The ‘Phantom mute’ has been going around and being heavily talked about throughout OTF and across the social side of the site.
What is it? The phantom mute is something that chess.com very recently implemented to control spam on forums, and make sure that users couldn’t post too much in a short time span. On the app, you’ll see a message that says, “Oops. Couldn’t authenticate with the server”, like how it would if you were blocked. On the website, it says, “You have reached the max number of comments you can make at this time. Please try again later.” at the top of the screen.
The problem is that this phantom mute is affecting active users like me more than spammers. You can only post a few times before you have like, a 20-minute cooldown for posting. And when there are twenty active threads on the first page (including OTFDAN), you have to be extremely selective of how you post. The people being struck down by this mute aren’t spammers; they’re just active members of the community who like to post on many topics. I’m all for preventing spam on the forums, but the measures taken are good enough. Muting active members for posting actively and helping chess.com out isn’t the answer. I’m not sure who had the brilliant idea of muting members after posting 5 times, but it’s frustrating to be mid-conversation with people and have to leave because you’re temporarily muted.
The solution: If the site wants to see less spam on its forums, then moderators can keep a small eye on the forums and mute spammers as usual. Also, reporting posts that are unnecessary is a thing that all members of the community should do. People should be free to post as much as they want, and active posters are the ones who make the forums fun. I’m tired of being muted for at least 15 minutes because I have posted 6-7 times in a few minutes.
So, chess.com should remove the phantom mute. It’s a dumb way to prevent spam that disallows active users like myself to post. I hope that the developers choose to change their minds about this idea soon.
I totally agree! The phantom mute isn’t really needed, because most spam posts get dealt with pretty quickly.
The ‘Phantom mute’ has been going around and being heavily talked about throughout OTF and across the social side of the site.
What is it? The phantom mute is something that chess.com very recently implemented to control spam on forums, and make sure that users couldn’t post too much in a short time span. On the app, you’ll see a message that says, “Oops. Couldn’t authenticate with the server”, like how it would if you were blocked. On the website, it says, “You have reached the max number of comments you can make at this time. Please try again later.” at the top of the screen.
The problem is that this phantom mute is affecting active users like me more than spammers. You can only post a few times before you have like, a 20-minute cooldown for posting. And when there are twenty active threads on the first page (including OTFDAN), you have to be extremely selective of how you post. The people being struck down by this mute aren’t spammers; they’re just active members of the community who like to post on many topics. I’m all for preventing spam on the forums, but the measures taken are good enough. Muting active members for posting actively and helping chess.com out isn’t the answer. I’m not sure who had the brilliant idea of muting members after posting 5 times, but it’s frustrating to be mid-conversation with people and have to leave because you’re temporarily muted.
The solution: If the site wants to see less spam on its forums, then moderators can keep a small eye on the forums and mute spammers as usual. Also, reporting posts that are unnecessary is a thing that all members of the community should do. People should be free to post as much as they want, and active posters are the ones who make the forums fun. I’m tired of being muted for at least 15 minutes because I have posted 6-7 times in a few minutes.
So, chess.com should remove the phantom mute. It’s a dumb way to prevent spam that disallows active users like myself to post. I hope that the developers choose to change their minds about this idea soon.