Originally posted by Fleabitten
You can't ban someone for 'annoying a lot of people'.
Well, on one hand, people have been banned for what might appear to be less annoying. But on the other hand, Atri has fallen victim to a trap embedded in the system, and it's hard to fault him for succumbing to forces that draw on all of us.
OK, what in the world am I talking about now?
I feel good when I win a game. I feel good when my rating goes up. I feel especially good when I have a string of wins.
I feel bad when I lose a game. I feel bad when my rating goes down. I feel especially bad when I have a string of losses. Sometimes I feel horrible when that happens.
Depending on how invested I am in my skill at chess on my self-perception of intelligence, and how invested I am in my intelligence as my self-perception of my own worth, I can get really invested in how well I'm doing on RHP.
I think what we're presently seeing is somebody who is caught in a double bind. I want to win more games and the way to do that is to play more games. But I keep losing games, so in order to feel better, I must win more games and the way to do that is to play more games. There's no mechanism in RHP to mitigate that drive to add more games because RHP wants to promote as a limitless buffet of chess.
I've looked at other sites and said, oh, you mean I can only play 100 games? Well that's not enough. But how many is enough? It's a different number for each of us.
We've seen some in this conversation who have played 65 games in 4 years, saying don't change RHP because you'll hurt me. Others want to take two weeks off and come back as if they've never left and say don't change RHP because you'll hurt me.
The truth is we all use the games in different ways to help us get through the day. Sometimes we feel good about the games and sometimes we feel bad and sometimes it's just a way to pass the time before we have to go deal with the junk that fills up the rest of our lives.
My guess is that Atri's wrestling with issues bigger than any of the ripples that his actions are causing here. Would I like it to stop? Yes. Am I going to leave because of it? No.
When the skulling starts and be assured that it will, I'd much rather be in my own skin than in his. Or yours, for that matter. And so should you. Be grateful and be well. This too shall pass.
Steve