Excuse me chess.com, YOU owe me an apology!

Blame it on Friday the 13th or whatever, my account got closed  after I posted perhaps 5 (or less) posts!

Few hours after I sent an email, the answer I got is as below:

Quote
Making too many posts or sending too many messages one after another causes the system to think you're spamming so it disables your account.

I've re-opened it now but please be careful for the next 24 hours as your account will now be very sensitive on the spam filter
Unquote

Instead of owning the responsibility of wrongfully closing an account, it's being hinted here that I spammed!

When an account is closed, the first thought that comes to mind is "Oh he must have cheated!" - so by closing an account in such unthinking manner chess.com could be unwittingly damaging the reputation of a member.

The least you would expect is an apology - but here it seems "attack is the best defence" strategy being used to put the member on defense.

Sorry my friends in chess.com staff, it won't work here. The problem is squarely and fully at your end; the fair and decent thing for you to do is to apologise to the member whose account you have wrongfully closed.

And chess.com has been guilty of doing this for some months now. But perhaps that is to be expected from jokers who are masquerading as computer programmers! Anyone can go to the mom and pop computer shop down the street these days and learn how to write a few lines of code. This does not make you a programmer.

To be a programmer you need a mindset and special analytical skills. Guys who give us a report where the final result in a twenty a side match is shown as 22-19, cannot be called software programmers. Unfortunately, it seems, people of this caliber are deciding whether members are spamming or not! And the worst part is that instead of accepting their mistake and apologising, chess.com is pretending that the problem is with members, not their software.

I feel the 3 million members mark has gone to the head of chess.com staff. They have forgotten that members are the customers who must not be treated as trash. This site would be a big ZERO if members are not treated with the respect any client deserves. Sure, chess.com is a great site for playing chess but all that will be forgotten if chess.com fails to respect it's members and does not get it's act together in matters where their actions actually insult individuals.

Skand Bhargava

I'm sorry, but given that your account was suspended, I can't give your complaint much credibility.  There's no smoke without fire.

There are a lot of other guys who send few messages and ended up with their account closed. It think the chess.com system must be tweaked better

That is just anti spam protection. I had once my account closed for the same reason and reopened, but I did not berserk in forums for it was my fault not knowing that.

This is chess.com they have their rules, you not knowing them, or not wanting to do according to them does not make them guilty. And, what, they were so kind to open your account again, and your thank you note is insulting programmers?

And yes, there are how many, 2-3 million members here, and they are all milk and butter, no need for forum admins, live chat admins, cheating protection at all.

Next, there is clear sign - account has been closed (by you, chess.com with reason that is not published), and account has been closed for cheating, so they do not damage your reputation in any way.

Next, you are not any kind of customer. You are here for free!! You do not pay or contribute here in any way - on the other hand, you can read articles by GM, IM, you can watch days length of video, and tons of written material, also by GM's!!

You can learn for free, play chess for free and you have a decenency to ask for chess.com to APOLOGIZE TO YOU?

Get lost!

I must agree with a lot of what Streptomicin says here.

It was auto closed for spamming, this is something you should have been aware of, its not up to chess.com go go aorund to each 3.3 million members and let them know, the TOS are made available and you should be thankful that they did reopen it for you, they could have left it closed if they so wished.

All you would have had to do was realise "Ok i will know next time not to do that" and move on and enjoy:)

But there is no need to post a forum complaining and asking for an apology, that is nonsense.

Just move along and enjoy your time here bud :)

ouch ! (to Streptomicin's comment but he is right though) 

So I guess this means that everyone who is arrested by the police is automatically guilty of committing a crime?

Oh no.  I only apply this rule to people posting on message boards.

America's #1 export: the victim mentality

Maybe it's a cultural misunderstanding.  By saying it was closed automatically due to spam filter and to be careful for the next 24 hours isn't implying blame... it's just informing you on the situation.

Also whenever your account is closed for cheating it will say for everyone to see "closed or cheating."  There is no damage to your reputation.  There is no damage to your account.  They weren't rude about it... I don't see what the problem is here.

