
chesstempo.com
Oct 2, 2012
0
#28
Scottrf wrote:
chesstempo.com
+1. Chess tempo is great for studying tactics.
Scottrf wrote:
chesstempo.com
Yes. That is aso an excellent internet site for tactics. When my wife worked, I had a few extra dollars to spend on chess memberships. At chesstempo, I was paying $35.00 a year for the Gold membership. I am now on the Basic plan, which is free.
I do lose some pretty nice features, like endgame tactics, and a feature I would like to see at chess.com, which is customizing problem sets, where, for example, I could create a problem set that only had tactics involving forks.
I have a sister living in London, other side of the world from here. For a few years, my membership here has been my birthday present, maybe you should drop a few hints with family an friends, especially ones living too far to give you ugly ties and socks in person :)
I see you play music. Perhaps chess.com will swap a membership for a couple of great tunes that they can use on their videos etc.. The current music is not great...
I strongly agree that if you can't afford the service, you need to evaluate yourself, not the website.
Live within your means and don't be a crybaby.
rooperi wrote:
I have a sister living in London, other side of the world from here. For a few years, my membership here has been my birthday present, maybe you should drop a few hints with family an friends, especially ones living too far to give you ugly ties and socks in person :)
Excellent idea. My birthday is November 8th. 
BirdThatCantFly wrote:
Why are you even paying for these services? Take care of your family first. At this point in time sacrifices will be made to meet your well being of your family. There are so many resources out there for chess FOR FREE. If you really wanted to get better: just play the game. I've never paid anything for chess except my own time that's about it. If you love the game, you'll find a way. If you can't find videos online for specific openings/endgames you want, go to a library for books. Like they said chesstempo.com for tactics. Why do you want all these features? I've been enjoying my time here without any of those.
You realize this is their business as you say. If the rest of the world is going through a tough time, and so are you. Why would they need to change the way they've run their business for you? Would you work more hours to be paid less because your company is in a state of depression? It doesn't seem fair.
This said. Listen to jesterville.
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My topic has nothing to do with fairness. It is about making good business decisions during a recession/depression.
Chess.com does not need to do anything for only me. Part of the topic - Global Depression - is a fact. More people today, more than any time since the Great Depression, have less disposable income. And not just a little less disposable income, but a lot. In my state, California, the real unemployment rate is around 20%. That's real close to the Great Depression, at 25% unemployment.
How many people in Greece today can afford a diamond membership? That country is in a real mess, as are other countries in Europe. The people in Spain are not at all happy with the severe austerity measures. I see the protests in the news.
I wouldn't be surprised if several members from Greece, Spain, America, and other countries getting clobbered with too much debt, have canceled all kinds of memberships, from golf to chess.
I am throwing out the idea, that during these tough times, that chess.com consider a la carte.They just might earn more money with two fee structures, packaged deals (Diamond) and a la carte - $10.00 a year for unlimited tactics trainer, as an example.
bronsteinitz wrote:
I see you play music. Perhaps chess.com will swap a membership for a couple of great tunes that they can use on their videos etc.. The current music is not great...
What music? Am I missing something? 
Estragon wrote:
1. The problem we are all experiencing (I haven't worked since 2009 and am living mainly off the savings which are supposed to fund my retirement, which is not a good thing) are due to the lack of recovery. Typically after a recession, where companies have cut back and restrutured and shed jobs, but gained productivity, the recovery is very sharp as the new efficiencies fuel the growth.
This strong growth creates a lot of jobs, more than were lost in the recession, but not the same jobs, different ones in the new growth industries. Which in turn gives people income to spend, and the whole process feeds on itself with expansion which then levels off but continues to grow more modestly until the next contraction.
2. But in this case, bailouts, subsidies, extended benefits, and monetary expansion have been used to reduce the pain, which prevents the streamlining recessions usually bring, so the usual burst of recovery cannot occur. Meanwhile our debt has just been downgraded for the second time in 15 months, which were the first downgrades of US government debt ever.
We have trouble, much of our own government's making, and are not likely to find a quick road out, no matter what path we choose in the election.
You have not worked since 2009. Ouch! Living off of savings that should be for retirement, double ouch!
That is what I am talking about. Too many people in America are getting poorer, and the situation is not getting better, and I agree with you that our government is making the recession/ super weak recovery even worse, regardless of party affiliation. No matter who gets elected president in November, a 16 trillion dollar debt is too much for us to dig ourselves out of it...for many, many years to come.
Of my five children, three are 20+ years, and are struggling with finding any decent employment, even with a college education. I never had a problem finding work in high school, or after college - back in the 70's and 80's.
