Right now, I'm on the verge of deciding just to get rid of the internet. The main reason I have the internet is to play chess on it, but I'm thinking to just never play chess online again. There's just too many immature dicks. People are dicks before the games start, they're dicks when they win, they're dicks when they lose, just too much dickery. And yes say it's only 1 out of every 10 games that something negative happens, but that incident in the 1 game really annoys me.
I play here and at chess.com. Although I find lichess better than chess.com in regards to this issue, it's still a problem at both sites and from what I've seen it's an internet wide-problem.
I'd say the majority of people playing chess online behave nicely. I'd not say the "vast" majority, but the majority, perhaps 75% of people. Of the 25% who don't, some are much worse than others. Most of these 25% are just mild assholes, doing things like disabling chat after I type "hello" at the start of a long game (I don't type hello in blitz games for fear people will think I'm trying to distract them, but when I sit down to spend a few hours playing a game with someone I think a "hello" is in order). Or, making a mildly rude comment, saying something like "you're really not that good" after a loss, etc.
Then there are those I term the "super-assholes", I'll perhaps get one of these out of every one hundred encounters. Here's an example from both sites
Lichess - Was playing an anonymous blitz game. My opponent was White and got a good position out of the opening and we were in a middlegame where I was under a kingside attack. At first glance it looked very scary for me. My opponent apparently thought the game was won as he typed in the chatbox "I hope you enjoyed our little rape session immensely" However I defended well and even won some material later, at which point my opponent left the game without resigning. Even though I won, I still found the comment disturbing, what kind of person would type such a thing unprovoked? (I must admit sometimes I've typed nasty things to people but only after they typed things to me, never unprovoked.)
Now for an example from Chess.com. I was again playing blitz. I was playing a user called "LitoticChess" who had a much higher blitz rating than me, though I later looked at their profile and saw they were always playing people rated much lower than them so I think their rating was inflated. Anyway, at the start of the game this person types "idiot". I disable chat. I end up winning the game after he made a clear blunder in his calculation of what he thought was a tactical sequence that would win material for him. The next day I notice this same guy has come to my profile and left a message saying something like "Weak loser who beat me only because I made a mouse slip"
I imagine a site where every chat, every message is recorded, and not even a little rudeness is allowed. Like for example if someone offered a draw from a worse position and then their opponent tried too hard to win and ends up losing and they type something like "haha you should have taken the draw" that person would be banned. I just imagine a chess site where the rudeness and nastiness that characterizes online chess and the internet in general doesn't exist, and I believe it can be done with very strict moderation and enforcement.
I play here and at chess.com. Although I find lichess better than chess.com in regards to this issue, it's still a problem at both sites and from what I've seen it's an internet wide-problem.
I'd say the majority of people playing chess online behave nicely. I'd not say the "vast" majority, but the majority, perhaps 75% of people. Of the 25% who don't, some are much worse than others. Most of these 25% are just mild assholes, doing things like disabling chat after I type "hello" at the start of a long game (I don't type hello in blitz games for fear people will think I'm trying to distract them, but when I sit down to spend a few hours playing a game with someone I think a "hello" is in order). Or, making a mildly rude comment, saying something like "you're really not that good" after a loss, etc.
Then there are those I term the "super-assholes", I'll perhaps get one of these out of every one hundred encounters. Here's an example from both sites
Lichess - Was playing an anonymous blitz game. My opponent was White and got a good position out of the opening and we were in a middlegame where I was under a kingside attack. At first glance it looked very scary for me. My opponent apparently thought the game was won as he typed in the chatbox "I hope you enjoyed our little rape session immensely" However I defended well and even won some material later, at which point my opponent left the game without resigning. Even though I won, I still found the comment disturbing, what kind of person would type such a thing unprovoked? (I must admit sometimes I've typed nasty things to people but only after they typed things to me, never unprovoked.)
Now for an example from Chess.com. I was again playing blitz. I was playing a user called "LitoticChess" who had a much higher blitz rating than me, though I later looked at their profile and saw they were always playing people rated much lower than them so I think their rating was inflated. Anyway, at the start of the game this person types "idiot". I disable chat. I end up winning the game after he made a clear blunder in his calculation of what he thought was a tactical sequence that would win material for him. The next day I notice this same guy has come to my profile and left a message saying something like "Weak loser who beat me only because I made a mouse slip"
I imagine a site where every chat, every message is recorded, and not even a little rudeness is allowed. Like for example if someone offered a draw from a worse position and then their opponent tried too hard to win and ends up losing and they type something like "haha you should have taken the draw" that person would be banned. I just imagine a chess site where the rudeness and nastiness that characterizes online chess and the internet in general doesn't exist, and I believe it can be done with very strict moderation and enforcement.
