Have there been some changes made with this program?
I just recently signed back up to take on 1 "welcome game" at a time.
Shortly after that I got a new welcome game, and as usually happens, the new member was playing white, but did not make a move. I waited several days for the first move to be made. It never happened, but after a few days the game vanished from my inbox.
Then another new game came along, and exactly the same thing happened. Newbie had white, did not move, and after another few days that game also vanished.
So is that something new? An automatic 'time out' feature for Welcome Games?
I still think the greeters should be able to select in their greeter settings whether they want to play White or Black in the "Welcome Game" program. If the greeter is able to make the first move and start chatting with the newbie, maybe they will actually stick around, play, and become an active member.
It might be worth a try, anyway.
@Russ saidI've never noticed it, but then I usually get frustrated with how many new members never move, so I used to delete the game myself after a day or two, and then change my greeter setting to zero games. Eventually I decide to give it another try.
Not new, its been that way for many years now.
I would think a newbie would appreciate a welcome game, where they can get some help figuring things out here.
- Joined
- 290d
- Moves
- 5208
@mwmiller
As there are 3 main platforms for correspondence chess, as much as i know, it makes sense to make the regist and give a look around just to compare with the other platforms. I did that myself.
From my experience, i like RHP much more than chess.com or lichess for this kind of games, but the lack of an effective live games may turn many to the other two platforms where they may enjoy both scenarios.
One thing that puzzles me is the almost total hegemony of english spoken countries here, namely England and USA. IMO, it is a loss not to have an active community of eastern players, that play a competely different type of chess.
I used to organize tournaments on chess.com, trying to have in each tournament a representative of each different country and it was awsome the difference between each games.
Maybe more languages available or more advertising in that regions would jump popularity there (just my opinion).
Even western europe, aside from england, seems to be so underrepresented...
@Filipe-Fonseca saidLive chess has been through many iterations here (anyone remember the "Flash" days?), but has always been a side feature - primarily because of the lack of a rating system.
the lack of an effective live games may turn many to the other two platforms where they may enjoy both scenarios.
One thing that puzzles me is the almost total hegemony of english spoken countries here, namely England and USA. IMO, it is a loss not to have an active community of eastern players, that play a competely different type of chess.
Once live chess receives player ratings, I suspect there will be bit more interest. All previously played games will be rated when this happens too.
A few minor issues are preventing this now.
Regarding languages (or rather, full internationalisation), I feel this is more achievable now due to prevalence of translation tools. But offering support becomes more difficult without native language speakers.
The site update recently had one goal of sorting out the RHP codebase, so more frequent incremental improvements are now way more feasible anyway.
- Joined
- 290d
- Moves
- 5208
I am sure that change in the live games will be good for improving the players base. New players like myself (i landed in RHP about a month ago) expect both types of game as they most likely came from chess.com, lichess or both and compare RHP with them. I confess my first impact was negative because of that, and i decided to give another chance to lichess. One month after that, i really tried RHP and got hooked. Great correspondence experience.
I can help validating portuguese if you need, but be in mind that there are two major portuguese variants, mine (Portugal) and Brazil and even i understand without problems the PT-BR, i do not know specific terms they may use.
@Filipe-Fonseca saidThanks, useful feedback.
One month after that, i really tried RHP and got hooked. Great correspondence experience.