Clubs vs. OTF: The never-ending debate.

A friend of mine, @DepressoEspresso01, made a blog around a month ago comparing the off-topic forums and clubs by using a pros and cons list to declare which was better. She first came to OTF and has unfortunately been dragged into clubs and isn’t as active on OTF as she once was. I enjoyed the blog, and the reasoning for each was pretty good. But as debates have risen for the last few months on whether OTF or clubs are better, I wanted to share my thoughts, and created a constructive, unbiased, and opinionated thread on the OTF vs. clubs debate. I’ve been lucky enough to try both over my two years here, and I think I have learned enough about both sides to give a good opinion.  If you know me at all, you know which side I’m on. But here’s why.

Disclaimer: This is my opinion, and can be debated. That said, please do not personally attack me or anyone else posting on this thread. Keep things chill, and feel free to share any additional thoughts on the subject as you’d like to! Enjoy the thread!

First, what is OTF, and what are clubs?

OTF stands for off-topic forums and is a place for a small community. It’s very simply formatted, as you can really only do two things. You may post threads (like this one) or you may post on other people’s threads. You can post whatever you’d like, as long as it stays within the chess.com community guidelines. Since OTF is incredibly simple, there’s nothing much to be said.

Clubs are a similar form of communication, where members are invited by friends to join. Clubs have many features that OTF doesn’t have, such as notes, vote chess, events, chats, forums, and a few more things. Clubs are for open discussion, friendliness,  and participating in events such as vote chess. One person owns the club, but can appoint admins and super admins to moderate the club and make sure things run smoothly.

Let’s first talk about the levels of moderation within a club and OTF.

On OTF, you create a thread, and anyone is allowed to post on it. You’re given a block button, and you are fully responsible for what people post there. Well, not fully. Moderators are staff are fairly active on the forums, and do a pretty great job at muting and banning spammers, trolls, and others who break the rules. You have to abide by the rules of the community policy by not cursing, spamming, debating about politics and religion, and just being kind to others. These rules help keep the forums from too much chaos and keep things smooth for all of the users.

Clubs are a little different. The owner and his or her admins are FULLY responsible for dealing with the users, and how they want the club run. There is no TOS to follow, and users can do or say whatever they feel like, so long as the owner and admins are ok with it. Usually, and with the experiences I’ve had with clubs, the notes and forums turn into chaos filled with spam, cursing, and annoying drama that never ends. Spammers and trolls usually skate by, and they always seem to be too easily be able to ban attack the club too easily. 

Now, let’s go through a list of pros and cons from both OTF and clubs.

OTF

Pros:

Better moderated. 
Spammers and trolls are usually quickly muted or banned, making the community enjoyable for members.

More together. 
OTF is very close, and there is very little drama or arguments between members.

OTF is very supportive of one another and will always help members with whatever is needed.

There are creative forum games, roleplays, and something for every member of the community.

With so many threads being created daily and so many existing threads to participate in, there is something that anyone can enjoy on OTF.

Cons: Spamming, and overall lack of maturity shown by many members.

This is no secret. There are plenty of spam threads, and OTF is filled with mostly young kids nowadays.

Poorly-made and uncreative threads. 

While there are so many great threads, most of them don’t benefit the community at all and add to the problem of spam.

Clubs

Pros: 

The ability to partake in vote chess and many other events with members.

This is easily the best thing that clubs have to offer, and it’s very fun to play these games and participate in these events.

Being able to easily connect with friends through the use of an invite.
Cons: (Especially in bigger clubs) Drama, and a disconnected community.

In clubs, I’ve noticed that there is no escape from the drama. Whether it’s unnecessary arguments between members of the club or beef between clubs, there will always be something.

Not well moderated, and allows discriminatory language and cursing.

This leads to chaos and allows kids to use bad language within the club, along with other inappropriate language, without consequence.

Admins, super admins, and coordinators make everything a popularity contest.

With the roles of admins, super admins, and coordinators in clubs, it is too important for people to have a stake in the club. With this, it turns everything into a popularity contest, and people try much too hard to become active there in hopes of getting a position instead of enjoying the club for what it is. Even worse, it leads to advertising in our dear OTF with posts like ‘If you join this club, you can be SA’.

With these pros and cons, which one is really better? The subject has been debated for so long, and we’ll never get a real answer except for in this post, which will settle the debate once and for all. 

OTF is better. It’s a closer community with little drama, and that is focused on friendliness and being inclusive and helpful to everyone. It is much better moderated than clubs, and keeps everyone under a filter to keep the community clean. There is something for everyone on OTF, whether it’s a forum game, a chat thread, or a funny thread to troll on. 

Clubs are fine (not really), but there are too many flaws within them that don’t make them enjoyable. Most clubs are just a place for kids to spam, and for those who seek popularity and no actual connection between people. Too much drama occurs, and it doesn’t feel as inclusive as OTF. OTF has, is, and will always be better than clubs.

Now that you’ve likely been rage-baited or heavily agree with me, share some of your thoughts. This was posted in OTF, so I expect a fair number of people to agree, but I’d also like to hear points of view from club members. I’d be more than happy to share more of my opinions if you’d like, or answer any questions you have.

Thanks for making it all the way down here. Honestly, I think you’re one of the only ones who did. Give yourself a pat on the back!

That’s all for today, my dears. Have an amazing day today, and thanks for reading. 

And of course…

Keek!

Keek.

That said, I think people should be a part of both. They shouldn’t join too many clubs though. That splits up your attention and just makes being a member valueless. If you’re going to join a lot, you should probably join none at all.

what is keek lol

I read like 2 sentences from each paragraph

You'll have to read the entire post to find out. It's worth it.

Keek!

And yet I'm the one who should start reading...

Fair enough. Most people are only active in a select few anyway.

It’s a word used when you have nothing to say and are responding to a keek by Basix.

Somebody other than Basix lol

How much time did you take to do that?

OTF, of course.

.

It has a real meaning, too.

I couldn't agree more. Well said.

idk a minute?

I"m not reading all of that, I know otf is better