Well in our premium vote chess game on the black team at least it seems like we already have members that do not intend to participate, consistantly the number of votes far outnumbers the number of posts.  One good example is on move 5, when one person posted about a6, and 15 voters voted for it.  Less then 7% of the people that supported it actually posted.  Isn't participation supposed to be manditory if you vote?

That sucks maybe erik can do something about it.

Bumping this.  Still lots of votes, currently 7 people have voted with no discussion of moves.  Can I get a response to at least acknowlodge that this post has been read?

[Deleted this post, so the next few guys will be replying to a blank post.  I believed I got the wrong point across, and didn't want people confused about what I was asking.  See my next post.]

Your thread got me interested in the game, and I will participate while I'm voting (for what my help is worth).

1) i did not know that posting in the vote chess forum was "manditory" in any sense.

2) if one already agrees with the majority of advice being given, how does adding another post (such as "i think d6 as well") makes any difference?

i agree with you to an extent, but it's a little strange to be forcing people to discuss the move. it's called vote chess, not group discussion chess. just my opinion.

Thats what irks me though.  The people that vote before ANYBODY has posted. But anyways, my origional question remains.

Chess.com did say they expected a higher level of participation among chess.com members.  But I'm wondering if this was mentioned as a prediction that premium members would be more cooperative, or a feeble attempt to scare people into participating *i think this is most likely*, or if chess.com said this because they have an actual plan to reduce the number of non-participants

Hehehe, sarc!!

I hope.

And how can I direct said question to the staff?

depends a lot on the content of the posts and the depth of the group. in one of the groups i play vote chess for there is a lot of detailed analysis, so i do not post frequently because i do not feel my posts would add any value and therefore not be the best use of my time. in another group members commonly just type their votes, so i do likewise. in my own group that i started, there was little discussion of the moves and less experienced members were struggling; although i'm not likely to find the best move all the time at 1700 rating, i try to offer some analysis to assist those who would otherwise blunder.