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Very Hot Topic (More than 25 Replies) Is this forum dying? (Read 90992 times)
LeeRoth
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Re: Is this forum dying?
Reply #11 - 05/15/17 at 19:05:23
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Bibs wrote on 05/15/17 at 12:14:05:
I just think that earlier the forum had people who were unusually, even bizarrely, active. Notably mnb and Markovich (RIP the latter). I see the earlier activity levels being more outlying really.


There is some truth in this.  We also benefitted from a number of up-and-coming authors who would discuss the lines in their books.

  
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LeeRoth
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Re: Is this forum dying?
Reply #10 - 05/15/17 at 19:00:53
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Instead of cursing the darkness, how about lighting a candle?  You want more high-level analysis, then post some.  And when someone else posts some, then engage and discuss.   

      

  
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fling
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Re: Is this forum dying?
Reply #9 - 05/15/17 at 16:02:51
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I've asked a lot of question, both good and bad, and also tried to answer many posts. But I think the tone also changed a while ago in some posts, and I got tired of that.
  
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Bibs
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Re: Is this forum dying?
Reply #8 - 05/15/17 at 12:14:05
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I just think that earlier the forum had people who were unusually, even bizarrely, active. Notably mnb and Markovich (RIP the latter). I see the earlier activity levels being more outlying really.

But yes, agree with the earlier comments re: frustration with certain ardent time-wasters asking for line x in book y, ad nauseum. I'm convinced that this annoyed many and decreased value of the whole site. I saw that in some parts as deliberate ar*****e trolling rather than novice questioning, which would always be dealt with patiently and helpfully.

  
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brabo
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Re: Is this forum dying?
Reply #7 - 05/13/17 at 16:00:38
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Smyslov_Fan wrote on 05/13/17 at 14:44:35:
I know I haven't been able to participate as much as I have in the past, and it seems that several of the other members who have been here for years aren't posting as much either. 

Still, there were quite a few votes for the book of the year, which is probably a good measure of how many people visit the site regularly.

Smyslov_Fan wrote on 05/13/17 at 14:46:03:
We had 130 votes for the book of the year contest.


Not really as this year it was the first time that guests could vote see
LeeRoth wrote on 04/17/17 at 20:47:18:
I left the poll open.  I thought having guests vote might bring in more votes and make the poll more meaningful.  The members didn't seem as interested as they usually are, and, given that hardly anyone noticed when the thread was accidentally deleted, I was concerned that a members-only poll might not garner enough votes.
  
I don't know that anything "dark" happened, but it is nevertheless disturbing that most of Nikos's votes came in on the 14th, after he posted his Facebook message.  The poll is supposed to be about the best book; its not supposed to be a popularity contest to see which author has the most friends.  If that is what has happened, then it was a mistake to let the guests vote.      

Tony, you are the boss.  If you want to back out the guest votes, it's your prerogative.      



In the end there was quite a bit of annoyance by how suddenly a huge number of guests voted for 1 person.

No as I wrote on my blog, you need to look at the number of posts. We have an average of +33/ day over 15 years (excluding spams and other removed posts). We now have regularly days without any posts. Making it easier again to become member maybe will help but I very much doubt it. On my blog I have a direct link to chesspub but I don't know if anybody ever clicked on it. Advertising chesspub looks not so simple.

Honestly I started to look for alternatives. However who can challenge this forum? The forum at chess.com is a complete mess.
  
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Smyslov_Fan
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Re: Is this forum dying?
Reply #6 - 05/13/17 at 14:46:03
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We had 130 votes for the book of the year contest.
  
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Smyslov_Fan
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Re: Is this forum dying?
Reply #5 - 05/13/17 at 14:44:35
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I know I haven't been able to participate as much as I have in the past, and it seems that several of the other members who have been here for years aren't posting as much either. 

Still, there were quite a few votes for the book of the year, which is probably a good measure of how many people visit the site regularly.
  
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GMTonyKosten
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Re: Is this forum dying?
Reply #4 - 05/13/17 at 10:29:47
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I wonder if it is due in some part to the fact that I have made it more difficult to join (now anyone wishing to join has to say why, and if I'm not convinced I refuse them) to keep spammers away?
  
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ErictheRed
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Re: Is this forum dying?
Reply #3 - 05/12/17 at 19:00:22
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Some of the really great, active contributors from years past are no longer active or no longer with us (BPaulsen, Markovic).  Computers play a role, too.  

Me personally, various things have taken up all of my free time, including a big project that is finally complete and that will likely be announced here very soon... Wink.  So I may have more time to comment.  

I personally became less interested when we seemed to get a slew of weaker players, frankly.  Three to five years ago we seemed to get a lot of posters asking very basic questions (which weren't interesting to me), and asking asinine questions like "What does author X recommend in subvariation 6bqpd2.4 of author Y's recommendation in book ____?"  I became weary of that.  

In essence, I actually thought that the content of posts was becoming poorer in general.  

I also think that computers are stopping good discussion; there should be plenty of room for !? moves, moves that are interesting and pose unique problems or new approaches in known positions, but it seems to me that discussion of interesting ideas has lessened, partly because of an influx of weaker players and partly because people just turn on their engines and don't really investigate the ideas for themselves to try to understand and improve upon them in a human way.
  
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Confused_by_Theory
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Re: Is this forum dying?
Reply #2 - 05/12/17 at 15:40:49
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Hello.

Apart from the fact that there are very competent engines to give answers on positional evaluations, which Brabo mentions on his blog. I suppose that also information about openings has become more available as well. I'm talking good databases, opening books in general and videos for example.

The need to go to this nice corner of the internet for opening information thus seems reduced.

As for ways forward. Supposedly new and reasonably active forum members need to be found somewhere. The only way I can think of improving the situation here, without doing a lot of active marketing, is to make a strategy of where in the rest of the internet chess world this forum wants to be visible (with links, logos and mentions).
Edit: And executing this to some degree of course.

Have a nice day.
  
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TonyRo
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Re: Is this forum dying?
Reply #1 - 05/12/17 at 12:43:55
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I have been thinking and saying the same for a while now. ChessPub used to be a place of very frequent and deep discussions, and now it seems to be mostly inactive. How do we rejuvenate this great place!?  Cry
  
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brabo
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Is this forum dying?
05/12/17 at 12:08:44
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3 days without any post. I am a member for 10 years and I can't remember such long hiatus. I noticed last couple of years interest fading away but now I fear this forum could really stop existing.
I used this theme and some other stuff in my most recent article.
Dutch: 
http://schaken-brabo.blogspot.be/2017/05/chesspub.html
English:
http://chess-brabo.blogspot.com/2017/05/chesspub.html
  
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