Alerts and lost games

Having already posted in another related topic about non-reseival of e0mail alerts I would like to bring the topic up once abain, however this time I am extreamly pissed off by it. I was playing a sematch game with a fellow user called EwokNay (due to a missed time slot,resulting in a time out, not being my fault I was experiancing computer Virus and ISP problems). I explained to EwokNay who was kind enough to give a remantch, however I have now had another time-out and lost chess rating points )(1200 down to 999) for something that is not entierly my fault. I have not received yet again any email alerts with regards to this game and as a result lost the game and points as mentioned above.

I know what you are all going to say, 'You know you are playing the game you should check for your self' all very well and partly true, however I dont have the desired time to constanly chech the board every day from home or access the chess.com site from works computers, where however I can check my own personal emails from works computers and therefore would know that when I get home I have to play or check the site for my game status.

 This has reduced my overall perception and thinking twards the site (not the users this is not there fault) and feel that the problem has been swept under the carpet.

How many other people have experianced this problem and as a result have lost games and points (before they even have a chance to play properly), I have won games through the other person going over time, I kbow wonder if this was truely ans soley all their own fault or if they were not receiving an email alert to the fact that it was their move.

There must be something that can be done to fix this problem and to reinstate points to people who have fallen into this area.

(was trying to talk a friend from Canada, into joining so I could play chess with them but I am not sure I will bother now.)

thanks for bringing this up!

email is a difficult subject :) we send email out and from there it is out of our hands. i know that our code is generating all of the necessary emails. that said, there are 3 possible reasons you are not getting email.

#1 - SPAM FILTERS - it is possible that your ISP (internet service provider) or mail provider (hotmail, aol, yahoo, etc) thinks that the email we have sent you is spam. in some cases they stick it in the JUNK mail folder. in other cases it doesn't even arrive to you at ALL. we are working hard on this issue (known as "email deliverability") to make sure that our email is accepted. but it is partly out of our hands. sorry!

#2 - ONLINE/OFFLINE - we don't send email alerts to people when they are ONLINE because what is the point, right? :) you see them in your alert box. that said, if you close your browser and your opponent moves within 10 minutes of your last visit the server thinks you are still online and will not send you an email. is that affecting anyone perhaps?

#3 - ONE EMAIL - so that we don't send out TOO much email, we only send out one email if it is your move. so if you have 100 games going on and you get an email that it is your turn, but then 99 other people move, you won't get more email because you already got a reminder email that it is your turn to move. 

we took these steps to prevent people from getting overwhelmed with email. i'm open to recommendations!

thank you so much for your suggestions!

Hi erik

got email regarding this posting, this would suggest then thatthe email is not being bloked by my ISP, unless they have came from a different place or sent via different method.

I can also understand the 100 games 100 email thing, but haven't feel foul to this as I anly (try) to play one game at a time, however I still feel that it wuld be good to notify people about their  turn to move in all games. This way users will not forget about games thye are plaing and it will not cross over with the online/offline thingas a player may check all their cames and not need to move, log off then the opponent moves but they arent notified of this.

This also brings the online/off line rule thing, which I agree is a pointless thing sending out an email if a user is still on line, however once a user logs off the auto notify via email should kick in.

I normally check my games prior to loging off incase the opponent has made a move imeediatly after mine, if however they make the move just after I have checked and then loggged offf I will not me notified and be unaware of the move. (As mentioned I can check mail at work but cant access the site and although I like chess i do understand that some moves can require longer than others and/or like me people have to log off etc, I cant however check my came online from work as I cant gain access to the site so without the alerts I sometimes forget).

It is possible that the online/offline thing is what has cought me out on this occation (My last game with Ewok, timed out through my own and technical ISP connection problems, this game was a rematch for that game.).

I did not however even receive my less than 24 hours to make a move alert, which surely goes out regardless of when the move was made, (within the on/off 10 minute thing).

Bottom line realy is that alerts should be sent out regardless, however I am unsure if this is my problem and would like to see if other users have had this problem with email alerts and what they think.

 sometimes an ISP has multiple mail servers, some of which could be slightly out of sync. So, an email could hit a server, which can tag it as spam, while next time it can go via a different server and the email won't get tagged. AOL is especially bad about it. We are trying VERY hard to get email deliverability issue resolved. Please let me know if you are still not getting emails and I will personally troubleshoot this problem, at very least, I will be able to tell you whose fault this is.

Thanks Guys for all the help and the attention and time you are putting into this problem.

I will let you all know abemails and how they progress, as mentioned I was receiving direct mail regarding this problem however I am not at present involved in any games and am therefore not receiving anyalert mails but will let you know as soon as I am incolved in a game and the status and situation regarding the mail alerts.

once again thanks

Dear Erik,

Please forgive the fact that I am, and I do realize that I am, circumventing some proper steps in the Chess.com chain of command and communications policies.  Please forgive me for that, but this,if possible will benefit many, and at worse could spark a better solution.  In regards to all above, giving proper credit to each for there input, thank you.  Erik is it possible, and if so can it be done with proper security,  to Text these warnings to our personnel specified phone. or devices? Give each member a list of warnings he would like to be notified on let them choose.  Example: check your games you have  less than an hour to move in at least one of them.  If the member has 250 games with less than an hour he gets 250 messages all saying the same this.  This was his decision to allow the text warning and should be aware this could happen. 

I think this is a very easy solution to the main "Alert problem".  I also believe this would be easily set up. using a platform like "TEXT NOW" (registered TM.) and others where the computer can dial and do the deed.  I leave the rest to you C.c. "Chess.com" Overlords.

With Sincerity;

BIG K!!!

Thanks for the suggestion! We can't do text/sms messages, but we can do mobile alerts via Google Android or Apple iPhone. If you have one of those phones (and 98% of people do), you can get alerts about your time.