I talk to teachers who have kids who just finished going to college to become teachers, and they can not find jobs teaching, so are substitute teaching for far less pay, and NO medical/dental benefits.
America has really screwed over the kids looking for work who are in their 20's. It is a national disgrace.
So, from a business perspective, don't businesses like chess.com lower prices during a recession to increase profits? If each membership were reduced by 25%, would chess.com make more money, or less, with the idea that more people could pay the fees if they were lowered?
BirdThatCantFly wrote:
EASY. If you can't afford it. DON'T BUY IT. chesstempo.com offers FREE unlimtied tactics trainer. And very good tactics at that. And as for videos you can even go to youtube, I do, and find GREAT videos/games pertaining to chess.
How are you saying it's not about fairness. If you're trying to negotiate with chess.com's business to cater to your finances to be able to afford their services? That's keeping it fair, don't you think?
And really.. don't worry about the world's state. That's not your job. Worry about your family and yourself. When you're not having problems like these and live comfortably then you can worry about whatever you want.
It's not about fairness. Chess.com has the right to charge whatever they want to charge. I am not complaining about the fees. I am simply wondering if a lower price for each type of membership, and maybe some a la carte purchases, would increase chess.com's profits.
I would think so, since most people today are less inclined to spend 100 bucks on one thing, than 4 years ago. Maybe $75.00 for a diamond membership, as an example, would increase chess.com's profits, not decrease them. It's just a guess, and I am not a business guy, so maybe some business guys can add their two cents here to pricing services during a recession?
I remember taking a business class, where the professor talked about the methods of setting prices to achieve maximum profits. Example: If a candy company charges $2.00 for a candy bar, they project 2 million candy bars will get sold, or 4 million dollars. At $1.00 each, they project 6 million candy bars will get sold, or 6 million dollars. So, they sell at $1.00 per bar, to make the most money.
Well that's not quite how it works. If the bars cost $1 to produce, they could sell 20 million rather than 2 million but still make less money.
Chess.com already has cheaper options, I don't think the price is a major factor, a lot of people object to paying for the services they provide, however minimal the fee.
The relationship of sales to price depends on the price elasticity of demand. As a luxury product you wouldn't expect price to have a large enough effect on demand to justify a price slashing strategy, even in a recession.
I can imagine that they studied this. They will have looked at the option of letting everybody pay 5 usd per year to play iso nothing at all. I believe there are sites where you have one month free after which they make you pay.
Kingpatzer wrote:
I think the problem with a la carte services is precisely that many diamond members would take a serious look at what services they use and the total revenue might drop significantly.
I'm a diamond member only because of one service I use regularly, and given the option to spend less and get that same service, I'd jump on it.
Interesting. Hmm...I was thinking that an a la carte service might increase profits, during a recession, if, and this is a big if, if the many people that have fallen on hard times, like myself and my family, would be more likely to stare at each dollar, and make each dollar stretch as far as possible, to the point of always looking for the best deal, and the lowest price.
I am quite guilty, in that when my wife was working, I did not stare at a ten dollar bill and wonder if i should spend it on this, or that, or save it for a rainy day. So, I am guilty of not making every penny count during the good times. Just this last month, our family check book went in the negative, and I called my brother for some money so that I could put food on the table and gas in the car for the last few days of the month.
My daughter and wife are looking into thrift stores (used clothes) to purchase school clothes. This is something new to my family. Also, we are looking into cheaper housing, cutting our rent by $600.00.
My daughter belongs to a competitive cheerleading club, and both of my brothers have sponsored ($400.00) a significant portion of those expenses, and there are many fundraisers throughout the year to help the girls on the team with expenses. When my wife saw the auto-renewal for chess.com, at 99 dollars, I think, I HAD to cancel it, becuase I wouldn't feel right with myself to take 99 dollars out of savings, when my daughter's cheerleading lessons cost 70 dollars a month.
Now, 70 dollars is a big number for my family, and we told here that it can not be supported anymore from our budget, but must come from sponsors and fundraising.
I stare at every number for everything, now. Even 20 dollars is a significant number right now, so I won't spend that much on a work shirt, or a pair of pants, to teach. My wife and I were just at a discount store, overstock items, looking at name brand dress pants and shirts for me to wear at my band and orchestra concerts, where I appear before 100's of parents, directing the elementary bands and orchestras that I teach.
The discount (overstock) store had really sharp looking dress clothes, for 12 bucks each. I used to spend 25 dollars at Target for basic pants and shirts, but no more. Money is extremely too tight right now!
I will definitely need to downsize everything that can be downsized.
Being a poor student I also gave up Diamond membership. I'd probably pay $50/year for unlimited TT/Video's though.
And so would the people who are currently paying twice that...