Support my campaign for chess.com staff member!

Signatures of supporters
(To read my campaign platform, please scroll down past this list.)

The signatures of the following people indicate that they support Macer75's campaign for staff member. If you would like to have your name added to the list, please let me know by commenting in this thread.

Thank you for your support!

1NaturalDisaster

Bilbo21

Bestpony

SilentKnighte5

Carla-Magnusson

BlargDragon

RookTheElevator

Cheeky_chicky

BoyStan

Babytigrrr

MarcoBR444

TY_TK

Alika05

TrumpBolado

Chessking1976

Yucatan_Suckerman

Idrinkyourhealth2

Mrmath

Darthion

Silverfir

Meow4214

              As a long-time member of chess.com, I’ve spent the past 4 years or so observing how things work around here, and in the process I’ve formulated a number of ideas that I’m sure will greatly enhance the chess.com experience for everyone. That’s why I’m starting my campaign to become a staff member on chess.com today, and I hope to have the support of the masses in this historic endeavor. I believe in honesty and openness in politics, whether at the national level or on an international website, and for that reason I wish to present to all of you my extremely detailed 5-point platform for improving chess.com.

1. Improve quality of forums

It is a common complaint today that the quality of the chess.com forums is going down. I fully agree with this complaint, and believe that the decline has occurred mainly because the current staff members have made no effort to reign in extremely boring and esoteric chess-related threads, allowing them to run wild on the forums. While a reasonable amount of healthy chess discussion is fine, these threads cross the line by being completely unintelligible to a vast majority of the community. Even worse, they perpetuate the stereotype that chess players are nerds, which may make people less willing to be part of this site. As a staff member, I will make the forums a better place for everyone by taking the following steps.

1. Lock/delete threads that are overly theoretical. This is intended to punish the few who flood the forums with their mindless drivel about chess, at the expense of the many, who do not care for their elitist content and attitude. The first and foremost target of this policy will be threads started by titled players (more on them below).

2. Increase visibility of “Off-topic” threads. The “off-topic” section of the forums is where many of the best threads on chess.com can be found. However, currently it is the also least visible section – while threads posted in other categories show up in the “Most recent posts” column, off-topic threads are discriminated against, and do not. I will completely reverse this abhorrent practice, and make the “Most recent posts” reserved for off-topic threads.

3. Encourage activity in off-topic threads. For that purpose, I will implement a mechanism that requires each member to make at least 5 posts in off-topic threads before making 1 post in a chess-related thread. The off-topic posts would not accumulate – in other words, one cannot try to game the system by making 2 consecutive chess-related posts after 10 off-topic posts.

 2. End oppression of regular members by titled players

I am speaking for the masses of chess.com when I say that titled players are the scourge of this site. They use their ill-begotten advantages to rob average members of their hard-earned rating points, and then strut around parading themselves as if it is their right to take from others. What’s worse, despite their horrendous crimes – or precisely because of them – they are glorified by the current staff, and a small minority of perverted regular members. I say NO MORE to this nonsense. As a staff member, I will permanently put an end to the foul reign of chess.com’s titled oppressors, leaving them trembling in their boots and begging for mercy, by taking the following actions:

1. Ban all players with the title “GM.” These people are the worst, most vilest oppressors of all, and deserve no mercy or chance at redemption.

2. Require players with other titles to sign a contract. Namely, they will be required to lose at least 1 in 3 games against regular members (losses to other titled players will not count). Any titled player who fails to meet this required loss ratio within any consecutive span of 15 games will be automatically BANNED.

3. Bar titled players from Death Matches and all other official chess.com tournaments. Nowadays these tournaments have become just another way that our society glorifies the pillaging and exploitative ways of the titled oppressors. As a staff member, I will ensure that this is no longer the case, and that tournaments on chess.com showcase the perseverance and dedication of our hard-working masses of regular members.

 3. Increase ratings

As a direct result of the reign of terror of titled players on chess.com, the ratings of regular members have been greedily plundered and kept criminally low. This is clearly unacceptable, as everyone, regardless of titles, experience or skill level, deserves a decent rating and a shot at success. As a staff member, I will raise everyone’s ratings and ensure that they remain high, allowing every single member of this community to enjoy what was once available only for a corrupt few. Specifically, my policies with regard to ratings will be as follows:

1. Increase the ratings of all players according the following algorithm (where x is one’s current rating, and y is one’s new increased rating):

y = x + (2500 – x) / 2

   = 1250 + x / 2

In other words, ratings will be capped at 2500 (which will not be an issue after GMs have been banned and other titled players have been forced to sign the contract), and each player will have added to his current rating half of the difference between his current rating and the max.

