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Hikaru Nakamura's Forbidden Platform

lichess.org

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Re: Hikaru Nakamura's Forbidden Platform

#11

Post by dalbasal »

mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote: post #6

Paying off Chess streamers is pretty much the only way Chess.com can keep people using their site. Their product is simply inferior in every way, except for their library of master lessons, and all these GMs exclusively streaming through Chess.com. I figure all this spending on sponsorship and GM content is why the rest of their site is so inferior to Lichess. Lichess can spend all their time perfecting the platform,…

There are more reasons, but...

At core there is a dichotomy between Chess.com's business-model-ish approach and Lichess' communist approach... to put it in Thibault's own words.

No freemium tiers. No subscription plans, ads, etc. Just donations. That approach has been good for keeping the UX lightweight and snapy.

Chess.com has been around longer, so Lichess' is still catching up with features. I quite enjoy having them both compete as they are.

Re: Hikaru Nakamura's Forbidden Platform

#12

Post by trvan »

Lichess is quite special due to the actually honest non-profit funding.

In other areas of funded open source, developers are kept on leash, where those with money or foundation seats order the work horses to comply.

Many of the ostensibly OSS-glorifying tweets of the powerful are as nauseating for insiders as the chess tweet cited in the blog post.

Re: Hikaru Nakamura's Forbidden Platform

#13

Post by [deleted] »

mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote: post #6

Paying off Chess streamers is pretty much the only way Chess.com can keep people using their site. Their product is simply inferior in every way, except for their library of master lessons, and all these GMs exclusively streaming through Chess.com. I figure all this spending on sponsorship and GM content is why the rest of their site is so inferior to Lichess. Lichess can spend all their time perfecting the platform,…

[deleted]

Re: Hikaru Nakamura's Forbidden Platform

#14

Post by kzrdude »

dalbasal wrote: post #11
mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote: post #6

Paying off Chess streamers is pretty much the only way Chess.com can keep people using their site. Their product is simply inferior in every way, except for their library of master lessons, and all these GMs exclusively streaming through Chess.com. I figure all this spending on sponsorship and GM content is why the rest of their site is so inferior to Lichess. Lichess can spend all their time perfecting the platform,…

There are more reasons, but... At core there is a dichotomy between Chess.com's business-model-ish approach and Lichess' communist approach... to put it in Thibault's own words. No freemium tiers. No subscription plans, ads, etc. Just donations. That approach has been good for keeping the UX lightweight and snapy. Chess.com has been around longer, so Lichess' is still catching up with features. I quite enjoy having t…

I considered getting a chess.com subscription because their puzzles are a lot better than lichess'. However, the default tier/starting tier of subscription only gives access to a pittance of "puzzles per day" which is ridiculous.

Re: Hikaru Nakamura's Forbidden Platform

#15

Post by mtlmtlmtlmtl »

throwaway290 wrote: post #8
jdthedisciple wrote: post #2

I already wasn't a fan of chess.com simply for their inferior user experience compared to lichess.org. But damn did this make me like them even less.

If Chess.com allows chess players to make a living from playing chess, isn't that a good thing/valid tradeoff? A non-commercial volunteer-supported project wouldn't be in a position to do that.

In principle there is no reason a site like Lichess can't hold tournaments with a prize-fund sourced from commercial sponsors.

The problem is that companies like chess.com and chess24 tend to sponsor these things, and they're in direct competition with lichess.

Re: Hikaru Nakamura's Forbidden Platform

#17

Post by mtlmtlmtlmtl »

dalbasal wrote: post #11
mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote: post #6

Paying off Chess streamers is pretty much the only way Chess.com can keep people using their site. Their product is simply inferior in every way, except for their library of master lessons, and all these GMs exclusively streaming through Chess.com. I figure all this spending on sponsorship and GM content is why the rest of their site is so inferior to Lichess. Lichess can spend all their time perfecting the platform,…

There are more reasons, but... At core there is a dichotomy between Chess.com's business-model-ish approach and Lichess' communist approach... to put it in Thibault's own words. No freemium tiers. No subscription plans, ads, etc. Just donations. That approach has been good for keeping the UX lightweight and snapy. Chess.com has been around longer, so Lichess' is still catching up with features. I quite enjoy having t…

Well, chess.com spend quite a bit of dev time on gimmicks like their custom 4-player chess variant, that was followed by a torrent of 4 player chess content from their army of chess streamers. To convince someone to buy chess.com, they need to make themself look like the de facto standard site. They also need to invent new features because charging people just to play chess and solve puzzles online is sort of ridiculous when that's been available to people since the damn 90s.

Re: Hikaru Nakamura's Forbidden Platform

#18

Post by [deleted] »

mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote: post #15
throwaway290 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Chess.com allows chess players to make a living from playing chess, isn't that a good thing/valid tradeoff? A non-commercial volunteer-supported project wouldn't be in a position to do that.

In principle there is no reason a site like Lichess can't hold tournaments with a prize-fund sourced from commercial sponsors. The problem is that companies like chess.com and chess24 tend to sponsor these things, and they're in direct competition with lichess.

[deleted]

Re: Hikaru Nakamura's Forbidden Platform

#19

Post by mtlmtlmtlmtl »

kzrdude wrote: post #14
dalbasal wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are more reasons, but... At core there is a dichotomy between Chess.com's business-model-ish approach and Lichess' communist approach... to put it in Thibault's own words. No freemium tiers. No subscription plans, ads, etc. Just donations. That approach has been good for keeping the UX lightweight and snapy. Chess.com has been around longer, so Lichess' is still catching up with features. I quite enjoy having t…

I considered getting a chess.com subscription because their puzzles are a lot better than lichess'. However, the default tier/starting tier of subscription only gives access to a pittance of "puzzles per day" which is ridiculous.

Yeah it's always been pretty clear to me that the intermediate plans exist mainly to annoy people into buying the most expensive ones.

You know, in for a penny...

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