Bring a friend day

[Joey Stewart]

I was thinking to myself how we have lost many good members of the forum this last year or so, some by an untimely end and others through their own behaviour.

What is clear, however is that numbers are dwindling and there will eventually come a day when there aren't even enough of us left to post each others obituaries, a sad future indeed.

So I decided that we should do a 'bring a friend' event, basically you find someone you know in real life (a chess player ideally) who you think will talk the talk and make a valuable contribution and convince them they have to join up. I've seen a similar idea work really well in primary schools and those are only child minds at work so I think if a bunch of adults put their mind to it then it will surely be a roaring success.

[Matt Mackenzie]

I was thinking to myself how we have lost many good members of the forum this last year or so, some by an untimely end and others through their own behaviour.

What is clear, however is that numbers are dwindling and there will eventually come a day when there aren't even enough of us left to post each others obituaries, a sad future indeed.

So I decided that we should do a 'bring a friend' event, basically you find someone you know in real life (a chess player ideally) who you think will talk the talk and make a valuable contribution and convince them they have to join up. I've seen a similar idea work really well in primary schools and those are only child minds at work so I think if a bunch of adults put their mind to it then it will surely be a roaring success.

This is surely fairly indispensable for anybody expected to be more than an occasional contributor.

[Simon Rogers]

Hi Joey.
I know I am guilty of not posting much over the last few months. This is due to long hours at work.
Not been well recently as I have been full of a cold.
I will try to make an effort to post more on the forum. particularly in the Congress Diary Category.

[MJMcCready]

I would say this forum is in far better shape than most, if not all, chess forums online. No need to be so worried.

[David York]

When I saw the topic I thought it might be about recruiting more chess players to clubs - but no, just to the forum.
Just need to find someone with enough spare time to hit social media to draw in the crowds...

[Joey Stewart]

When I saw the topic I thought it might be about recruiting more chess players to clubs - but no, just to the forum.
Just need to find someone with enough spare time to hit social media to draw in the crowds...

I could do that myself if I just wanted a rent a crowd, but I was thinking more that if current members bring someone they know is good then we would have a better quality of person signing up - I wouldn't want it to be like chess.com or lichess forums where it is maybe 1% decent and the rest are absolute idiots who don't even have an understand of the game as a saving grace for their stupidity.

[Roger de Coverly]

[I wouldn't want it to be like chess.com or lichess forums

There's also https://www.redhotpawn.com/forum/only-chess.9, but don't expect a terribly high standard of chess.

It's very quiet, but https://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/chess/YaBB.pl has a decent standard of debate, mostly about openings.

[Joey Stewart]

Red hot pawn, that's a blast from the past, I used to run a team in their leagues (The Knights Who Say Ni !) years ago but I didn't think the site was even open anymore.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

When I saw the topic I thought it might be about recruiting more chess players to clubs - but no, just to the forum.
Just need to find someone with enough spare time to hit social media to draw in the crowds...

I could do that myself if I just wanted a rent a crowd, but I was thinking more that if current members bring someone they know is good then we would have a better quality of person signing up - I wouldn't want it to be like chess.com or lichess forums where it is maybe 1% decent and the rest are absolute idiots who don't even have an understand of the game as a saving grace for their stupidity.

Maybe a way to liven up the forum would be a consultation game between teams or a 'correspondence' game between individuals. No kibitzing allowed!

[Stephen Westmoreland]

I have been quiet for personal reasons (redundancy/illness) but will push to contribute more and find a friend.

I do know that a lot of people read these pages though but never post. Perhaps they can be encouraged to say hello?

[Kevin Thurlow]

"I do know that a lot of people read these pages though but never post. Perhaps they can be encouraged to say hello?"

Yes - I've talked to people who mention topics here, and I suddenly think, "Wait a minute - you never say anything!" I get the impression they're avoiding the more extreme contributors.

[Jon Mahony]

To be honest, the age of forums as a whole has pretty much passed - 15 years ago I was a regular contributor and mod on several (none chess related) forums. Every single one is dead and gone now, in the age of Facebook and instant messaging, this place is thriving.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Forums have their place now even if it is more niche than before, apart from here I post in three politics/current affairs related forums and one for football - one of the first group is admittedly struggling but the others are all still doing well.

[Joey Stewart]

Forums are a delicate ecosystem to balance, you need so many of the right elements for them to thrive and not die.

Very large forums like chess.com or lichess are absolute trash because most people are not there to create any sort of debate, or even if they have good intentions are simply not able to. It is more like 10,000 idiots all simultaneously shouting their point without listening to anything else being said (plus a lot of them are not good enough at chess or life itself for their opinion to be of any validity).

Too few is no better, the less discussion that takes place the more infrequently people post and it becomes a vicious circle.

Lastly it needs a good leadership, level headed and applying the rules in an even manner (which, I will say, does seem to be the case on this one) as it can be all too easy for cliques of toxic personalities to form and drive away any new members they consider "unworthy" and allowed to operate unchecked by corrupt moderators - in the worst case scenarios the mods and admins themselves are part of the clique.

[John Clarke]

I'd say this forum is in better shape than most right now, but - like many chess clubs - probably too dependent on the efforts of a tiny group of dedicated individuals to be completely assured of a long-term future. (What would happen to it if Carl were to fall under the proverbial?) Contributors all seem to be well-balanced people; the exceptions are allowed multiple opportunities to mend their ways before the ultimate sanction of being removed is applied.

As others have noted, some forums do seem to run out of steam after a while. That's natural when the basic topic that brought everyone together has been thoroughly covered. Everything that can be said has been said, often several times, and eventually participants get bored and fall silent. Unlike those other examples, this forum has the advantage of dealing with a field that's constantly evolving, with new events to be debated and new personalities emerging all the time.

As for myself, if I've been quiet at times, it's partly because of life-style (running a household that includes a disabled Mrs C) and partly because I'm too far removed from the scene and unacquainted with the people, organisations and issues under discussion. My uninformed opinions on such matters would seldom if ever be of use. I contribute when there's something worthwhile to say which no-one else seems to have picked up on or (very occasionally) if the mood needs lightening, and am content to leave it at that.