Hey Guys,

This is what I wrote Erik when he asked me if I still hated Live 2 chess. Well, I put in my thoughts to the guy who runs the show, but honestly I think it will have no results. It has made me lose interest in this website and also unhappy that I don't see many of you anymore.

Lex

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Original Message by professorknox on 10/9/2009 @ 10:17pm:

Hey Erik,

How's it going? Thanks for taking the time to drop me a note. I'm sure there's been a lot of extra stress this past week trying to sort things out.

Look overall, I'm still very glad you and your team is dedicated to improving this site and planning for better and more robust features in the future. I think all the anger and resentment that may be floating around is due to the lost of connection to global friends that people have made on this site.

And the fact that they have no control over what is going on makes it even worse. Although a few weeks of no group chat features doesn't seem like much in the grand scheme of things, it is enough to disrupt people's communication. Just imagine if your cell phone service or your broadband internet was down for 3-4 weeks. I think anyone who relies on the service to keep in touch with people would be royally pissed off.

Well to be honest, I would have to say I now spent about 95% less time on the site now. I can no longer keep in touch easily with any of my chess friends that I used to interact on a daily basis in the old Live environment. As I said in the feedback email I sent to you about 4 weeks ago, the social aspect of Live Chess is what keeps people coming back. I know you plan on re-introducing it at some point, but to be honest, from my 13 years of large scale corporate System Implementation and Change Management experience, I would have to say (with no disrespect to you or your team for your good intentions and effort) that the approach and execution of this system roll out gets a D- score. Having said all that, you probably want to "unfriend" me or ban me. I'm not trying insult you or your team, I'm just being totally honest from a IT professional as well as a customer's point of view.

Well, instead of just complaining about stuff, I'm more than happy to help out in any way, especially when it comes to unit/integration testing, data migration, system cut-over strategy, communication/change management, as I know that these are all key to a successful system implementation that ensures smooth operation of a business and minimizes negative impacts on your key stakeholders, ie. the chess.com paying members.

Regards,

Prof Knox

This was his response:

From: erik http://cdn-cssjs.chesscomfiles.com/images/icons/member/staff.gif); margin-left: 4px; background-position: 50% 50%;" title="Chess.com Staff" href="http://www.chess.com/about.html">
To: professorknox http://cdn-cssjs.chesscomfiles.com/images/icons/member/diamond.png); margin-left: 4px; background-position: 50% 50%;" title="Premium Member" href="http://www.chess.com/membership.html?c=icon">
Date: Oct 10, 2009 @ 10:58am
Subject: Re: Hey there - Note Reply

i appreciate the feedback. unfortunately we were unable to forsee some of these problems and we're just having to make do. there are a few things we should have done differently in hindsight, but we are where we are. unfortunately we aren't a big company with a big IT budget, so our options and abilities are resource-constrained. friends lists are coming back very soon, and private chat right after that. thanks for being patient, but yes, it has been disruptive.

The Lawless Society

Super Admins