I think how the spam filter works is that if you send out a number of messages within a few seconds of each other, the anti-spam bot automatically closes the account.  If you email Support though, they will usually reopen the account right away.  This happens a lot to that Super Admins of groups that are running team match tournaments, and send out lots of messages to different people.  The best way to avoid it seems to be to wait a minute or two before sending out your next message.  If you have to PM a bunch of people about something it is usually better to gather them in a group, and then send out a single New item or forum post than send a bunch of messages one after the other.

Another thing that might trigger it is if you have a slow internet connection, think the message has not been sent, and keep clicking on the submit button.  Sometimes this seems to result in duplicate posts.

The staff don't have to apologize for this. You let the alarm bells ring by sending in a message or post a couple of times. Nobody said you are a spammer. You only activated the spam alarm. They have to use it otherwise people could post hundreds of spamming messages before the staff notices this.

Now that few hours have passed I think it would be safe to make my third post.

@DxN: Your post is living proof of what I said - you disbelieve what I am saying because my account was closed - like you many believe in "no smoke without fire" theory.

@Streptomicin:
1. Having police to deter thieves is good, but to put behind bars an innocent person because he was walking on the road after sunset and then to release without an apology is not. The neighbours would still be whispering about fire and smoke. You may find such a policeman merciful and say, "oh at least he let me out, it could have been much worse", I do not because I am used to more judicious use of power.

2. "This is the chess.com rule" - can you be specific about "this"? As far as I know, members are not informed at what rate of posting, software will start considering it spam.

3. A member who is in touch with others for some period of time here will not close his account without first letting his friends know. An account closed by chess.com will first evoke negative thoughts (smoke-fire kind) about the member. On the other hand if chess.com continues to close accounts like this, then it will be the "wolf wolf" story and chess.com will lose credibility.

4. Believe it or not, even non paying members are 'clients'. This is a business website (and it should be) which heavily depends on it's popularity. The revenues are generated through google's "adsense" and similar advertisements using PPC where chess.com will be paid for the clicks we make on the advertisement shown. The facilities that we get here help in generating traffic which results in revenues. Hence it makes sense to treat us (the members) with same courtesy as you would to a directly paying customer.

@Jebcc: all I can say is that you are seeing things that do not exist.

@Others who think it is okay for chess.com to close your account and then reopen and feel grateful: I disagree with your way of thinking. If someone tries to take you and your dignity for granted, it's best that you tell straightaway that it is not acceptable. If you won't protest right in the beginning they will trample all over you and when you complain later, they will say, "Why are you complaining, it has been like this all these years. No one else is complaining. You are a bad apple."

My complaint about the unacceptable way that accounts are closed does not mean I do not appreciate chess.com and the facilities available but this topic is not about discussing that.

Skand

I'm just waiting for: "It's my right to have a chess.com account".

It's coming...

When sending others messages via 'private messages', it shows on the right side of the box the following information:

#1 - Be nice! Send the kind of messages that you would want to receive.

#2 - DO NOT SEND INVITES (for Tournaments or Groups/Teams) through these messages. If you want to send invites, please read:

Inviting Members to your Group/Team

Inviting Players to Your Tournament

Failure to follow these rules may cause your account to be suspended or deleted.

Thank you for keeping Chess.com fun & friendly!

A message we do send to those caught in the spam filter is this :

We have a system to protect members from unwanted/non-personal messages. Often these messages are true spam - but sometimes they are bulk messages sent by members with good intentions.

Unfortunately, the system can't tell which is which - that's why we have created specialized tools that members can use to communicate without needing to send the same exact message over and over to multiple people: group messages, tournament invitations, etc.

I know it is frustrating to have your account closed like this. However, we're committed to protecting all members from unwanted messages. If you feel that there is a reason to send bulk messages that is not handled by the tools we already have, please let us know.

I don't think anyone said you should be grateful, just that perhaps that complaining about it is a bit... well... a bit pathetic really.

Do you really think you have a reputation here?  Seriously?  Do you really think that people will see what happened to your account and think less of you because of it? Really?

Perhaps it's true.  Or perhaps you are awfully narcissistic.

Balachander read Kohai messages

You keep stating this as fact. I assume there is zero chance that Skand could have been at fault?