2 weeks of E-board caused my 10-year account banned

@Ender88 said in #11:

From a legally standpoint (AFAIK I am not a lawyer) if someone buy legally a product making his due diligence about it (eg a smartphone in a regular market) and then turn out that such product breach regulations (eg the smartphone occupy reserved frequency, instead of what prescribed by law) the person will not be responsible for the breach, producer is.

I would stress the "I am not a lawyer part" on this. Also, you might need to differentiate between criminal law and civil law. The example with the power adapter for a laptop was a good one. If you kill your laptop with a (defective) third party power brick, the manufacturer of the laptop will not replace it, no matter how diligent you were in buying that thing. The only one to make claims against is the vendor of that faulty brick.

As for "diligent duties" - I recommend to read through the privacy policy of the chessnut link above. Really shocking (and admittedly highly surprising).

One thing to point out is that Chessnut not only admits they are bypassing the Lichess board API, they are actually advertising the fact as an advantage of their product. So much for "due diligence"... it's not really that hard to find out that using their application would violate lichess rules.

@nadjarostowa said in #50:

The TLDR is like "We mess up, we know it,

I did not know of chessnut 2 days ago
I dug a lot to try and understand the issue of the topic and the technical aspect

I don't think they say 'we mess up' ... I think they say 'we know better' and this is the future because the public API's are too limited

I think chessconnect is going the same way to support more feature on online platform https://chessconnect.de/supported-chess-sites/

Reading older post like this one https://www.reddit.com/r/Chessnuteboard/comments/1l89l6n/chessconnect_and_newchessnut_app_reasons_to_get/ you can see that Chessnut don't plan to use the public API but they plan to refine their system to 'help' anti cheating detection

Actually, I see a lot of comments of users saying they don't understand why using the private API is such a problem.
It's essentially about triggering the detection system: a bit like flashes are forbidden because they interfere with our fire detection system. So you can either accept the fact that it's forbidden or try to tune your flash

@fredo599 said in #53:

I think chessconnect is going the same way to support more feature on online platform https://chessconnect.de/supported-chess-sites/

I expect Chessconnect to remain safe, but that page does includes the statement:

"Starting with version 5, Chessconnect will support almost all features available on Lichess. Until then, Chessconnect is/as restricted to what Lichess offered through it’s API."

Could @somethingpretentious clarify whether this is possible without causing bans?

The current version of Chessconnect is 4.8.

One issue I see is that there are disclaimers everywhere all the time.

Even if I had read that chessnut's system could be flagged as fair-play violation (thanks for bringing it up), I would have assumed that all manufacturers give this disclaimer, and that it wouldn't apply to me because I've never cheated, don't know anybody who did. I didn't know how convictions worked, the appeals process, etc. An eboard is obviously a terrible and expensive method to cheat.

I would even say that I thought platforms were pretty lenient on cheaters, Hans Niemann, etc.

Prior to this situation, I would have assumed that in the case of a misunderstanding due to a technicality, it could be resolved anyway. For example if your phone rings an OTB event, worst case is you have to forfeit the game.

I'm not saying whether this is how lichess should or shouldn't act, just that it was very unexpected for an average joe like me.

Lichess since directed us to some info regarding API and tokens, available in the FAQ, but even as invested as I am now I'm not sure how to confirm if I'm playing legitimately right now through chessconnect. That stuff is not information for the ignorant end user it's for developers.

At the minimum, chessconnect asks for permission to use lichess API at first launch which is a confirmed good sign.

@Denisator

I totally agree. It's fair to assume that one might get falsely flagged if one does dubious things. To assume that the product is direct violation with the TOS by design (but advertising this as a feature on their main page) is simply outrageous.

Here's a direct quote:

We have currently implemented integration with three platforms: Chess.com, Lichess and ChessKid.Unlike the approach taken in the Air/Pro app, Evo, powered by Chessnut Vision technology, supports a wider range of platforms and game modes, providing you with an enhanced experience.

I think most people wouldn't think of getting banned is the "enhanced experience". And their hidden disclaimer shows they know what can and will happen. Completely unacceptable way to treat (potential) customers.

It's just so confusing. The "enhanced experience" is for the Evo. I'm using the Air, and at this point I don't know if Air was updated for this enhanced experience, or if the unenhanced experience is also using this chessnut vision. Don't know if any of them is fair-play friendly.

I wonder if there are other huge platforms in Asia (chessnut is from Hong Kong I think) with different fair-play criteria.

I meant manufacturers' disclaimers when shopping for boards, not lichess.

This may be all true; manufacturers are unreliable. How to handle it?

If lichess is going to allow eboards, it becomes their problem to solve too because this could keep happening and it sucks for them too. I'm sure nuking accounts of non-cheaters isn't pleasant for lichess, even if it's a small number of users. That's not the point of their fair-play policy, so there's a problem to solve, in my opinion.

Right now if you are savvy they already implemented a way to vet yourself through the token stuff, so it's not like they are trying to hide your board's legal status. For users it's just about being made aware of all of that.

Hi Denisator, I must've deleted my comment as you were replying. I deleted it because I felt it was too much of a long rant after I'd written it.

Yes online chess platforms should be thinking about how to make sure, where relevant, that all users will know if using their eboard breaches TOS, but while still being as strict as they should be when TOS violations do occur. But that's a very awkward task because every electronic chessboard manufacturer seems to be incompetent and/or untrustworthy. (In my opinion at least.)

If anyone can implement a real solution to all this, it's probably Lichess. I think their policies and their technology (including their API) are already excellent and unrivalled.

Congratulations on your restored glory. I'm guessing lots of people around the world were happy to see that.