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I'm not talking about the ads you can see on a page. I'm talking about the ones who you can't see. I use Avast Online Security for chrome. You don't even have to download avast antivirus to use it.
I think it's an interesting comparison in terms of the ownership.

The problem is ultimately that people are pretty apathetic unless they're forced to pay. In my opinion Lichess is the preferable site, yet the owner can't even afford to work on it full time. By contrast chess.com has so much money they can afford to hire a full technical staff, content staff, pay guest writers/video makers, afford advertising - which means more players, and more.

It comes down in a way to a problem with capitalism itself. And that is that the key to 'winning' in capitalism is not making the best product, but making the product that sells the best. Ideally the two would be the same thing, but especially in the digital and extreme marketing era they're simply not and the correlation between the two seems to be drifting further and further away.

From a user perspective I'm very happy to have both sites. They both continue to improve and online chess is in the best shape of its life, by far.
#13

I agree with everything except "online chess is in the best shape of its life".

Cheaters and chess engines are literally affirmatively absolutely everywhere.
I must clarify the problem Chess.com has tracking devises "the like button etc" they track your behavior (what you look at (which web sites ) do you look at porn do you sell porn did you look at the adds for one politician or the other. And the list goes on. Remember politicians listen in on your telephone calls (to make sure of something) Mostly Europe do you really trust chess.com when they say it is for good purposes
My half measure use Linux with Chrome and "Privacy badger"
Chess.com is indeed a dodgy site. Admin allow the most offensive of posts, including links to fascist sites. They only intervene, calling the 'no politics' rule, when people object to such offensive posts. The site is owned by a Christian fundamentalist.
Does anyone else, when looking at the graphics of chess.com and lichess, feel like lichess looks smoother and more minimalist? It's sorta the feeling I get when looking at Windows designs and Apple designs.

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