New Features & Fixes (5/21/2008)

We took the site down for a few minutes yesterday and I'm sure some people are wondering why :) Well, pushed a bunch of code live. Here is what we did:

- added Group News messaging (now when you post NEWS in your group, it goes as a message to all members)

- added Group Invites (go to the MANAGE GROUP link in your group and you can invite members to join!)

- added new LIVE icons (there are 2 new icons: a green one that says LIVE which means that person is on the main Chess.com site, and is also playing LIVE; a red one which means they are only active on the LIVE CHESS interface)

- added live pages for internal beta (we're really close to linking in live chess to everything else!)

- added Chess Openings & Game Explorer stuff for internal closed testing (we're SOOO close!)

- a "Where did you go?" email for people who leave so we know why (to help us understand why some people don't come back)

- improved Tactics Trainer homepage (shows more clearly what you are doing)

- smarter member search

- track tournaments started by your friends 

- fixed misc spelling errors, broken links, etc 

Thanks for your support and patience!

Wow nice.

Good work again guys.

thx

already great site and getting better and better

erik, you are the best ! thank you for all the features. you always try to spoil  us .

now, a question regarding the managing of those accounts which people make, but then never activate again ( ie. people leave ). Is it possible  for you to delete those accounts ?  I know a language site, where people go to improve their language skills and they have a note when you go to join them, that they are free to cancel your account if you are not active a certain period of time.  Perhaps this is a good idea too for chess com ?

I mean, there must be some work you do for each new commer  and it isn't nice  to play against "invisible man" either.

Right at the beginning, when people are invited to make an account, write perhaps smth like : you have a 3 day or 5 day trial time after which, if not active you may lose this account. Please feel free to tell us what you think of chess com

Then when they leave, ask them in a mail why they did so . 

Thanks for reading me.

Have all a wonderful day.

 curiously, what is the point of closing accounts though? i don't know why we would do this. we message them on occassion for them to come back :)

well, I was talking from my point of view mostly , because I created a game with a guy who made an account here and never came back.  I was kind of dissapointed.

But you are right ! So I will try to put myself in your shoes now: how to attract them ?

How about a virtual visit of the site ?  A video showing what this site is about , made by you or somebody from your team ?  Make it so they see the dinamics of this site, the dedication, the true wonderful features you guys offer. This is a friendly-user targeted site. And it is a great community.  I came and don't want to leave.

So what do you think ?

I'm no longer getting constant reminders there are new comments on some Vote Chess game I can no longer access. I guess that was fixed, too!

 yeah. we fixed a lot of little bugs like that :)

Hey Oscar, hold still.

*brush