User Conduct on Chess.com (daily violations)

Chess.com repeatedly evades responsibility for enforcing User Conduct on this platform. Just tonight we were told in a public form by a Chess.com Moderator that "clubs are allowed to set their own rules and the club admins handle issues within them. Since clubs are voluntary to join, members can leave ones that have rules they don't agree with."

I just reviewed the User Conduct section of the User Agreement, and nothing in Chess.com's Terms of Service (ToS) informs the user/subscriber that the Community Policy does not apply to every user, public or private club, Forums, Notes, Blogs, and etc.

Every user agreed to not use Chess.com for the following purposes (my comments are in RED):

• upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any Content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, sexually explicit, pornographic, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable; NOTE: This section is violated on a daily basis. Message headers, user names, profile pictures, and users posts that violate this section remain on the Chess.com to this very day.
• post any comments, text, messages, or links in the forums or any public comments that contain any advertisements of any kind, including religious, political, or recruiting messages for Chess.com groups, clubs, blogs, or any other content on or off of Chess.com; NOTE: Recently a user was allowed to promote, advertise, and recruit for their political streaming channel on Chess.com. Another user had their political post locked, but the hateful, racial, and violent user comments remain for all to see. The user then did a cut and paste, and then made a public blog post with the same political content.
• post any comments, text, messages, or links in the forums or any public comments that is off topic or irrelevant to the purpose and content of the original content, game, article, blog, or forum topic; NOTE: Nearly every Forum on Chess.com is inundated with off-topic and irrelevant comments related to the forum topic. These comments gain traction with every succeeding off-topic post, and a user's question asking for help is quickly lost in a haze of comments that do offer any help at all.
• threaten violence against anyone else or advocate harming yourself; NOTE: Public posts on Chess.com reveal that users have been threatened with violence and physical harm. Recently a user was told to commit suicide by another user, and just last week another user was told by their opponent that they were going kill them and their family.
• “stalk“ or otherwise harass another; NOTE: Females routinely report harassment by their male counterparts on Chess.com. One user changes here username every three months to avoid the harassment. Today a user reported being harassed because they are a Muslim. Transgender-phobic comments can be found in user comments of a Chess.com Article. Another user contacted me and said she does not reveal her gender on Chess.com be cause of previous harassment.
• impersonate any person or entity, including, but not limited to, a Chess.com representative, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity; NOTE: A user reported today that another user had hacked into his account and sent false messages to his girlfriend.
• upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, “junk mail,“ “spam,“ “chain letters,“ “pyramid schemes,“ or any other form of solicitation, except in those areas that are designated for such purpose; NOTE: I am unaware of any "area" on Chess.com that is advertised as allowing junk mail, spam, chain letters, pyramid schemes or other forms of solicitation – maybe the Off-Topic Forum? The forums are filled with spam-type of comments, games, and pyramid games that clog-up the forums. If the Off-Topic Forum is the place for this type of junk, then why is it allowed in all of the other forums.
• use, reproduce, or remove any copyright, trademark, service mark, trade name, slogan, logo, image, or other proprietary notation displayed on or through the Services; NOTE: If you are ever on Facebook, you will see the Chess.com logo(s) used on unofficial pages and groups that appear to be connected to Chess.com. These pages and groups are filled with scantily clad ladies, and there's not a chess board in sight.
• disrupt the normal flow of dialogue or otherwise act in a manner that negatively affects other users' ability to engage in real time exchanges; NOTE: One again, forum posts are routinely hijacked and taken down a different path; users are criticized for their questions or comments; helpful answers are not provided; and the helpful nature of the forums is ruined.

Chess.com, please tell us, does your User Agrement agreement apply to every user, every forum, every post, every note, every article response, every public club, every private club, every blog, and every user comment posted on Chess.com?

Or does your current policy allow for racist, ethnic, religious, political, violent, hateful extremism to persist and grow within selected Clubs and Forums? Or across the entire platform?

I (and others) would like to know if there are any safe spaces on this platform, or are you simply not enforcing your own public policy that we all agreed to abide by as users on Chess.com?

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/community/chesscom-posting-rules

• Club/Group forums are not moderated except for reports of hate speech, threatening personal attacks, or obscenity. 

This is a post from Eric dated 2009, and his words are not incorporated into the recently updated Terms of Service.

So which is it: Do you moderate and enforce the ToS? Or do you moderate and enforce based on a post from 2009?

Just to be clear: Chess.com is telling the users that it is okay to have a private club that endorses and promotes racism, religious fanaticism, political division, antisemitism, sexism, hate speech, violence of any type, and etc. – as long as everyone in that particular club are okay with those subjects?

I understand that the clubs are not moderated by an official Chess.com Moderator or Staff person.

The question remains: Do the Terms of Service apply to those private clubs? Moderated or not?

Is hate speech allowed in private clubs on Chess.com?

Here's Erik's post from 2009:

Here's Erik's post from 2014:

Chess.com is a global community and we hope to be civil, friendly, and helpful to one another. We try to keep it that way by following a common set of rules for posting. We do not tolerate:

• hate speech, racism, or ideological persecution
• threatening or aggressive personal attacks
• obscene or pornographic material

Additionally, the following behaviors are not allowed in the main public forums and chat rooms:

• hijacking of threads with off-topic posts or images
• persistent stalking and harassing
• offensive or vulgar language
• religious or political debate
• spammy/pointless/distracting posts
• discussion of illegal activities (drugs, etc)
• advertising competitive sites
• cheating

Club/Group forums are not moderated except for reports of hate speech, threatening personal attacks, or obscenity. If you are found unable to follow these rules, you may have your posting abilities restricted. 

When you participate in our community please remember:

• be kind - treat others how you would like to be treated; they are human like you
• be helpful - build others up, don't tear them down; everyone has needs
• be forgiving - everyone has bad days and we aren't always on our best behavior; give everyone the patience and tolerance you would want
• be tolerant - other people have opinions

The following are our moderator action policies:

• topics that begin with racism, personal attacks, or obscenity will be immediately deleted. if a user does it a 2nd time, they will be warned. after a 3rd time they will be restricted from posting (muted). 
• non-relevant topics which do not violate our posting rules will be moved to Off Topic
• comments in the main forums/chat that violate the rules will be deleted
• comments in the off-topic or private group forums will be handled with as much tolerance as possible within reason
• moderators may delete posts, or edit to remove offensive material and include an explanation
• moderators may not, however, make any other comments in other members' posts
• moderators will treat all members the same without any special privileges 

Clubs have long been separate sections and have long been something handled differently. Staff certainly can handle reports from clubs, though moderators can't unless it's a site ran club, they are admins in the club, or the admins of a club request it.

so Religious clubs are allowed?

Yes, clubs would be allowed

https://www.chess.com/club/fierychess

join if you want to