Team Tournament? And Stansco future?

[hal]

Stan, Savin, ?,

I can see, that Stansco is a bit starving recently. No new initiatives or improvements, any news comming only once a year. May I know, what's happening? I really like Stansco, but mainly due to my playing at Stansco from 1999. If I should search now, I would probably found a lot of other very good sites, which would be better than Stansco, but I will still stay here and pay subcriber fee if I see any future.

So at least now, what's the next plans for :
a) Team Tourney
b) Next Season of Global Site Tourneys (Swiss, ...)
c) Stansco as the whole?

I wish to Stansco great future ...

Regards,

Ing. Petr Zelenka, Czech Republic

[Stan Steliga]

Yes - you're right - there have not been many new things happening at the site lately. I have no excuse, other than I am a one man "company" here. I have never made any money from the site and I have to keep a regular job to make a living.

Although I have not had the time I would like to have lately to improve the site, I am trying to keep the site going by providing quick support to people that have questions, and I monitor the site 24/7 to make sure it is available to everyone.

To address your specific questions:
a) Team Tourneys: I hope that these will start up again, but from what I saw before they weren't going as well as one would hope. The teams had trouble getting members to participate if I am not mistaken (correct me if I am wrong). Maybe a new attempt should be made in a more official manner, where I might be able to program the team stuff into the site (rather than depending on the Message Board for most of the team business to happen at).

b) Swiss Tourneys: I have recently spoken to Savin and he tells me that he is ready to get the next rounds of those tourneys started. Keep an eye out for more news about that at the site.

c) Stansco as a whole: I hope that I can bring the site to the next level. Something is going to have to change to bring the subscription base up. Things in my personal life have let up a bit, so I hope to get back into improving the site more and more. You should start to see things change in the very near future. I have made mistakes in the past by trying to announce dates when things would happen so I am not going to do that now.

I appreciate your commitment to the site over the years. There are many great long-time members here, and I know that you all have many options out there for playing chess. This site has grown to become something I never dreamed of when I started it in 1998. I hope that people will stick with me through this slow time and see that I do care about everyones experience at the site.

Thanks, and best wishes to you Petr with whatever decision you make.

[rttchess]

I've done a lot of browsing of chess sites and tried out a few others. My humble opinion is that Stansco is special for its ease of operation, if you just want just to play correspondence chess against other people of like mind. There is no pressure to chat with your opponents but there are no barriers either. It's good to feel in control of who you play, and how you play. The lack of 'bells and whistles' is a plus point for me. I was completely at home on Stansco in no time. On some of the others sites I've looked at I might need a three-day training course.
I agree Stansco needs to feel 'alive' with regular news and tourneys etc. However I believe it would be counterproductive (and I guess expensive) to try and 'me too' with some of the more 'successful' sites (successful in quotes please note - beauty is in the eye of the beholder)
Regarding the revenue from subscribers, if it's not against your principles, would it be worth a try touting for business? A lot of users probably don't know you don't make money from the site and need the subscription revenue to keep the site 'going forward'. I don't really need the subscriber add-ons but I will continue to subscribe as long as I use the site because it's only fair to do so. I think I'm suggesting advertisements with the thrust 'subscribe because your chess site needs you'. Possibly a different 'look and feel' on the home page of subscribers (like wearing a club tie) and perhaps a news flash when a new subscriber signs up may help?.
Whatever you decide to do Stan please be assured we are grateful.
Keep up the good work!

[dim7th]

I agree with RTTChess. I really enjoy this site and will continue to renew my subscription. Thanks for all you do here Stan.

[Johnny5]

I'm with you guys too. Keep it up Stan!!!

[THE BOD !!!]

Having been a player at this site for a long time I have seen many people come and go, and often those that leave do so through no fault of their own, bankruptcy, death, fed up of losing!.

Stan is a patron to the magnificence of life and his devotion, time and effort in keeping this site running is testament to his ability. There are many among us who have the ability to create tournaments ourselves, and could do so whilst updates are being made. I for one am looking forward to the final rating system, the introduction of a ladder scheme and for more refreshing tournaments, including pre-arranged move games for specific openings. If we continue our support of www.stansco.com/netchess then in return and in time we will reap the rewards for our patience.

[cyberbrain]

Hi Stan! This is still a great site and your time consuming work is very much appreciated by lots of players. Don't feel any pressure to move on the next level, just do things in your own pace and time.

I became a subscriber because I felt it was a good thing to do. Why should internet facilities be for free? That isn't the case in real life, is it?

I hope you will keep the inspiration for maintaining this beautiful chess site. Thank you.

[nightmare]

Stan has the BEST SITE on the net, bar none. Keep it up Stan.

[reyn]

rttchess said:

Regarding the revenue from subscribers, if it's not against your principles, would it be worth a try touting for business? A lot of users probably don't know you don't make money from the site and need the subscription revenue to keep the site 'going forward'. I don't really need the subscriber add-ons but I will continue to subscribe as long as I use the site because it's only fair to do so.

Bravo! Well said, Ray!

[Blockhead]

admin said:

a) Team Tourneys: I hope that these will start up again, but from what I saw before they weren't going as well as one would hope. The teams had trouble getting members to participate if I am not mistaken (correct me if I am wrong). Maybe a new attempt should be made in a more official manner, where I might be able to program the team stuff into the site (rather than depending on the Message Board for most of the team business to happen at).

Either way Stan (MB or site), I'd be grateful if you could make a note that I'd like to participate once you have decided on the 'how' of it.

I also want to say that I fully support the positive comments made (and the many unsaid on this MB!) about the site and, more importantly, about you!

[savin]

Team Tourneys are a Good news/Bad News Story.

let me start with the good news:

1) We have all the code in place to allow us to run a divisional league type of team tournament.
2) We even have the code to allow us to run a Swiss Tournament with teams (team members are not allowed to play each other and the team with the highest combined score wins)

Now the bad news ....

We have not found a good way to form the team in the first place. There are a few groups of old friends who could form a couple of teams, but otherwise its a matter of putting near strangers together on a team. When you couple this with the natural turnover at a chess site you quickly have a problem.

The basic problem is the teams will tend to have no identity and without this many teams will just fall apart -- chess is a solitary game at the best of times.

So how dow we proceed? The only real short term answer would be to have a "Manager" of teams. This person would work with teams to get them formed, would help when people leave, etc.

This is a huge job -- it could easily take 10-15 hours a week for the next 3-4 months. And this still does not solve the team idenity crisis.

Assuming we have a volunteer to help organize the teams, we could have a couple of special team tournaments. For instance, THE WORLD CUP, with one team of four per country. This at least gives the teams an idenity.

Any way .. we are open to suggestions and volunteers.