OTF and my thoughts on its problems.

Hello to anyone reading this, this is a documented report of my thoughts regarding OTF on chess.com, and what I think a person could do to fix it.

Chapter 1: The Forum Problems

Now, there are tons of forums on OTF. But the popular ones seem to have a trend to them. Most of them have a level of… shall I say… weirdness. You can observe one here:

There are many instances of 15 and under children being on these forums. The chances of them being >13 have been increasing as of late, as visible through other forums created. Assume there are at least 1 million people under 18 in the “11 million active users,” and assume that at least 10 thousand know about the forums, hell even 1000. Simple math: 1000/30000 or simplified 1/30 odds. That means there is a 1/30 chance that you are saying “yes” to a minor. The notion of the forum itself is stupid, and stricter rules regarding online intimacy have to be put in order. Otherwise, things like these might bear some sort of fruit between an adult and a minor, although the chances are small. Never zero though.
 

Same reasoning. A person guesses, another person may or may not hint at their real age, and the chances are ⅙, though they might be a lot lower, maybe 1/100. Still not impossible by any means.

Above are examples of slop forums that pose dangers to the larger chess.com community, especially the lower age groups. The solution? 1. Stop posting this rather idiotic stuff that is obviously indicative of something that can cause problems 2. Make stricter rules for yourself when making a post 3. Think 3 times before posting.
Of course, the larger chess.com moderation team can try and fix it, but we're the problem, so we can also become the solution.

This’ll be the end of this chapter. Will post another later. Thanks for reading.

EDIT: math i did is most likely inaccurate. my apologies. just gonna leave it there so that i dont have to rewrite my entire essay, but still, there is always a risk of an adult and a minor interacting in those forums in negative connotation. crappy math doesn't invalidate the actual points i presented. again, my apologies, and thanks for your continued support and talking in this thread --------------------------------- Edit 2: OTF: Out of Context and OTF "Freaky Ranks" are now not considered slop. They are meant to be joke forums and I branded them as something they weren't. The owner of both of the forums is nice too! 

I agree but chess.com will probably not do anything like in the past

I agree completely! The thread creation here is a huge problem, and they continue to be made. Worse, these threads encourage weird behaviors from the community, and further pollute OTF with useless posts. “Person above you” threads continue to be made in an attempt to be popular, and are simply spam threads with no thought put into. Great post, my friend. I look forward to further chapters.

Thanks for the input! Hopefully I receive more positive feedback from this post!

yall need to chill, it's otf OFF TOPIC

if you want good quality go comment on other topics

But then you run into people talking about chess. Ewwww.

well then deal with otf the way it is

otf is far from perfect and it most likely always will be

It's difficult to capture attention with anything that isn't useless brain-rot. I've tried to start a few helpful threads but all of them had failed.

hm

But it's horrid in the state it is right now. Absolutely horrid. We can still fix it to a degree. Change is always possible. And OTF wasn't always like this.

Not weird. Just disguised spamming and invitations to spam. Anything else would require more effort than a fidget spinner. The society is training itself towards an ADHD epidemic.

I've given up. The site doesn't care about the forums except to pull in the kids. Safe to spam. These days the bunny just boohoos and woohoos.

Boohoo

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_deficit_hyperactivity_disorder

"Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity, and emotional dysregulation that are excessive and pervasive, impairing in multiple contexts, and developmentally inappropriate."

What did you think attention deficiency in ADHD meant? Hyperfocus?

https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/adhd/what-is-adhd

"Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common mental disorders affecting children. Symptoms of ADHD include inattention (not being able to keep focus), hyperactivity (excess movement that is not fitting to the setting) and impulsivity (hasty acts that occur in the moment without thought). "

Feel free to provide a reference that contradicts this

I'll try to make a new chapter or two in the coming days, but I have testing so apologies if I don't. If you guys want me to make a chapter on something in specific, feel free to DM me or send it out here and I'll keep it in mind in the coming chapters. Thank you for your input. 
- SS

Make chapter 2 about the conversations fr