On the ownership of TakChess

[hgm]

Very good. As far as I've been able to gather, Talkchess now runs as an also-ran website on the ChessUSA server. Is it your intention to move Talkchess.com to this rented VPS permanently? Assuming you're paying for that VPS yourself, I'd be willing to make a contribution towards that. I would also be willing to function as some sort of last-ditch option of "site rescue person", to copy it from the VPS and move it somewhere else, if that is ever necessary for whatever reason.

(I assume you, or someone else, keeps a regular backup of the forum and the database.)

Talkchess may not contain information on the very bleeding edge of chess engine programming (particularly neural networks), but it does contain a lot of information about classical alpha/beta chess engines. Even now that there are hundreds of engines already, new ones are still being written as a hobby. (Trying concepts, new programming languages, or just as a step-up to add a neural network later.) Just like CPW, I'd hate so see the forum lost, because it would lose a HUGE amount of useful information.

Well, at this point the goal was just to create a site where we could experiment with the forum software (for upgrading and implementation of anti-hacking measures) without disturbing operation of the original forum, or the Chess U.S.A. commercial website on the same server when things go awry. As to moving to another server permanently, I guess there is an issue to be resolved: as Quentin Turner of Chess U.S.A. will soon explain here, he considers TalkChess to be his private property. And the domain talkchess.com is certainly registered to his/Chess U.S.A.'s name.

[Joost Buijs]

Quentin Turner might be the owner of the domain but I don't think that he can claim any rights on messages posted by users of the forum.
Why don't we move the forum to open-chess.org? at least that one is working like it should.

Another thing is that you don't need a big server at all, compared to modern standards 1.4 GB data is virtually nothing. Bandwidth is of no concern either, how many users are at the same time on-line? my guess is this figure will always be less than 100. You can run this forum on a standard PC without any problem.

[mclane]

Quentin Turners „property“?

Talkchess is and ever was the property of the members.




Thats how the deal was.

The content never was his property. It belongs to the computer chess community.

[hgm]

Well, Quentin has sent me an elaborate e-mail where he explains he sees things differently. I do not consider it proper form to quote from a private e-mail, though.

But he might be willing to sell the board to us.

[mclane]

He wants to sell us what belongs us ?!
Guys more and more i get the feeling this ends in a big mess here.

Quentin turner should concentrate on selling chess boards and pieces.

He has NO property about Talkchess forum, not about the content here, the data. This is all property of the computerchess community.

And this was clear from the beginning when the forum was founded by the people here. Long before quentin appeared.


But now its clear why suddenly the democracy and the polls here and the moderation issues and the
Problems with the Admin setup by Quentin created all those problems.

Because we are not in a free world but in quentin turners backyard.

Unbelievable.


That is shocking news guys.

The posts on the Computer-Chess Club message board do not necessarily agree (or disagree) with the opinions of Your Move Chess & Games, I.C.D. Corporation, or Computer Chess Reports. These companies do not control, and have no say in, what is posted or how it is posted; nor do these organizations have any say or control over policies and decisions made by the moderators.

[hgm]

But now its clear why suddenly the democracy and the polls here and the moderation issues and the
Problems with the Admin setup by Quentin created all those problems.

That is an unwaranted conclusion. The problem with the polls is technical, and seems to persist with a fresh install of the latest phpBB version at the TalkChess clone I set up. And moderation has always been doen by elected moderators; Quentin has never interfered with that.

[mclane]

But he implemented an admin who caused trouble.
Maybe this Trouble was intentional because he thought: this is my property.

Maybe the technical defects were intentional.

[Ras]

Well, Quentin has sent me an elaborate e-mail where he explains he sees things differently. I do not consider it proper form to quote from a private e-mail, though.

That's unfortunate, but then again, we accepted the free hosting during all these years, didn't we?

But he might be willing to sell the board to us.

Let's see what his position is and whether he's open for negotiation. The main point isn't the forum, after all, it's the domain ownership. Even if he is willing to sell it at a reasonable price, the next question is, who'd be the next owners (should be at least two together)? "The chess community" is no legal entity that could register a domain with a registrar.

Maybe the technical defects were intentional.

Maybe your posts so far havn't contributed anything useful.

[noobpwnftw]

Session persistence did not work properly with free Cloudflare as front end, plus the poorly implemented regional blocks which never actually worked. Now here comes inspiration, so now I host some SF data, some Leela data, TCEC, tablebases and probably much more else, now I'm in business.


That said, here is my offer: so I can provide hosting and troubleshooting services up to industrial standard like everyone else have been using, probably even pay for your ransom should you fail to negotiate it over with, in return, I get to ban up to 3 random accounts at any given time solely at my discretion, do we have a deal?

[mclane]

Well, Quentin has sent me an elaborate e-mail where he explains he sees things differently. I do not consider it proper form to quote from a private e-mail, though.

That's unfortunate, but then again, we accepted the free hosting during all these years, didn't we?

But he might be willing to sell the board to us.

Let's see what his position is and whether he's open for negotiation. The main point isn't the forum, after all, it's the domain ownership. Even if he is willing to sell it at a reasonable price, the next question is, who'd be the next owners (should be at least two together)? "The chess community" is no legal entity that could register a domain with a registrar.

Maybe the technical defects were intentional.

Maybe your posts so far havn't contributed anything useful.

And maybe you only want to behave as troll. Its me and others who founded this whole forum and made sure you and others can read if for many years that came after 1997. and we never had the idea that somebody will take over the whole shit and asks us to buy it back.
IMO Quentin has nothing, we dont need the domain name. We can open CCC at any time at any place because it belongs to the members. And they will follow us to any place in the world.

Important is that noone blocks people for over a year and tries to sell us our own forum. His „property“.
I can laugh about these capitalists.
They try to sell you something that belongs you. What has he got. A shop sell books and chess sets, so he will have to remain with this.

The community has been blocked for NO REASON for over 1 year at this place. All moderator elections have been made impossible here for over a year, now we know why, because it is „his property“. Why should he allow elections.
The admin in charge had never a mandate by the community. He had been implemented by quentin turner. The guy who now wants to sell us our own forum.