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Open chat room

@Chess_Agent - mostly agree.
Moderators seeing chat - in practice this just gets annoying and gets moderators worked up. Getting entire chat messed up by flooding (for example) is annoying even if you are the only one who sees it. Better to just keep everyone oblivious.

@ragritz - filters are not meant to catch all bad stuff, just the obvious and sometimes emotional outbursts (someone swindles you, you go to chat to say F them... not the way to handle it, but happens). Determined trolls will always think of creative ways around this... but to the casual onlooker and more importantly kids, the garbled 1s Es whatever starts to look like nonsense, even if adults understand it. And adults are meant to be adults - if they cannot tolerate some bad stuff on the web, they should close chat... or not even bother coming online (i.e. someone who is so offended by seeing the word f*** spelled out is simply too sensitive to be online!)

For like/dislike - this is the very basis of reddit - and it seems to work just fine. Yes, there will always be "haters" who neg stuff... big deal. How would anything on reddit be liked if only haters existed? You could even track counts of likes and dislikes given... and eventually just turn off a user's ability to dislike if they only neg. Also in terms of mindless stuff, again, this is how reddit works already. Karma, as meaningless as it is, makes users self-police to an extant. Chat and forum posts could be included for lichess "karma".... the main point with karma is to make the community control what it wants to see as much as possible, to lessen the load on lichess admins (as an important start), and also to let the community become what it wants to (like reddit has... with admins stepping in on the occasion that the community fails)

Lichess is in a unique position that it is not beholden to advertisers or investors so that it needs to micro-manage all aspects of the site "in case it looks bad". I mainly find stuff that "messes up" chat (e.g. flooding) more offensive than "bad" chat - simply because I can ignore idiots - hard to do when someone is flooding 100s of lines. Reddit largely has the hands-off approach - and has potentially very disturbing subreddits (racist and everything else). Put a "I am 18 and accept that I may see adult chat" warning box that a user must click before seeing chat like reddit does. I mean, really, let adults chat - big f'in deal if they say some bad sh*t :P
Here's the problem.

Reddit has a poor reputation and primarily attracts 4channers and other distasteful demographics like that. No restrictions on what you can say doesn't turn just 'the powers that be' against you, but the userbase that doesn't dwell in basements.

We can indeed not moderate at all. But the majority of users will be upset. The chess community in particular is not used to the inner part of the internet where you can insult anyone you want with hardly any repercussions (in fact, you often receive praise).

These people can resist the idiots. Most normal players can't. An open chat would not cause any sort of friendly interaction -- just like in late 2013, but an overburdened moderation. In fact, the sort of things that are written on there would probably turn a lot of people away. And when moderation is performed? Everyone whines about their free speech 'rights' being cut down.

"Too sensitive to be on the internet!" is exactly the problem with this attitude, goldilocks. I am pretty much untouchable myself, but I can understand the problems a lot of people have with online (or offline) abuse.

Also keep in mind that younger people have much less of a divide between their digital and real lives. The internet is no longer a 'liminal space' in which you have a thick skin and a different persona; it is very much a part of your normal life.

Filters? They are built so they can be worked around. I too played RuneScape and Puzzle Pirates.

So while I'd love to see an improvement in private chat and perhaps in-team chat (along with a cap in how many can join a team), I'm strongly against an open chat.
I see your points, Hellball. But our experience with reddit are different - I actually find it mostly tasteful - and the worst stuff usually never reaches the front page and bad comments are downvoted into oblivion.

I think, though, just making the barrier to entry very high might suffice. Your average troll just wants to "hit and run" - cause problems with minimal work. The site already, for instance, tracks "Time spent playing." Do you honestly think that your average troll would play for example "one month before being allowed to chat" just to abuse and get muted and/or banned? Sure, some might do that - but seems like a lot of work for 5 minutes of "fun". If chat privileges revolve around something like time spent playing, you would mostly get long time players and fans of lichess... and, sure, the occasional jerk - but overall not a chaotic, abusive free-for-all that comes with truly open chat.
I have looked at the prototype and it outstanding! Excellent idea.
I'm all for private or group private chat, but very against open chat.
Just thought I'd make my opinion heard.

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