Roni

Yep. I'll send an invite. Will make it unrated so it can friendly/stress free as possible.

We both love our arbitrary numbers.

I should be. Although getting ready for a birthday party in the evening, so it's not a guarantee.

We'll see though. Just throw me a message.

I am available now if your up for it.

https://ih1.redbubble.net/image.1277766997.9286/st,small,507x507-pad,600x600,f8f8f8.jpg

I will link you an invite later. I need a sick new profile picture for this game. Maybe something like Thanos or Crobat. (but that's your style, can't be getting copyright strikes).

I mean pokecommunity doesn't usually delete things, they just hide them from the listing. Here's the entire forum. https://www.pokecommunity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=39

I felt it benefited more with having a dedicated forum. People really opened up in there. Not that they don't in Off-Topic, but the variety of topics was much greater than you see now with the serious tag.

30 will probably work. That's almost the only time control I pick now. That time I fell back to the 700 ELO's was due to me trying to rush my way into the 1,000's with 10 minute games. Harsh lesson, that's not how things work. I'm not Hikaru Nakamura.

I miss the Serious Discussion forum. I was on the staff board at the time, and remember it being strange. There was a debate on removing it, yet I had the impression a couple of the higher up staff wanted it shut down and it was leaving no matter what. The whole debate just had a pointless air to it. Saw that happen a couple times. There would be a debate but the decision was already final.

I guess that's one memorable thing, even though it doesn't involve me directly.

Well it was quite a journey. I went straight through the 900's this time, almost never lost a single game. Quite a variety of playstyles. Met someone who memorized the entire Evan's Gambit, would have beat me on turn 10, but blundered the checkmate. Another person who just moved the queen back and fourth. Had two games which involved me sacrificing my queen for Mate in 2. After reaching 1,000 I went on unrated and got matched with a 1550. I held my own for about 20 minutes. I didn't win.

We'll play another game soon. (I need to recover now. I played non stop). Would you prefer daily or actual time controls? Keep in mind a daily game now would probably come out much different. That was my first game back in 8 months, now I've had over 100+ games and could incorporate what I've learned.

Oh well. Maybe some day I would toss in another application. It doesn't mean I would get it. I have such little interest now. Off Topic caught my eye at the time, but I didn't put one in. Trivia is my favorite section, but the mods already do an excellent job with it. In general the staff here is great, I wouldn't have much to contribute.

I remembered something on another website with blocking yourself causing you to turn invisible. Everyone could see you but yourself.

I had a good day today regarding chess. Went on a pretty good streak, back at 950 ELO. Tried to take everything very slowly, thinking about every turn. Maybe it's what I needed. I'm also ranked #1 now in my division. ^_^

Yeeeeaah that was my initial thought. Two years just for that. Her 'update' was more or less the same. "I was scared of my husband". "I should have stood up for you". "It's all my fault". It was sad and there was even more self blame. Then she vanished again. I don't have any faith that she'll get out of it. I couldn't care less at this point if we speak again, but I hope she grows up and realizes his behavior is creepy and abusive. It wasn't hard finding her husband. Facebook lists family members. I would have called him a moron, but I tried keeping it friendly. He could have just taken it out on her.

I would make social media team posts on holidays, consider it "job done", pat myself on the back like "good job zeostar" and vanish for more months at a time. Staff forum was fun. I liked seeing how things worked.

Hopefully you had no trouble sending that message.

I had blocked you for a minute, was trying to see if it would do anything strange to my friend list or visitor messages. Nothing fun, unfortunately.

Then I tried blocking myself, but it didn't work.

Whelp 900's again. Gleam of hope.

...Pretty much. It feels like every game is a gamble. Sometimes I meet someone who blunders a queen on turn 5, or I meet someone who plays like 1800 and has memorized the entire King's Gambit at 95% accuracy. Maybe I need a new opening myself. It has no plan. I just pull knights and bishops out and castle on turn 5. Then I get stuck and hope the person blunders.

It was 2018-2020. March 2020 (same week covid became global) was the 'goodbye'. We spoke again briefly in August 2020. Never heard from her again. At one point I messaged her husband out of curiosity, just to see what he was really like. And he blocked me immediately. Quite a guy. It was certainly textbook abuse, and he had her gripped in it. Constant self blame, full obedience to him, describing all the nasty things he said. I don't know how she's doing. I thought she was a good person, shame a friendship would end in such a way.

I never got too involved. I don't even think anyone would remember I was on the team. Again, too much of a slacker. Never acted like a team member, never joined discord. (It was actually the friend I mentioned above who talked me into sending an application).

...I don't even have much memory of it. I was more interested in the staff forum than actually doing my job.

I did take a very long break before we played the daily game (about 8 months). I immediately fell 100 points upon returning. But I will player fewer games per day. Usually I go on a huge winning steak, push myself to keep going, and lose all my points in the same day. Honestly if I had stopped for the day when I reached 960, I would have probably hit 1,000 by now.

