Hi Erik and crew and the teeming millions of chess.com members,

I'd like to propose a modification to vote chess.  I've been playing several vote chess matches lately and its really discouraging when I take the time to make a large post detailing the next move I believe we should make and give my thought process on those moves only to find out that 10 people have already voted for 10 different moves yet NOBODY posted anything about the moves they were making.

It has occurred to me that there is a step missing in the voting process that would alleviate the above lack of communication amongst team members.  I think that there should be a period of time in which players can NOMINATE a move to make and give reasons for those moves along with some debate.  Once the nomination phase has concluded players may then vote only on the moves that have been nominated.  This would also serve as a way for players to "change" their vote as the current system doesn't allow this and if someone comes up with a better move to make after you have cast your vote you have no way to alter your decision.

I belive that this change would make vote chess not only more fun but also a VERY powerful learning tool by encouraging more dicussion if a move is good or why a particular move is not a good one.

and yet some loser will continue to vote to resign on move 2.

edit - but yeah, neat idea.

sounds good

Anyone else agree or disagree that this would be a good mod?

I also like this idea.

I believe that the lack of a nomination stage is a clear hinderance to vote chess.  This example was taking from the most recent move of a vote chess match that is currently going on.  (The move has already been registered so posting this has no impact on that game).  There were only 2 possible moves that had any discussion.  The other 4 moves didn't have anything at all mentioned.  And the winning move with a whopping 2 votes???.... well guess what.. that was one of the 4 that weren't discussed.  Please save us from this insanity Erik.

Votes for move 24

• 24.....Qe7 (29%)
• 24.....Qd6 (14%)
• 24.....Qf6 (14%)
• 24.....Qa8 (14%)
• 24.....e4 (14%)
• 24.....f5 (14%)

I think it's a great idea! Although there would still be a lot of pointless votes because anyone can nominate a move. A variation on your system would be a preliminary voting, and then the final voting. Like in a non-chess-game election. This way only those that at least 10% or something like that are voting for would be in the final decsision.

i believe that the majority of the pointless nominees would be filtered out if in order to nominate a move you have to put the reason you're nominating it and if the reason doesn't hold water... people won't vote for it.  Nominating is a natural part of the voting process.  Nominate... Discuss.... Vote.

bump

I think this is a great idea! I've been frustrated with this in the past aswell.

I think that vote chess is an excellent opportunity for us to learn from one another by having a nomination phase with reasons for the proposed moves and then a final vote on the nominees.

I've felt the same frustration.  I had proposed a solution a little while back, which I think addresses this need without making it a two-step nomination/vote process: Simply allow people to change their votes up until the deadline.  If someone late in the process finds a great continuation, or a problem with the proposed move, people can use that analysis.  It seems a natural extension of the consultation-game process.

Yeah but what do you do for the people that post their move right away and then never go back and look to see if anyone has posted anything else?  Typically once I've voted I never look at that game again until its time to move again.

I believe that many few people would vote at all, or at least nominate votes. 

Great idea, wish I'd thought of it.

That's a possibility however, in its current state I feel that vote chess is "broken".  Not in the sense that it contains bugs but in the sense that it lacks fundamental functionality of a proper voting system  If someone has a better idea then I'm all ears.  But few people are speaking up.  Perhaps its because they don't play vote chess because of it issues that are being brought up by this post but they haven't figured out that missing ingredient that is needed to properly fix it.  As you can see from the responses on this thread there hasn't been anyone saying that something doesn't need to be done.  We all agree I believe that there is an issue here.  This might not be the correct solution however I've not heard anyone with a better solution?

I think that may be until at least 3 posts have been received or there is less 6 hours to go you can't vote.

well i don't think there should be a minimum number of posts/nominees because there will be instances where there is only one nominee... maybe its an obvious move or you're in check and there's only one possible move to get out of it.