Note-at 10:01 I suggested ... Qg6+ and should have been Qg7+ obviously due to the White Queen. Just a quick note. Thanks

Really a 3? That bad? I guess I will stop posting videos now. See ya next year! :)

I did a video and it got rated a 1/5 and I thought it was decent. My latest is one of my best (or so I thought) and got rated 3.5 (4 votes).

Someone has been going through and rating all the videos with a 1 - thick skin is a virtue when making these videos. Anyway, I enjoyed the game presentation, and have some thoughts of my own on luck in chess - being both a chess player and a gambler. I'll probably talk about it in an upcoming video. The Scotch Gambit looks like a lot of fun for someone who wants to play a sharper opening, and avoids the standard Danish Gambit retort of 1. e4 e5 2. d4 exd4 3. c3 d5. I may have a look at it as an alternative to the Ruy Lopez, particularly when playing lower rated players as white.

Sarciness, thanks for sharing that! I hope you keep posting your videos no matter what the baby haters think! I just said what I said because that is how I feel. I really don't need to post any videos whatsoever, now do I? Nor does anyone need to watch them, now do they?!

No one should ever get a 1, ever, no matter what, period, end of subject! That is immature horsecrap!

Also I NEVER liked the voting system from day one. I told Brett (bkildahl-sorry if I missed spelled it) that it was a bad idea. He pushed it with Josh and admin. I think it does nothing but discourage people from posting for fear of a poor mark. If you don't like someones vids, just don't watch them! I would rather you not set one eye on my videos then to get some arbitrary bullcrap pawn rating. I really don't care what people think of my video quality, playing quality, personality quality, entertainment quality, voice quality, speech quality, attitude quality or any other quality for that matter. I don't think anyone expects any of my videos to have any where near the quality of a Dennis video, do they? Of course not!

I like the "like" button much better! You either like it or you don't. Who the heck cares what other people think about the video? Just because one person thinks it's crap doesn't mean everyone does. Does it?

I bet you $50 bucks that if you get rid of the "pawn star rating system", you will get more players posting their games and improving themselves and enriching the community! Also I think you should allow them to delete their own videos if the want to! I think if would strengthen the site quality because the better videos would not likely get deleted.

I believe I read that a video poster said that he was happy to get a low vote than no vote at all. Bullcrap! Absolute bullcrap! Don't tell me that getting a 3 pawn vote (or lower) isn't next to a slap in the face! I think it is! "Piss off" and go watch someone elses videos and don't come back is what I feel like saying! I don't really give a crap if you like me or not! I am just sharing my thoughs on a game of chess. Why do I need a rating for that? I would rather you tell me straight to my face than have some sort of anonymity in voting low and have the poster not understand why that person didn't like their video. Speak up and spell it out, don't do some cowardly act and vote low without explaination. I think its a pathetic way to speak ones mind!

If I were to start up a Youtube site, I would have the options to disable the comments and disable the ratings if I wanted to. We don't have that freedom of choice here. We ALL have hang our videos out their for all the baby haters to bestow their hate upon whomever they wish without acountability, like it or not! Not cool!

I vote to kill the pawn rating! It is pointless and has no benefits to speak of!

There I said it and I feel better! :)

Miscreant, thanks for your comments!

"Thick skin" I don't have when it comes to cowardly acts! You nailed it my friend. I am always up for a good debate when it's face to face. Maybe I should hang up the video making, or if the powers to be want to disable the rating system (as mentioned in my comments above), then I wouldn't have to worry about my thin skin, would I?

I would LOVE to watch your video on luck in chess! I will be looking for it!

Play Well and Prosper!

Kingsblade, you are upset with a rating of 3?? If I had the talent to ever produce one of these videos, I'd be dancing if I got a rating of 3. 3 pawns means "good", so your video was good. What's wrong with that? Remember that on this site, there are videos posted by chess masters. I think 4 and 5 pawns should be mostly (not exlusively of course) reserved for chess masters. If you get 5 pawns on every video, then how many pawns should be awarded for an international chess master's video? You don't need a thick skin, you just need to be more realistic. If in your opinion, every video should get a rating of 5 pawns or not rated at all, then I absolutely agree that this rating system should be removed. They can also remove the number of viewers as well because that is also an indication of how well a video has been received.
I understand that you have obviously worked hard in producing your video and that you care a great deal about it, but the rating system is not about how you feel about your video, it's about the viewers ("baby haters"?) opinion of your video. Thank you.

