A Note To Commentators
I appreciate those of you who take time to leave comments and/or write me via the contact link. This blog is often enriched by the insight and information those comments and emails provide, and if often makes for a livelier atmosphere. That's good! I have four quick points I'd like to make about some recent comments and emails that have come in.
1. YouTube links: Because I do what I can to keep the site kid-friendly, I sometimes delete comments with links to YouTube videos, especially when there's a blatantly vulgar comment visible on the video's front page. If the video is from a tournament (e.g. from Wijk aan Zee), please direct readers to the relevant page on the tournament site instead.
2. No personal inquiries, please. Some commentators I know in "real life", and it would be nice to meet others of you at a tournament someday (though not necessarily when I'm in the middle of a game!), but as far as the web goes I'd prefer to keep my chess life separate from the rest of my mundane existence. (And not only to avoid getting Manti Te'o'ed!)
3. It should be obvious, but if you're writing to ask a genuine question, give a real email address.
4. Please don't assume I'll link to your website or project, just because you took the time to write me about it or linked to my site. I mention sites and products I regularly visit and use, and that's about it. On the other hand, please don't assume that my not mentioning or linking to your website or product means that I don't think well of it, or that I think I and my website are so fantastic that I can't be bothered with your request. My main reason for keeping my list of links limited is an intuitive sense, since confirmed by research I've come across, that when it comes to providing options less is often more. Plenty of research has shown that once a person's options exceed a certain point that person becomes less likely to choose any of them (in the aggregate). So rather than list a couple of hundred sites - all of which end up getting ignored - I keep a smaller list that's more likely to get used.
Reader Comments (6)
Speaking of links (point no. 4): The linkt to The Week in Chess isn't correct any more, and it should be replaced with http://www.theweekinchess.com/.
[DM: Thanks, fixed.]
Speaking of links, your link to TWIC seems to be outdated. I remember your post on the subject so I'm sure you're aware of the London Chess Centre sponsorship ending, but I thought I'd point it out. The new address is http://www.theweekinchess.com/ .
[DM: I know its address - I go there almost every day. But I had been lax about updating my link. It's fixed now.]
Whats the deal with real e-mail address? Hackers can capture your e-mails from anywhere you give them, and increase your junk mails. I never give my real e-mail address and have 4 fake/rarely used ones for sites such as Meetup, Facebook etc...
And here I thought you were going to talk about the commentators at Gibraltar. ;-)
Which are brilliant! I rarely enjoyed any commentary as much as that by Simon Williams and Irina Krush.
As a work-around for youtube, you can link to the video player directly using http://youtube.com/v/ followed by the video id.
Dennis- Here's something interesting for you to consider when it comes to commentator experience (not that I 'hate' your blog!).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21260007