SNC ethos?

[Blockhead]

I seem to remember reading some time ago of Stan's philosophy and expectations for SNC and those who play here.

I was very taken with his hopes for the site, that it might generate a welcoming and friendly chessic community; one which placed as high a value on creating new friendships, as the game itself. How successful has Stan been in that regard?

I regret many seem to see the site in terms of raw chess, i.e. minimal dialog (if any!) and 'heads down' ... especially those who play the tournaments!

Whenever and whoever I challenge/play I usually stress my wish to 'chat' rather than just play. For the most part this works very well, sometimes less so.

How successful has Stan been in creating his 'chessic community of friends' (my quotes!)?

Perhaps Stan and others might like to comment on his early ideas and hopes for the site, and also on playing the game with or without dialog/comment.

[reyn]

bh said:

I regret many seem to see the site in terms of raw chess, i.e. minimal dialog (if any!) and 'heads down' ... especially those who play the tournaments!

<edit>

How successful has Stan been in creating his 'chessic community of friends' (my quotes!)?

Quite honestly, I think this issue has nothing to do with Stan's site, but rather it's a "people thing".

Some either want to chat or they don't. This has been discuseed in the past here. Some just want to do their "Good Luck" and get on with the game, or talk for a couple of times, or sporadically through the game when it seems an opportune tine.

Myself, I gear my chat with the person I'm playing with. If they want to chat, fine. If not, that's fine, too.

Some are playing a lot of games, and find little time or interest to engage in conversation.

I don't think it would make any difference what Stan did, or did not do. An area is provided for some exchange of words. I think that's good enough.

To give you an example. Some time back, I was involved in setting up the "Welcome Wagon" in which you see the link on Challenge Central. It ended up being very little used. A lot of effort went into that by Savin and myself, and then to keep it running.

Human nature is what it is. I don't think you can get someone to chat if they don't want /isn't interested in it.

[sisyfos]

In addition to what Reyn says we also has to remember that this in an international site where not all players are equally good at writing in English. That said, I agree with Blockhead in that the game message facility could be better geared for dialog. Right now there's a limit to how many characters we can write and the text field is too small.

[reyn]

sisyfos said:

Right now there's a limit to how many characters we can write and the text field is too small.

For those interested in chatting, the text field is a little bit small.....

BUT, is it worthwhile for Stan to enlargen this area? Doing so would probably be an offset somewhere else on the page. I'm guessing not.

In my opinion, this feature should have a low priority as opposed to enhancements on other parts of the site.

[Johnny5]

Hi all

I must admit that I find it quite annoying when people don't even greet you at the start of a game or congratulate you if you win.

No matter what language you speak, it doesn't take much for a simple 'gl' or 'gg'.

[mugley]

it doesn't bother me one way or another i will chat some if asked or not

[reyn]

johnny5 said:

Hi all

I must admit that I find it quite annoying when people don't even greet you at the start of a game or congratulate you if you win.

No matter what language you speak, it doesn't take much for a simple 'gl' or 'gg'.

Johnny, there are some I've figured don't speak English, or are not confident enough to use the language. They probably don't have a clue as to what "GL" or "GG" even means.

I get much more annoyed when I know the person speaks English, but just can't be bothered. I get even more annoyed when the same person chats in other games, but not in yours.

BUT, people are what they are. It wouldn't make any difference to what Stan did on his site. There will be some that don't participate in chat.

[reyn]

mugley said:

it doesn't bother me one way or another i will chat some if asked or not

That's pretty much my attitude, Doug. I mirror whatever my opponent does for the most part.

If I'm playing white and I don't get a reply on the first move, I just leave it be and get on with the game.

[nightmare]

Less chatter. More thinking. Thats MY MOTTO.

[The Ancient Brit]

I think both Reyn and nightmare have points. For me, Stan’s is about chess and chat. I would go so far as to say that were the dialogue box to be discontinued I would rapidly lose interest in Stan’s. I would like to see the dialogue box enlarged but since it is not of interest to all, as Reyn points out, this might be at the cost of a feature somewhere else on the site.

I play about twenty games and roughly, about fifty percent of my opponents do not chat, or show any inclination to chat whatsoever. Half of the remainder will chat if pushed and the other half will chat away quite happily. I have formed friendships as result of these chats and the friendships have developed into emails outside of chess matters.

While I welcome chatting, it is not one of my requirements. I would have no problem playing either Reyn who likes to chat or nightmare who prefers not to chat. It does so much depend on one’s opponent. I take my cue from them. If they respond favourably to my opening dialogue, all well and good, if not then on with the chess.

In reply to Blockhead’s query, “How successful has Stan been in creating his 'chessic community of friends' (my quotes!)? Very successful as far as I am concerned is my answer.

[reyn]

theancientbrit said:

I would go so far as to say that were the dialogue box to be discontinued I would rapidly lose interest in Stan’s. I would like to see the dialogue box enlarged but since it is not of interest to all, as Reyn points out, this might be at the cost of a feature somewhere else on the site.

Perhaps Stan could answer this one.

Stan, is there any possibility that the space put aside for dialogue underneath the game board, could be enlargened slightly per move?

Perhaps this could be put on the list for the future, if this is doable.

[Stan Steliga]

Of course, anything can be done. The problem I have in enlarging the comment size (currently 255 characters) is the space that the comments take up on the server. We recently went over 18 Million moves at the site. You can see how space become an issue with so many moves being stored. I think I need to come up with a different approach to storing game comments. Maybe I can allow more comments - and bigger comments - if I delete the comments after a game is finished, or after a certain time has gone by after a game is finished??? I don't know.

One thing that has been requested a lot is to allow comments be made at any time - not just when submitting a move. I would like to do that, but I really would have to have some rules to limit the number and overall size of the comments.

My goal with the comments was to allow players to have short communication with each move. Maybe allowing subscribers a bigger space would be something to consider, since expanding the comments might require that I add more disk space to the server.

I'm always listening, and I always try to do everything I can for all of you, but I have to consider the impact of changes like this. Unfortunately, another consideration of a change to the comments size is the abuse that a small number of players will heap on the system. I haven't seen it lately, but I have seen some players in the past just filling up the entire comment field with all X's or whatever. I don't know if they were trying to annoy their opponent, or just use up my resources. But that is the kind of thing that I always have to consider with all change requests.

[mugley]

Stan, not trying not be rude or anything, but if they want to chat more then they could use IM's yahoo will let you leave messages if the other person isn't on right then

[Johnny5]

admin said:

One thing that has been requested a lot is to allow comments be made at any time - not just when submitting a move. I would like to do that, but I really would have to have some rules to limit the number and overall size of the comments.

I like this idea, there has been many times when I have sent my move and not answered a question that my opponent has asked or have realised that I've missed something out of my comment

[beck15]

mugley said:

Stan, not trying not be rude or anything, but if they want to chat more then they could use IM's yahoo will let you leave messages if the other person isn't on right then

i second that. there are plenty of chat sites/services on the net to be complaining about chatting requirements here at stan's. not everybody would be inclined to chatting. it would be nice to observe at least formalities like 'hi, gl & gg' though!