Hi everyone. I wrote this thread to share my opinion and hear what do others players think about the teams feature. Over the last years, Lichess made numerous changes to teams, though these are mostly focused on settings (description, leaders...). While I appreciate and deal with these changes, I feel there are still some points that deserve attention : First, I think there should be "team categories" to make searching easier.
The main page for teams
(https://lichess.org/team/all)
display them based on their popularity (number of members) rather than their current activity. To make in short, after my experience, several categories of teams can be identified :
- streamer teams
- "sponsored" teams (teams that provide cash prizes and host events sponsored by brands)
- "forum" teams (with active forums)
- teams with IRL foundation (chess academies, schools, or OTB chess clubs)
- "team battle" teams
- and private or organization teams.
A single team may come into multiple categories.
So, back to my point, to refine searches and allow smoother navigation on the "all teams" page, Lichess could introduce a parameter, similar to those used for blogs, that allows users to search for teams based on their categorieq or themes. Each team would bear "topic labels" beneath its name, with the right categories selected by the team leader.
Also, the possibility of having a sorta of search engine for the "all teams" page, allowing to refine research with languages and numbers of members.
Greeting!