Mute players

I understand your desire for communciation but I took the time to look at your profile and you had only played one game to completion so far. Please take this with all the nicety I mean to convey. I think you need to give the chess.com community a little more time before you make a decision on whether or not they are friendly and like to chat. live and let live...

 Hi ! 

Well actually, I have played a lot of live chess games on this site (my girlfriend complains that I am addicted -- not so much a good player -- but addicted).  I don't play so much ''turn based chess'', that may be what you are referring to...

Well then that is better, but I promise you I have met a whole lot of friendly people. About half don't mind conversing and the other half typically at least greet - of course I normally greet first. I will tell you that once I had a player turn the chat off and I wondered why so the next time I played him (in tourney) I asked before he turned it off and he said that sometimes he accidentally typed his next plays in the messages instead of the notes - either way he turned out to be a nice chap. Take the good and leave the bad....

I think it is a good target for survey on title page of chess.com. My oppinion is that to be mute in chess is completely unfriendly, unsportsmanlike and simply unsound from social point of view. But I see that part of chess.com members are not consistent with normal behaviour - they appeal to inherent "abnormality" of internet environment.

We play chess with humans because we are interested in humans. When such a human don't respond on "hello" then there is no pleasure to play this boor further - he could be rather enemy than friend  - destroy him and forget about him ;). Internet relations could be normal if our behaviour stay so.

Suggestion for chess.com: to force more friendly environment to notify about new chat messages not only about new move. It could be a flag next to certain game in list of games, for example. Then one player will know that his "Thanks for the game" will be noticed by opponent even the game is finished and already is out of the focus.

Another option - disable chat for all games in settings if the player don't like to chat. This will guard others from disappointing silence in responce. And it is good to know about this while viewing the profile of candidate to play.

I share the sentiment of most posters here.  If you can't answer my simple:  "Hello and good luck" - (that is how I greet all my opponents in turn based chess), you are just plain rude.  I also end all my games with "gg" (good game).   I'm not looking for any conversation beyond that, but if someone starts it, I always answer.

I also noticed all paying members respond to my greetings, which is why I would really like to see a filter allowing me seeking games against premium members only.

Thanks for letting us know. I was curious what you said to your opponents when they say hello.

Tbierig-

I was born in Calgary, on February 11th, in the year 1982. The snow was falling that night, and everyone was excited about the birth of a new baby boy... 

Rael and Duffer1965, you had me rolling on the floor laughing - I almost crapped in my pants, which I am pretty sure I did shortly after coming out of my mother's womb (ahh the memories). Maybe I should share them with tbeirig...