Good game, well played.

Hello. I wish to draw attention to what I believe is an unnecessary, and dare I say, bad, addition to Lichess.

The automatic "Good game, well played" setting.

Now, I realize that most people might not use it, but I find the concept disturbing that you can turn on a setting, and you are automatically polite to other people. At least, that's what they think.

Some people, maybe even most, who use it, probably mean it sincerely every game. But some won't. Also, I think that if you don't even put the effort into saying that it was a good game, or it was well played, it is not a good thing to have it be done for you every single time.

The previous system was fine. At least you still had to press a button every single game to say that it was a good game or well played. I'm fine with that.

But just putting no more effort into it than having the website do it for you automatically?

Imagine if even 1% of people in real life just had some device for the sole purpose of saying "Please" and "Thank you". Or "Excuse me". What would you think? Would you think, "That person has a good system! I should use it, too. It would save a lot of time."

Or would you think it's very rude that someone would have something like that, and not put in the effort to say it themselves?

I may be slightly exaggerating here. Who knows how many people will turn on the setting?

This is just my personal opinion, by the way. Feel free to ignore.

Lichess did this for positivity. Good game, well played is to express kindness. In addition, some people can be lazy or forget to type "Good game, well played". With this setting, it ensures that the laziest and most forgetful people won't have to worry about saying those words: they're already said.

"Imagine if...people in real life just had some device for the sole purpose of saying "Please" and "Thank you". Or "Excuse me". What would you think?"

sounds like modern times

@The_Daethalus I absolutely agree. Besides, how many of our games are really good and well played? Say that every time, it sounds hypocritical, let alone if you even let a software say that automatically.

Ready made reactions are bad taste in principle, like fake apllauses during a tv show. And what about the horrendous "good luck", that's also a nonsense in chess? It's always itritating when I get people just pushing buttons instead of putting the minimal effort to show a human response. I'd like the whole thing washed away from lichess interface.

MarkIorio Well, I wouldn't go that far. I agree that it is tedious to type it out the each time. (Unless you only play rapid or blitz, then it's slightly less.) I said I was fine with the buttons you had press after each game. (Also, typing "ggwp" is barely more complicated.) And what's wrong with good luck?

I know what you're saying and you make a good point about automatic politeness. It's probably better to do it manually and just say it when it's genuine.

But at least it's only when they lose games. The worst one is people saying 'Well played' after they crush their opponent. And even more weird is some people aren't even aware that it's rude.

Oops. I thought it was just at the end of a game. Didn't notice that it was only defeat or draw. My bad.

It is a positive thinking. It is a good addition.

Only that the reader should also read "between the lines". Sometimes people play and leave the board so fast that you never get a chance.

Other times you lose in such a staunting way that you grasp for air for 10 seconds before you are able to say "good game", and that ensure you mean well each time.

I tried using this setting the other day.
After accidentally saying good game well played to a early blunder leading to a very early checkmate, I turned it back off.

That wasn't a good game or well played, I blundered and they got a cheap, early checkmate. I mean, good on him, but that wasn't a good game or well played, he got lucky I made such a blindingly stupid mistake that I normally never make (At least *that* early in the game :P ).

I think there is no need at all for courtesy monosyllables here. I mean, most of the times we play with just a nick, any attempt to transform it into a real person only by using a brief mechanical greeting is futile. If we really want to communicate with our opponent we should make a far better effort. First of all we should write something original for that particular game, then we could go on chatting, possibly using the voice chat feature.

If you don't really want to communicate with a person, then please drop the ggwpgl jargon and stuff. It's just irritating. Better say nothing.

@The_Daethalus About the 'good luck' thing, there has been another thread here maybe a month or two ago. There is no such thing as 'luck' in chess, and that's one thing we love the most in it. Wishing good luck is nonsense and it can be annoying to your opponent because it's an insult to the game's own peculiar nature.