The Downfall of Chess.com

The site owners will implement whatever adds to the bottom line.

yay for them.

Understandable.

i strongly suggest that if ur acct if FREE ?...then keep ur big mouth shut !..and dont diss the hand that feeds u in public. is this Remind A Dunce or s/t ?

As a side note I remember seeing The State of chess.com on (YouTube before it was taken down) about cheating . Somebody pointed out in the comments that a titled player who had a free membership from chess.com poster on YouTube "{Catch Cheaters on chess.com)(with real screen shots of him encereging cheater to come back and get banned)

1) I agree Diamond membership which I tried out doesn't even pay the extra $10 to $15 extra they want to "verify" you.  It should, so should platinum.  After all you give them your credit card information so um that should be all they need.  It's a ploy unjust IMO to get more money on top of memberships.  A free member has the same tournament access as a top paying Diamond Member?   Makes no sense and double billing IMO for already paying customers.  Members should have verification automatically.  Tournaments should be free to paying members.   I was thinking about entering the chess.com 1st tournament but not for another $15 when already had paid for Diamond.  Include it and incentivize people to join as paying member and include verification automatically in those Diamond and Platinum memberships.

2)  Chess.com has to keep from going woke.  I see elements of lib takeover in some of the mods and upper management possibly.  Stay out of politics like the blank Russian flag, its just silly.  Post an op ed or post with your feelings.  A countries flag is their flag regardless if you like them or not.  It's childish and divisive and unjustly penalizes or stigmatizes innocent civilians of that country whom have little no control or say in war and peace and are merely born there.  I don't believe in collective punishment that is an element of the left.  Everyone is an individual.  Many great players from Russia now and historically, which is like 1/3 of the world territorially or at least a 1/5th not wise.

3) I also noticed unjust mutes, bans, restrictions for sore losers who lost and wine about abuse yet are a not a victim of stalling, verbal profanity, threats, etc. but merely are angry they lost and chess.com assumes they are legit gripes because someone can't take a little good natured ribbing or trash talking.  Not verbal abuse, nothing racist, no foul language.   Stop muting and banning or booting from a league on shaky grounds.  If its not profanity, a threat, then its free speech.  Stop all this snow flake catering sensativity stuff.  Its competition, trash talk is normal as long as not threatening violence, or profanity in most cases its minor yet chess did and has on those I know taken action such as muting or league booting, shadow banning for minor stuff.

Also typing errors in chat with characters left out can trigger auto warning for foul language when in context it is clearly a typing error.  No auto warnings and too many non -swear words are considered Abuse that are not 4 letter words or FCC 5 words you can't say on TV or radio in US.  People need to be less sensitive.  Chess. com needs to look at context of conversations and quit banning paying customers for the feelings of a losing or drawing party who is merely annoyed they got beat, or drew to a smarter player that game.

4)  Start penalizing people that disconnect purposely.  There are many trying to protect their record of losing via checkmate so they abandon or stall when losing.  They should be penalized every time they abandon.  Maybe one or two allowed for legit disconnections per month thats it.

Also extend the time allowed to reconnect if you do lose DSL or internet connection momentarily legitimately so you can notice and reconnect in time.  There is no notice on screen if you do.  The clock for the opponent still runs like your waiting on them and they only give you like 30 seconds max to notice and reconnect.  Not enough time.  Make it a minute, stop the clock from running so its obvious, and or put up a message your disconnected or someting.

I agree that downvotes are pointless and can be abused like on reddit but it also depends on the community. On chess.com, users rarely use the upvote/downvote feature and only downvote useless posts and upvote useful ones.

It's a business, though. Chess itself is incidental to the site. Community is even incidental. If it didn't pay, there'd be no community. They're only going to do something if it increases their profits. I look at the Players' League as a chance to actually win a tournament. I'm guessing they don't see it in any terms related to democratization. It gets more visitors showing up and staying longer. So they get more money. Verification means you get paired up with people who will actually play and not jump off the game or stall. That might be worth fifteen bucks. Still, if you think about it, being able to participate in tournaments as a result of that fifteen, as opposed to being able to participate in tournaments if you don't pay it... that's something that gets dreamed up in a boardroom. Even having a forum is just a way to drive participation, not to address community concerns. But as long as you don't expect some bro in a sports car to care about chess, it gets simpler. With the skills and resources, I'm guessing any of us actual chess nerds would wind up creating Lichess. But I love the game, and this is the place to go, no matter if it sucks.

True. 

I like Chess.com.

I think it is amazing how they take a simple board game and try to innovate a bunch of different ways to keep it interesting. The variety of bots to play, variants to try, puzzles to complete, lessons to learn, events to watch, news to read, clubs to join, blogs to write, and forums like this to comment upon all of these. I feel like there is something for everyone here. New features some might dislike (leagues, verification, NFTs) may in fact be loved by others. To each their own.

Maybe you'll get a raise. 

LOL. Moderators are volunteers, so I doubt I will get a raise

I'm not sure how the leagues encourage cheating. People who want to cheat will cheat regardless, the rewards from leagues aren't enough to encourage players who don't cheat into cheaters.

I am not saying I don't like it obviously I am still here for the time being.  The puzzles are nice tactical practice and for vision in assisted checkmates.  Lots of extra stuff to do, nice community and most people are cool both members and staff.  This is a critique of things they can improve on which I am sure they would and do strive to do.  It's called feedback.  Improved sites means more members means more money.  Only those who wrongly think they are infallible can't handle scrutiny.  Criticism leads to improvement, and common sense objections or observations from its actual users.  Chances are thousands of people who don't speak up think the same thing or have the same issues.  This helps chess.com so people don't move on to other apps.

The only thing chess.com is really lacking is a Petrosian bot.

I could not agree more. That is why I always encourage members to use the Help button to communicate their thoughts to staff.

I had two very highly ranked friends who were helping lower rated players with openings who were booted off Chess,com for cheating.  Their followers were stunned.  I did not know of many other players less likely to be cheaters.  

I doubt they were even given the chance to explain themselves.   

It seems to me some members are terminated because of jealosy .

I know right? I would love to play a game against the master of defense, he is one of my favorite chess players of all time! But to create such a bot would require attaining the legal right to use his name and personality, which would mean negotiating a payment to his surviving relatives.

I believe there is an appeal process, and if they explained the situation, they may be able to get their accounts back. In the future, they should do this in unrated games because engine-assistance is permitted in unrated games IF the other players knowingly consent to it.

Fair Play Policy

so are u saying ur being provided anxiety ?...lol !