What's something that's free that everyone should know about?
I'll start by plugging Harvard's free courses catalog as well as Udemy
Edit: Gonna add 2 more I remembered-
Blender - I wish I had more time to learn it, but I did start the infamous "Donut Tutorial" once!
Watch Cartoons Online - Lots of good older stuff!
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lichess.org is a fantastic online chess platform for players of all skill levels. it's free and---what's more--it's ad-free (unlike the parasitic organisation that's squatting on the chess.com domain).
it has one-on-one on-demand match-ups, tournaments, puzzles, user-published training courses, multiple chess variants, and so much more.
it's one of only two online resources to which i deem donating regularly worthwhile (the other being wikipedia).
do check it out. chess is one really healthy mental habit to inculcate.
does lemmy have a chess community? I'm so tired of chess reddit. reddit is all Hans Nieman fan boys, because of course they are. I'm so tired of looking for chess conversations and hearing about how white males are oppressed
I'm subbed to anarchychess which is probably the largest chess related community on lemmy I don't even play chess with any regularity :>
It's all shitposts about chess but still pretty amusing nonetheless.
I find the dynamics of lichess.org vs chess.com very interesting.
They are similar in terms of features. Both have decent interfaces, puzzles, matchmaking, live viewing boards and broadcasts for tournaments, training programs, etc. But chess.com has ads, and features locked behind subscription paywalls where lichess.org does not. (Everything is free on lichess, except for the little logo next to a user's name to say they have supported the site with donations.)
But on the other hand, chess.com seems to have a higher number pro players; and probably a larger number of players overall.
I think its very interesting to think about why that is the case. Why would more people choose the version that is more expensive, but does not have more features?
I've thought of a few reasons, but I think probably the biggest effect is that chess.com has more money to splash around (because it sells ads, and asks for user subscriptions), and it uses big chunk of this money to advertise itself. eg. by sponsoring players and streamers, offering larger prizes for its own tournaments; etc.
And although I definitely think lichess is better, since it is generously supplying a high-quality product without trying to self-enrich, I do sometimes think maybe what chess.com is doing is ok too: in the sense that it is not only self-enriching, but also supporting the sport itself a bit by paying money to players, events, and commentators. Lichess does this too - but less of it, because they have less money.
(Note that chess.com also does some really crappy stuff, such as censoring any mention of lichess in the chat of their twitch broadcasts. That definitely does not help support the sport.)
There's also an ego thing. Lichess starts you off at 1500 elo whereas I think chesscum starts at 1000. So if you're rated 1000 on Lichess you're a lot worse. There's a mentality that the better players are on Chesscum.
this of course isnt true, there's plenty of competition and actually around the 2000-2200 elo level Lichess actually overtakes chesscum. there's also fewer cheaters!
I definitely highly, highly recommend Lichess.
There's a mentality that the better players are on Chesscum.
I've got a game coming up with my biggest rival next week. Are you saying this "Chesscum" can make me a better player? I don't care what it is. I'll do anything for an edge! 🥵
lol :D puzzles, prep, and calculation practice!
Why would more people choose the version that is more expensive, but does not have more features?
It's chess.com. We are the tech-savvy Lemmy weirdos who dig around for alternatives. I'd put my money on people just literally not knowing or thinking to check for an alt.
I didn't know lichess existed until I found an extension that opens my chess.com match review into lichess, since the review is free there.
Lichess may be the best board game software for any board game ever. It's that good.
They should branch out!! Does it support anything other than chess?
um, chess 960? lol
There's also lishogi, if you want to learn that game.
It's great! Also for anyone that happens to be in the overlap of people that enjoy chess and go, and want to play go online as well, there's online-go.com.
I don't know that it has all the features that Lichess does, but it does have puzzles, tournaments, custom games, and so on.
cool!! thank youu