OzChess - Australia's Chess Forum - View Single Post

**MOZ** · 12-22-2008, 04:02 PM

Originally Posted by Arrogant-One

<..>

But what I cannot quite fathom, however, is this.

OzChess is technically superior to CC in every way. Our pgn chess viewer is better, our features are better and we have more of them, and our shoutbox is far superior. In addition to this - all the features that are premium membership features on CC, costing $25 there, are free to members here.

This marketing factor is only likely to come into play if the typical chessplayer is aware of two chat-boards.
As an example, a member of the recent Australian masters complained to me late in the tournament that he could not see the early games of his next opponents. I pointed out that they were posted on Ozchess and that the eventual winner was using the pgn viewer as part of his preparation. I then asked each individually if they were aware of Ozchess. 4/10 knew of its existence. In the wider population around our Club, I think the % is likely to be less that 25%. In Melbourne around all Clubs, I would be surprised if the figure was greater than 10%.

<..>

The reasons for this, I presume (and may be wrong), is largely due to customer loyalty.

As I wrote above, lack of awareness is a more likely explanation. However, loyalty played a role when there were concerns about the ethics of competing on domain names etc; when Frosty, Baz and others voted with their sign-offs..

CC has been around a heck of a lot longer than any other chess forum in Australia, and probably internationally as well. It seems to have the critcal mass to attract new members at the same or a higher rate than it loses them.

Agree.

Apparently, the supposition that if CC had a high tech competitor to contend with, it would lose much of its membership base is simply incorrect.

Awareness is much more a factor

<..>

In any event, I would hereby like ask the chess playing community what else they would like to see on OzChess - keeping in mind that I will be reluctant to spend anymore more money to make further improvements, at least until I see significant traffic improvement here.

At present I feel that I have done everything I could to provide the Australian chess playing community with an alternative forum to escape the moderation abuses of CC, and simply to discuss chess in a non-ACF dominated environment. I believe that OzChess is a superior forum to CC in many ways (including better content (ie. the Australian Masters 2008), but that obviously has not been enough to build the traffic to make this forum seem viable or worthwhile.

So your thoughts and comments are welcome as I ponder the future of this forum, and the possibility of passing the torch to someone else or indeed - even closing the place down and selling off the assets individually.

Perhaps Axiom's dream of a single united Australian Chess Forum is closer to reality than previously believed.

Best Regards,

AO

Any more from me and it is likley to be judged arbitraily by the mods at chesschat that I am assisting you and they impose yet another unjustifiable ban. The previous ban was lifted and not a single relevant concession made by me. But when I point this out they take exception to it. Note, it is impossible to post ************ site here. So that is not a relevant concession.

12-22-2008, 04:02 PM	#23 (permalink)
MOZ Volunteer Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Ozchess is the marginalised cyber-spot where cc-Mods choose to engage with cc-banned posters. Posts: 3,539	Sorry. Can't help you AO. CC mod has called that a bannable action. Originally Posted by Arrogant-One <..> But what I cannot quite fathom, however, is this. OzChess is technically superior to CC in every way. Our pgn chess viewer is better, our features are better and we have more of them, and our shoutbox is far superior. In addition to this - all the features that are premium membership features on CC, costing $25 there, are free to members here. This marketing factor is only likely to come into play if the typical chessplayer is aware of two chat-boards. As an example, a member of the recent Australian masters complained to me late in the tournament that he could not see the early games of his next opponents. I pointed out that they were posted on Ozchess and that the eventual winner was using the pgn viewer as part of his preparation. I then asked each individually if they were aware of Ozchess. 4/10 knew of its existence. In the wider population around our Club, I think the % is likely to be less that 25%. In Melbourne around all Clubs, I would be surprised if the figure was greater than 10%. <..> The reasons for this, I presume (and may be wrong), is largely due to customer loyalty. As I wrote above, lack of awareness is a more likely explanation. However, loyalty played a role when there were concerns about the ethics of competing on domain names etc; when Frosty, Baz and others voted with their sign-offs.. CC has been around a heck of a lot longer than any other chess forum in Australia, and probably internationally as well. It seems to have the critcal mass to attract new members at the same or a higher rate than it loses them. Agree. Apparently, the supposition that if CC had a high tech competitor to contend with, it would lose much of its membership base is simply incorrect. Awareness is much more a factor <..> In any event, I would hereby like ask the chess playing community what else they would like to see on OzChess - keeping in mind that I will be reluctant to spend anymore more money to make further improvements, at least until I see significant traffic improvement here. At present I feel that I have done everything I could to provide the Australian chess playing community with an alternative forum to escape the moderation abuses of CC, and simply to discuss chess in a non-ACF dominated environment. I believe that OzChess is a superior forum to CC in many ways (including better content (ie. the Australian Masters 2008), but that obviously has not been enough to build the traffic to make this forum seem viable or worthwhile. So your thoughts and comments are welcome as I ponder the future of this forum, and the possibility of passing the torch to someone else or indeed - even closing the place down and selling off the assets individually. Perhaps Axiom's dream of a single united Australian Chess Forum is closer to reality than previously believed. Best Regards, AO Any more from me and it is likley to be judged arbitraily by the mods at chesschat that I am assisting you and they impose yet another unjustifiable ban. The previous ban was lifted and not a single relevant concession made by me. But when I point this out they take exception to it. Note, it is impossible to post ********** site here. So that is not a relevant concession. __________________ FReedom though Fischer-Random chess to enjoy the whole** game. Last edited by MOZ : 12-22-2008 at 07:14 PM