English Chess Forum

An article has recently appeared on the ECF website exhorting people not to create a new membership record when renewing their membership. I fear this is unlikely to help much.

The problem is that the Azolve site makes it too easy for this to happen. It should query if no value is entered in the Grading Reference field, even (or especially) if the user has previously clicked 'new member'. Something along the lines of "Please confirm you have never played graded chess before", and possibly advice to ask their local club secretary or grading officer if they are in doubt, or even guidelines on how to find the Grading Reference for themselves on the Grading database.

I suspect that many of the affected people are either not very computer literate, or don't understand the link between the membership and grading systems, or both.

Reg Clucas wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 10, 2020 8:36 pm

I suspect that many of the affected people are either not very computer literate, or don't understand the link between the membership and grading systems, or both.

It is probably far more likely that they have no idea what their username and/or password is, and so rather than hassle people - even if they know who to hassle - with finding out what it is, they just create a new membership and have done with it.

Alex Holowczak wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 10, 2020 10:00 pm

It is probably far more likely that they have no idea what their username and/or password is, and so rather than hassle people - even if they know who to hassle - with finding out what it is, they just create a new membership and have done with it.

If so, maybe an "if unsure of membership details, click here ->" link would help.

Nick Burrows wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 10, 2020 10:16 pm

Alex Holowczak wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 10, 2020 10:00 pm

It is probably far more likely that they have no idea what their username and/or password is, and so rather than hassle people - even if they know who to hassle - with finding out what it is, they just create a new membership and have done with it.

If so, maybe an "if unsure of membership details, click here ->" link would help.

People will click it, but people will not go to the hassle of contacting anyone to sort it out when they can just claim not to have been a member and create a new membership. It's the line of least resistence and the quickest way of getting a membership number. I think this is just an inescapable part of humans using a website that they only have to use once a year.

Why not offer a discount for quoting your old membership details? Even a small financial gain is a great motivator

https://beauchess.blogspot.com/

Alex Holowczak wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 10, 2020 10:25 pm

It's the line of least resistence and the quickest way of getting a membership number.

People usually know what their grading code is. They might even remember the email address they used last year. What password they used for a site they last used a year ago is likely to have been forgotten.

I think it in efficient use of time to type in lots of information onto the website, and also creates opportunity for internet theft from my bank account.

I congratulate for the ECF office on my annual phone call to pay. It took less than a minute to pay this this season.

I cannot remember my username/password but why should I. I'm not sure that I miss anything.

Nick Grey wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 10, 2020 11:09 pm

I think it in efficient use of time to type in lots of information onto the website, and also creates opportunity for internet theft from my bank account.

I congratulate for the ECF office on my annual phone call to pay. It took less than a minute to pay this this season.

I cannot remember my username/password but why should I. I'm not sure that I miss anything.

The ECF office is indeed very good at sorting out memberships by phone, and I often suggest this method to people who are having problems. However, there are currently just under 11,000 members, so if all these used the phone method then this would not be an efficient use of the ECF office's time. I guess this is why the internet option is available for those that prefer it (it also saves them the cost of a phone call).

As far as theft is concerned, an encrypted internet connection is more secure than a phone call!

Could you take everyone to the ECF Grading Database search page for their surname, graded and ungraded, and ask "Is any of these people you?" Or even "Are any of these people you?" if it's an ongoing problem!

As long as ECF keep annual fee below fifty pounds, have an ECF office in this country, my way is best for me.

I'd be happy to set up the bank account details of ECF with my bankers so I can transfer when I want. But all the while ECF keeps changing systems makes it worse.