http://livingrevolution.co/2013/08/06/why-i-quit-my-dream-job/could not stop reading when I started: an inside view of somebody who helped building up
chess.com and then left the company after a heavy dispute with
chess.com's CEO Erik. Many people shared his views, amazingly also WGM Natalia Pogonina who still works on
chess.com.
Did not know that their site was running so well that the CEO paid himself in 2012 40 (!) times the salary of normal
chess.com stuff.
But read yourself, its highly interesting
Well, seems like (at least partially) an objection to ownership. And the bussiness model is the culprit, not the "greedy" major % holder. You see its the staff and the GMs that brought about the horde of users perhaps, but the site's main asset is not the staff, its the horde of users which they monetize. It is possible that a few highly valueable workers might leave the project resulting in a "slightly" reduced value users would get from their absence/replacements. Slightly because for most users FM advise and GM advise are non distinguishable (as long as it is given in style), and there is no need of constant refreshment of resources such as videos when you already have tons of them. As you know puzzles and analysis are now the domain of algorithms. All of this combined, in the given model the staff's hand is pretty weak. Blaming scarcity principle seems odd to me. Perhaps if the desire was to proportinize the income, staff might needed to dictate % of ownership at the cost of reduced income, before the horde did arrive, anticipating the eventual weak position they would get.
Greedy ... mothercopulators! But I can't blame them (or him, Erik).
#2 I agree, this sounds like an objection to the business model. As a chess player and teacher I feel some of his pain, and if he wanted to start a competing site with a "fair" business model I think that could be an interesting idea.
To me this seams like a werry good internet cite,- i have free analysis of my games, ther are manny players,- people have done a great Jobb,making this Lichess,- this is the best internet cite i we ewer seen
I have an account on
chess.com. The forums are full of trolls.
a real insider story, stunning
by the way: the title should be changed to IM David Pruess (not Daniel Pruess), just for the records so that this can be found correct
IMHO absolute justified that the CEO of
chess.com or what site ever pays himself 40 or 80 or 200 or whatever times the min. salary of others as long as the financial standing of his company allows that.
And an employee asking for splitting corp. profits another way (according his political attitude), is just a dreamer and impudent. Erik of
chess.com has built up the site, managed everything, invested years of hard work and a lot of money and taken all the risk. So it's up to him to do with his profit whatever he wants.
But what do you expect from people who live in a comune and grow their own vegetables? The mistake starts when you hire those people. In my company he would have never had a job..
This one is easy.
It's 100% the business model. Found this on IM Pruess' twitter account:
"community member, anticapitalist, gamer, writer. much love!"
Anticapitalist. Is that just another way of saying socialist? :) ... regardless, I see nothing wrong in the CEO making more money. That's the way for-profit businesses tend to work.
what I just discovered and did not know when starting this thread: Erik (Allebest), the owner of
chess.com is an active mormon:
http://mplglobalization.blogspot.co.at/2011/06/experience-interview_07.htmlHis religion is of course his private thing but it tends to explain many things with respect to the harsh
chess.com policy, for example erasing all threads with competitor sites etc. as mormons do not accept any critics (and are in many ways special, they do not touch alcohol, do not allow sex before marriage etc. etc.)