2. Set the default ratings of all new members to 2000. When people looking to join an online chess site compare the different sites that are available, and see that they can start off with a 2000 rating on chess.com, compared to a measly 1200 on other sites, they will all flock to chess.com immediately.

3. Abolish game seeks by rating. The current system whereby players by and large play games with other members of similar ratings is a mechanism of rating stagnation and stratification. It has been especially abused by titled players, who keep their ratings high and those of everyone else low by only playing against one another. As a staff member, I will abolish this abominable system, and instead pair players entirely at random, so that they cannot choose to play only against certain players and not others. This is absolutely essential to ensuring that everyone has a chance to reach the high ratings that they desire.

4. Cap max rating adjustments in a single day. This is another measure to further ensure that ratings do not become stratified. It is simply unfair and cruel that someone can have a good day, win a few games, and have their rating increase by 50 points, while someone else can have a bad day, lose some close games due to simple errors, and see their rating drop by 50 points or more. To remedy such injustice, I will set caps on the max daily rating adjustment for each player (preliminarily set at +20 and -10, although the exact numbers are open to debate). In other words, no matter how many games someone wins or loses on a single day, their rating cannot increase by more than 20 points, or decrease by more than 10. This would be particularly helpful to players having bad days, who will be able to play as many games as they like without having to worry about it having an excessive effect on their rating.

 4. Foster dialogue and understanding

Currently, members of chess.com are able to block other members who voice sentiments that they do not like, or who they otherwise find objectionable in one way or another. The practice has had a disastrous effect on the chess.com community, as it not only creates barriers for dialogue, but also leads to segregation and even tribalism. Therefore, as a staff member, I will get rid of the “block” function once and for all. In its absence, when a member encounters someone else who voices an opinion with which they do not concur (e.g. “Your mother $%#@s 100 %$#%s a day!”), instead of blocking that person, and thereby forever shutting down to possibility for productive dialogue, they can voice their disagreement and engage in discussion about the issue that was raised (e.g. “I respectfully disagree with you, but now that you’ve brought it up, let’s discuss the subject of my mother $#@$ing $@#%s.”), ultimately reaching a middle ground that is satisfactory to both parties.

 5. Abolish cruel and unusual punishment

As all chess.com members are well aware, the current chess.com staff enacts very strict punishments on players who prefer to use engines in their games. These punishments are without a doubt cruel and unusual, as they criminalize the efforts of regular members to reach beyond the confines of their talents – which are determined by their birth, rather than by virtue or merit. By squashing the dreams of these players, the chess.com staff is suggesting that one’s birth should determine one’s standing in life, and that social mobility is to be discouraged and even forcibly thwarted. What makes the staff’s punishment of engine users particular ironic and hypocritical is that titled players, who regularly reach much higher ratings, are not only not punished, but are in fact rewarded and lionized for achieving precisely what regular players who prefer to use engines are seeking to achieve. When I become a staff member, I will immediately put an end to this grave injustice by means of two simple steps.

1. Reduce punishment for the use of engines. Admittedly, it is necessary to ensure that engine use on chess.com does not become excessive, as all things are best in moderation. Chess.com’s current punishments for engine use, however, are like putting someone in jail for consuming an unhealthy amount of sugar. I will ensure that engine use is kept at a level of moderation, while at the same time respecting the rights of people who prefer to use engines, by significantly reducing punishments. For the first two discovered instances of unsanctioned engine use, a player will receive a friendly warning. From the third instance onward, he will receive temporary bans from playing on chess.com, which begin at 3 days for the third instance, and will not exceed 1 month for future violations.

2. Allow players to legally use an engine in 1 game for every 5 losses. This will ensure that less fortunate players who lose frequently are still able to taste victory on a regular basis, and do not lose hope or decide to leave chess.com altogether. Of course, this privilege will not be available to titled players, who are already much too privileged as things stand.

Above, is my 5-point platform for making chess.com a better place for everyone. In order for this platform to become reality, I will need the support of YOU, the good people of chess.com. Together, we can enact real change, and correct the mistakes that past and current staff members have made, and still stubbornly refuse to see. Together, we can #MaceChesscomGreatAgain. I will not make empty promises, so I cannot say that our task will be easy, or that we will achieve success soon. But the fact that we will have to fight for our goals makes them all the more worth fighting for. So please, join me in my quest to fix chess.com, and let us create a movement through which our voices will finally be heard, and our glorious visions for this great website will finally be realized. And to those who are thinking of opposing us, just know that you are opposing the will of the people. You may try to put up resistance now, but in time each one of you will be faced with two options: surrender, or prepare to #FeelTheMace.

W8 did I sign?

 i agree with every point of view and i give you my full suport

I still don't see the STAFF symbol next to the macer75 name. It's been about 4 months and apparently Erik is still of sound mind.