English Chess Forum

I am thinking about moving this whole not chess section into a specific members only area

Thoughts please?

I feel it distracts a little from the general chess feeling and should perhaps only be visible to members and not the whole world

Carl Hibbard wrote:I am thinking about moving this whole not chess section into a specific members only area

Thoughts please?

I feel it distracts a little from the general chess feeling and should perhaps only be visible to members and not the whole world

Yes i agree with that.

Carl Hibbard wrote:I am thinking about moving this whole not chess section into a specific members only area

Thoughts please?

I feel it distracts a little from the general chess feeling and should perhaps only be visible to members and not the whole world

I dont like the idea of a members only section, the beauty of the Internet is the ability to link to things. What if (I'm going crazy and) I really like the cats' pictures and want all my friends to see them? Why making it more complicated than sending a link to the post?
Whether you want to allow such non-chess posts is a completely different matter, but if you do, please dont be embarassed by them.

In general, I would keep the forum as simple and flat as possible.
I believe there are already too many sections and sub-forums, it's confusing and makes it more difficult to follow. I would merge some of the streams down to less than ten.

Some good points yes...

Carl Hibbard wrote: I feel it distracts a little from the general chess feeling and should perhaps only be visible to members and not the whole world

Would you consider making these items less visible than "members only?"

Carl Hibbard wrote:I am thinking about moving this whole not chess section into a specific members only area

Thoughts please?

I feel it distracts a little from the general chess feeling and should perhaps only be visible to members and not the whole world

Thanks for asking, so here are my thoughts. Should you prefer only chess, and nothing but, and only chess people mentioned only in the context of the game, then either make the "not chess" section members only, or delete it entirely from the forum.

Yes, I'm a regular contributor to the "not chess" area because it is there, and being garrulous and outgoing it is interesting for me to exchange postings with other chess players that are game, while, even if seemingly sometimes "controversial" for some, I believe that most of the input, including my own (despite what some might think), has managed to stay clear of trolling and denigrating references to other forum members (which can be more destructive IMO than "not chess" controversies.) It is, however, your forum, and I think you should get rid of "not chess", or at least put in "under cover", if you are uncomfortable with the subjects that get in there, especially if sponsors might not like it. Better to have a forum only about chess than no forum at all.

To sum up, I like "not chess", but in the final analysis, I support whatever you want and feel is best for the forum, and I suspect that you'd rather lose it altogether, as you've suggested several times. It will still be a great forum, with or without "not chess".

I have not convinced myself either way George hence me asking for members opinions

Chess, at times has been a minor sin (and banned by religious authority).
One major problem with 'Not Chess' is that it covers a multitude of sins.
Since this is the English Chess Forum I think that English chess should be the centre and focus of discussion. (That should not preclude discussion of chess in the wider world.)
There are many other places to discuss other topics in greater detail.
However, it may be of interest to know what chessplayers think about a variety of topics. Therefore your solution of making 'Not Chess' members only is a good one, in my opinion, because if anyone is really interested in reading/posting there they can become a visible member and not just a visiting, anonymous guest (ghost).

John McKenna wrote:However, it may be of interest to know what chessplayers think about a variety of topics.

Seconded.

Frankly, I can't see much point in having "not chess" on a chess forum. There are plenty of other ways of engaging in such debates. I think Paolo's suggestion of thinning out the topic headers is a sensible one. But then I normally use View Active Topics as my default view and very rarely use the Board Index page, so if the trivia and esoteric items are recent, they show up near the top. A 'members only' section assumes that regular users actually log-in. I only log-in when I want to comment or send a PM, but presumably you have data on how many times members log-in.

Steve Rooney wrote:Frankly, I can't see much point in having "not chess" on a chess forum. There are plenty of other ways of engaging in such debates. I think Paolo's suggestion of thinning out the topic headers is a sensible one. But then I normally use View Active Topics as my default view and very rarely use the Board Index page, so if the trivia and esoteric items are recent, they show up near the top. A 'members only' section assumes that regular users actually log-in. I only log-in when I want to comment or send a PM, but presumably you have data on how many times members log-in.

The point is that major events (like General Elections) inevitably get mentioned in a chess-related thread, which then drifts off into a distinctly 'Not chess' discussion. The 'Not chess' section has been successful in siphoning off those topics. The drawback is that there is a risk of starting a free-for-all. Some of the recent topics have struck me as frivolous and beyond the real purpose of 'Not chess' (although I also plead guilty to having posted in at least one of them).

Currently, 'Not chess' is responsible for less than 5% of all posts. If it were to creep up above 10% I'd start to get worried.

Is it possible to introduce a FB-style 'like' button as well as the ! report post button?

Adam Raoof wrote:Is it possible to introduce a FB-style 'like' button as well as the ! report post button?

the request should be denied just for mentioning something "FB-like"

anyway, I guess you mean something like this: http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=645855

it's an interesting option, but it might open a can of worms for the moderator(s), things like "why has my post been rated so low? who is lowering the rate of all my posts? I asked for XYZ and eveybody starred my post, why is XYZ not yet implemented? I starred my own post and this does not show up, why???" and similar kind of silly complains...

The forum is becoming a little too much like hard work without me introducing a rating system and getting more calls for moderation

I think a members only area is a good idea it may make more people join so as to assess all the areas of the forum.