Not exactly sure what to call this, but I had an idea for organizing classical time control games to create more of a long time control community. Definitely needs some polish but:
Players at the beginning of the month can commit to 4 classical time control games on Saturdays that month. The site randomly assigns players who commit to teams of 4 (different teams every month, and attempts to keep average rating/team roughly equal). Teams have an ongoing chat and can discuss team/tournament strategy leading up to and between games (but not during), can arrange practice sessions, etc. On Game-day boards 1-4 of matched teams pair off and play their game. Players who did not commit at the beginning of the month (lets call them freelancers), can fill in for no-shows of similar ratings (since this is inevitable). If a game cannot be played both teams receive half a point for the game. At the end of the month scores for teams are compared and a winning team is announced, players on said team get feel-good points, and have the option to commit or not to the next month.
Obviously there a lot of potential issues with something like this, but there are a lot of potential benefits as well. An account age restriction to ensure at least some trust that commitments will be honoured would be pragmatic (this goes for freelancers as well).
Any multiple of 8 would have to commit in order for the planned pairing to work, (so this would work even with minimal participation from the entire lichess population), different size teams could be used if necessary to minimize the number of players left out who wish to participate.
Tournaments could also have their own page on the watch tab for exposure to the event and discussion. That's all I've got for the moment, even if this can't be done hopefully it gets the wheels turning for other ideas.
Players at the beginning of the month can commit to 4 classical time control games on Saturdays that month. The site randomly assigns players who commit to teams of 4 (different teams every month, and attempts to keep average rating/team roughly equal). Teams have an ongoing chat and can discuss team/tournament strategy leading up to and between games (but not during), can arrange practice sessions, etc. On Game-day boards 1-4 of matched teams pair off and play their game. Players who did not commit at the beginning of the month (lets call them freelancers), can fill in for no-shows of similar ratings (since this is inevitable). If a game cannot be played both teams receive half a point for the game. At the end of the month scores for teams are compared and a winning team is announced, players on said team get feel-good points, and have the option to commit or not to the next month.
Obviously there a lot of potential issues with something like this, but there are a lot of potential benefits as well. An account age restriction to ensure at least some trust that commitments will be honoured would be pragmatic (this goes for freelancers as well).
Any multiple of 8 would have to commit in order for the planned pairing to work, (so this would work even with minimal participation from the entire lichess population), different size teams could be used if necessary to minimize the number of players left out who wish to participate.
Tournaments could also have their own page on the watch tab for exposure to the event and discussion. That's all I've got for the moment, even if this can't be done hopefully it gets the wheels turning for other ideas.