Hello all.

I wanted to get your opinion on a feature that's been established in online poker, which is, the chat box. From your own point of view, what do you guys think of it?

Here's my point of view on this particular topic: I think it should be disabled. From my experiences playing online poker, all players seem to do in them is either talk trash or complain. It's quite obnoxious actually. I try not to pay attention to it or take part in it, but I'm honest to say that I've been thrown into arguments with other players about certain things. You know, how that hand played out the wrong way, defending other players who been called donkeys and other names across the board, and so on and so forth. That's all the chat box seems useful for is just negative energy.

Poker should have etiquette, both live and online. This is truly a game of skill. The way I look at it is this: If your an experienced, serious player who is up against a recreational player, who plays just for fun, and happens to run good on you, (the experienced, serious player), why pester that person and bring him or her down? If you think about it, over the long run, your gonna make a profit against this person because you hold the skills that you've acquired through time, hard work, and dedication. So what if you happen to lose against a weaker player? It happens, that's poker. Nothing is guaranteed in this game. But what might be guaranteed is this: If you continue to verbally abuse your weaker opponent due to how he or she plays throughout a session, your gonna lose that profit because your gonna make that weaker opponent not want to play poker anymore. I've seen it happen, and I'm guessing some of you have seen it as well.

Poker needs the weaker opponents, donkeys if you will. If we don't have that due to them leaving on a count of our own actions toward them, this game of ours is gonna be pretty hard to beat, and it's already getting to that point slowly but surely. Think about it, and I hope for some feedback on this topic. Thanks for your time.