Ignore the ratings if they disturb you- the "like" button and the comments are a much better indicator of how well they are received. Personally, I think the system is ridiculous and broken whenever I receive a "1" but works fantastically well when I receive a "5" Fishing for star ratings is probably the worst reason to make a video. If you think it's good that's good enough- even if only one viewer learns one thing from your video- then it's a success right there.

Thanks Johangnorman!

Your insight helps me tremendously with my distorted perspective on the matter. When you put it that way, it does make me feel much better about getting 3,s. I should feel better about that now ,but like you said, we both agree the rating system should be removed.

Thanks again for taking time to participate!

Play Well! :)

Thanks for you input Kamus!

Yeah, I guess I shouldn't be so offended by nameless numbers, but then again I still think it stinks that people can just pick a low number for some unknown reason! It is just ridiculous in my opinion!

By the way I looked into your music! You are quite an accomplished musician! I was thoroughly impressed! I wish I had a 100th of your knowledge and skill in music! Bravo my friend!

Play Well and Prosper! :)

I am proof positive that it doesn't take any particular talent to produce a chess video. I just find it extremely entertaining (and instructive) to get into the heads of other players and see how they think about and analyze the game of chess. No two people do this the same way, after all. I figure that if someone else is entertained (or educated) by listening to my mumbled, incoherent, half-finished thoughts - then I'm glad share.

I think I agree with KB about the rating system. I had never even used the rating system until I started posting videos. I'll still rate videos on my personal preference, but judge the quality of a video by the content of its discussion rather than some arbitrary metric like stars.

I agree that a simple like feature is good enough. There simply isnt that much competition and generally not many videos uploaded to have a complex rating system. Have it if you like it then you push the like button and if you dont like it then you have no way of expressing it other than to comment which is better for all of us in making the community better.

If I were a video poster here, and let's say I had posted 10 videos with an average viewership of let's say 100 (and to clarify, I am not in any way referring to KB here), on my 11th video, I would only be concerned about one burning question: WHY THE F. NOBODY IS WATCHING MY VIDEOS? Why this dude Jerry of Chessnetwork gets an average of 10000 viewers per video and I can't get even get a small fraction of that? If my videos are so good, how come nobody is watching them? So on my eleventh video, I would tell my friends/colleagues, "thank you so much for your support and encouragement, but I only wanna hear from critics on this one". Save the "great games", "great video", "great analysis" comments and kudos for the next video. I would tell the moderators thank you for your support and words of wisdom as well, but I only want to hear from people who think my videos suck! I would want to know is it my voice? Is it my personality? Is it the kind of chess material/games that I am presenting? Is it my analysis? Is it my lack of knowledge? How can I kick Jerry's ass, that's what I would want to know! That would be my way of looking at it and I am sure some of you think I am insane and that's fine. Maybe some people post the video just for posting and could careless if even 5 people watch it, and that's ok too.
Now the second issue is when a critic actually does make a comment, I would try not to make comments such as: "if you don't like the video, you don't have to watch it" (translation: I don't give a damn how many people watch my work), or "you may not have been the target audience for this video" (translation: it is never my fault for not explaining things well, it is always your fault for being too dumb), or the all time favorite "you can't please everybody" which does not actually apply when "everybody" is staying away from your videos.
I think some of the viewers may shy away from constructive criticism because then they have to deal with the backlash as though it was the viewer's fault for finding the video subpar. According to Detroitman, it's not sufficient that you don't like the video, you will actually be obliged to comment on why you don't like it. Does everybody that like the video have to give an explanation why? Maybe some people don't want to make such comments because they don't want to deal with the backlash of how ''rude" they are for not liking the video.
So bottom line, I don't care about "like" button or rating systems, etc, but if the posters want to get better, they should try to not be so defensive, but rather appreciative and inviting of criticisms of their work. That's part of the key to improvement. Now you can criticize me all you want! And good luck with all your videos, go kick Jerry's ass. Thank you.
P.S. again, this post did not have anything specific to do with this fine gentleman, KB

Thanks for your input DMan and congrats on your standing in the tourney! I bet you have come a long way since we last played!

KB