Reminds me of a bizarre situation. I was friends with a girl on here, and we had bonded enough that we had each other on text message/had done phone real time calls. She was married, and the more she spoke of her husband the more creepy it became. She was describing domestic abuse. (yet was completely unaware it seemed). One day her husband snatches her phone and she says "I am not allowed friends of the opposite gender. Goodbye". Almost never heard from her again. Abusers will isolate the victim, and it seems he was successful. I had tried to warn her, she would just change the subject or say the abuse was deserved.

Do you have any positive memories from being on the staff team?

"I'm deleting my account"

*proceeds to play more games*

goes on a winning streak.

This will never end.

800's again. Close to going into settings and deleting my account. Not improving, and i realized I am never hitting this goal. It's just getting upsetting. There's no way to improve because I simply can't see where my games are faltering. If only I could just start all over from scratch, but I'm probably 30ft deep into my bad habits. I actually need help and there isn't any place I can go for it. I'm stuck, and this time on my fall, I see no point in playing chess anymore.

I don't really know what that is. I don't even use steam. Yeah if that person is autistic it makes sense. How did you end up in the conversation anyways...because was it already about hacknet?

Nope. I didn't make the server. By making a discord, I meant making a discord account. I had no idea what was going on with the team because I almost never got involved. Pretty sure if I didn't quit he was going to fire me. I kept getting PM's asking what I was doing, and why I wasn't showing any activity. They were still very friendly though.

I'm exhausted. My rating is around 960 now. I don't have my hopes up, could have just been a good day and I could fall back tomorrow. Who knows. Did some shorter time controls to match the way I've been playing so got lots of games in. It would be nice if chess.com would stop making me play against 1,100's. I'm not ready for that yet, and it kills my momentum. I can do okay against them, but always end up falling for a tactic.

Yeah I wouldn't say anything, but that's just me. I'm sure you'll decide best how to go about it. I'm just curious, but what is the interest anyways, if you don't mind me asking? I'd probably just listen forever because I never really mind hearing people ramble.

I made a discord for the social media team. After I quit, I'd look at the chat sometimes but never participated. Later I deleted my entire account because there wasn't much point in having it anymore.

I'm going to begin trading more aggressively. Many times I'll hold off because I'm unsure, but I'll incorporate this for a few games and will see how it goes. I beat the 1,000+ player through aggressive trades, when everything was off the board I was simply able to rush my rooks in first.

It's a good and bad thing. There are times that I should be upset (like my stuff getting stolen) but i'm just like "eh whatever". Can't see what could cause anger here on pokecommunity, so your probably in luck. I will avoid certain personality types, for example - people who argue over everything.

Yeah not sure what to suggest there. I'd probably try to engage them, but lack of interest would make me stop responding. Maybe they just like having someone to share interests with, and haven't had the chance to do so. Never been a discord person. I guess I'm just out of touch, but I don't feel the need for constant contact. Forums like this work for me, I can just log in whenever I feel like it.

I'm good, and yeah, Forums for now! Exam datesheet has been shuffled again, so they finish much later now! Till then I'm a forum being!

Hi, how are you? Hope you're having a nice day! ^^

I found a really good series this evening called "Building Habits". It's a grandmaster who basically tries to emulate play at 900-1000 (and various other elo) while explaining his thoughts. After watching, I was able to jump my elo a bit and even beat someone rated near 1060.

I'm a clutz and almost posted this to my own profile.

It does feel like I'm always getting hit by some sort of combination. I read an interesting point that said 900 online these days is equivalent to 1200 a few years ago, due to the excess amount of free videos and information people can study from. Yet I think it's harder to receive advice because stuff that applies at 1500-1600 may not be applicable at lower ratings.

To an earlier point, I can see the way I type coming off as serious. Generally am very lax. Have a non existent temper, and find it hard to be offended by things (but i try to be empathetic towards those who are).

Sometimes I'll rant about something random, it's more to make conversation rather than being deeply passionate with what I'm ranting about.

Small talk is fine too, but I love talking and it never happens. Sometimes if the person isn't being receptive I'll just end up talking to myself.

I've been messing around on chess.com all morning. I need specific help. I'm going to be floating the 900's forever. There is always room to improve, but there will be no improvement if I don't know how to start. The general advice is "Don't hang pieces" but am I supposed to curl up everything in a corner? It sounds too simple.

I'm too impulsive. I would see an application and be like "Oh yeah sounds like a great time"! then the next day "Uhhh why did I sign up for this". Understanding how I am, it's better to avoid this completely.

It's harder for me to find jokes online. There is no "reading a room".

In the Hug/Reject thread I posted "Jeffery Epstein". I thought the idea of someone rejecting him was going to be funny.

The next post was "Why would you post someone so controversial"?

I was in the wrong. Just wasn't really thinking about the controversy, was thinking about the million different ways he could be rejected and shunned. When in a close circle in real life, it's easier and more comfortable making jokes. On a public forum, you sort of have to account for everybody.