Thanks MIG, we need some more posters in the forum! I think I used the daily dirt page for a few months before I ever bothered to notice the forum, so there may be others out there like me. There are some good (and some not so good) posters, but there are too few of them. The topics will be much more interesting with more members.

The forum needs better organization if you want more traffic: Divide the 65th square into a "general chess talk" and an "off-topic" forum, and add an "opening" a "middlegame" and an "endgame" section.

As a former very active member of those boards, I can attest that not everyone thinks like "knight tour". Sometime after I started posting regularly there, some of the older posters pointed me as the reason why they left the boards. That has, however, nothing to do with why I became inactive.

They do have some interesting non-chess stuff going on. For me personally, I don't care as much about the non-chess stuff, and I find that DD has more current discussions than the boards. Personal taste...

I was a regular lurker and occasional poster from the beginning (member 232). After a while, I got tired of the flamers, whiners, and the I'll-leave-the-boards-because-nobody-loves-me types (who always came back). I decided it was not worth my time to separate the wheat from the chaff.

I waited a year and tried again, but was once again disappointed (only the names had changed, not the m.o.).

To be sure there are a few posters whose words I miss (e.g. inky, permanent_brain), but I find the DD a little more civilized (LBacan and his/her interlocutors notwithstanding). Here I am particularly fond of Duif's words -- they are always thoughtful.

In my experience, the forum works best as a place to play chess, via on-line tournaments, to get involved in fantasy leagues and other chess-related competitions, and as a place to discuss current events in the chess world. Also, there are several regular members who have a lot to offer with respect to the history of chess (our very own Winter lites). It works worst as a place to discuss politics, history, and religion, despite the fact that these are the most popular threads (while there are often interesting aspects to these threads, the content to nonsense ratio can be shockingly low).

Like knight_tour, I believe that the forum would benefit from a wider range of perspectives. I encourage all the DD readers to check it out.

As for you Murali -- well, if you posted as much spam at the DD as you did in the forums, you probably would have received the same reaction here. ;)

Nobody uses opening, middlegame, and endgame forums. Dividing things too finely is just a mess and it decreases participation without making anything easier. As long as the title of the thread is good, there's no worry about that. I'd tend to want to eliminate boards not create more, although the idea of a non-chess board is a good one. Threads on history and politics have become popular.

I use the boards most often and primarily to discuss live games or to read about games in the analysis sections. I hope no one feels that they must read the entire message board to be a member and get something out of it. Personally I wouldn't mind seeing more chess knowledge on the board and more chess discussion (that's not a pointless circle) on the board but that's it.

As one of the long time members, and at the moment the one with the most posts (I'm about to lose that any minute now), I'd like to say that the message boards can be fun most of the time.

We not only discuss chess - current tournaments, analysis (though not at the highest level), chess politics - there's a lot of that - but we also run tournaments and have our own team - open to new members anytime - on game knot, an internet correspondence chess site.

We do have our share of share of people who would like to be the LBacan of the ninja world, and therefore we moderate the board and when they become too obnoxious we close threads and delete parts of or entire posts. But, for the most part people are relatively polite, positively funny and I love to post pictures and others love to post links to some very interesting stuff.

jdmarino, thanks for missing me – you can come back, I’m still there. And, I invite others to come too. Remember, even though he’d like you to, you don’t have to subscribe to Mig’s newsletter to post. You don’t even have to register to lurk (we have a lot of lurkers), but registering is easy and free. Just think up a name and password – you don’t have to fill in any other information at all. If you register, you get to speak your peace.

Oh yes, all the really good posts on the DD are made by ninjas.  Then we go back to the boards and talk about what jerks the rest of you are. (not Duif, whom we all admire and for the most part agree with or Jen Shahade, whose book we are all going to buy).

I quit the board some months ago when I realized that a couple of stupid and/or mentally ill people were making a lot of noise with a lot of articles that were both void of chess content and of the least sign of intelligence. Not mentioning some christian fanatic who couldn't help but talking repeatedly about his faith in god in every possible way.

The overall mood of the board changes quite regularly. In the beginning it was goofy, but in a good way. It then became quite earnest, but not always in a good way. And now it seems to be changing again. If one has a sense of humor and a willingness to tolerate a low level of idiocy (as opposed to the consistently high levels of idiocy found on most message boards) CN can be a highly enjoyable, welcoming, and intellectually stimulating place.

"but we also run tournaments and have our own team - open to new members anytime - on game knot, an internet correspondence chess site."

Interesting that you point this out, inky. I am personally a big fan of blitz and lightning games, but I noticed most active people in the boards prefer slower styles like G60.

We're currently in the semi-final stage of the very first ChessNinja Blitz Championship -- 4, 6, or 8 games of 5/2 time control. You're welcome to join the next event, which will probably begin sometime next month. Incidentally, the next iteration of the Tournament Of Ninja Champions series (we're in the final round of TONC4 right now) will probably begin at about the same time, with a standard control of G/30, though G/60, 30+15 and 60+15 are also played regularly.

We're currently in the semi-final stage of the very first ChessNinja Blitz Championship -- 4, 6, or 8 games of 5/2 time control. You're welcome to join the next event, which will probably begin sometime next month. Incidentally, the next iteration of the Tournament Of Ninja Champions series (we're in the final round of TONC4 right now) will probably begin at about the same time, with a standard control of G/30, though G/60, 30+15 and 60+15 are also played regularly.

"We're currently in the semi-final stage of the very first ChessNinja Blitz Championship -- 4, 6, or 8 games of 5/2 time control."

I never play with increments - when you host a "1/0" or "3/0" tournament let me know :-)

I only know about a few international chess forums but at least the CN one is by far the most civil among those.

I used to frequently post to the message boards, but quit visiting. They became too tiresome and tendentious. Ceaseless arguing about World Championship formats, short draws, "Garry Rules", "Anand Rules", Elo rating "standings", ...

And Marc made some very good points above, btw.

Yah, but as long as they leave 90% of the threads alone you always have the same option as you do at home when something annoying comes on the TV. Change the channel.

I think there is potential out there for a truly great chess message board, but from my experience at the ChessPub forums even things that shouldn't necessarily be moderated sometimes need to be gone. If you look at the site and look under any of their opening boards you will see that most of them are chalk full of stupid gambit lines when most people who pay for subsciptions to the site would seem to be interested in useful theoretical discussions. You will see never-ending threads on a side-line of the blackmar-diemer (which is already a side-line) because there are 15 people who believe the main line wins by force. As for politics, I think at least from my experience here they've been okay. Sometimes you get people totally deluded in their views (myself included), but as long as they support their opinion and provide arguments it can all be useful.

>>I never play with increments - when you host a "1/0" or "3/0" tournament let me know :-)<<

Murali, how about playing some 0/0 games?

>>I never play with increments - when you host a >>"1/0" or "3/0" tournament let me know :-) Murali, how about playing some 0/0 games?

My point clealry proven: people in the message boards have no respect for faster styles.

Maybe it's the people who play faster styles who have no respect for message boards.....

"Maybe it's the people who play faster styles who have no respect for message boards....."

I used to post a lot there, and Russianbear (who wrote an article on how to play 1/0) posts there often.