READ: Rules and Procedures

This post is a bit long but you MUST read it or else you will have no idea what we are doing!

The rules for joining are very simple.

1) DO NOT vote until we decide on an official group move

2) Vote the official group move

If you do not agree to these rules, then DON'T JOIN.

Summary of Procedures:

1) Post analysis for moves in their appropriate topic (2...d6 in topic "2...d6")

2) Others will comment on your analysis and you will comment on others'.

3) Spend the first 12 hours perfecting your lines, then post it in the "Move #X FINAL Variations" topic. You are free and recommended to post any INITIAL analysis and FINAL analysis on the comments section of the actual game for non-Alliance members to read and discuss. You are also recommended to post a plan/explanation for your variations so others can easily understand what you are trying achieve and understand the theories/principles behind your move.

4) By 12 hours, we should be done tweaking all variations, at which point I or another staff member will create a topic called "Move #X - Voting". Please take responsibility for your vote. All alliance member MUST look through the "Move #X FINAL Variations" topic. ONLY THEN should you POST your unofficial vote in the "Move #X - Voting" topic. In order to reassure the alliance that you've read, please post the move you unofficially vote for and the reasons WHY you voted for it (shouldn't be too hard if you actually looked through the analysis!) Any vote without a reason will be VOID. You are free to edit your post and change your vote until time is up.

5) By 10 hours, I or another staff member will lock the topic and tally the unofficial votes in the "Move #X - Voting" topic. We will then declare the Alliance's official move. (If it is a tie, I or another staff member will break it based on which move the stronger players preferred, though I HIGHLY DOUBT there will ever be a tie).

6) All members of the Alliance are then required to vote the official move in the game. (You had your chance to state your arguments so don't complain if others simply didn't find it convincing enough :P).

Minor Notes (You can skip this if you're tired of reading ):

It is recommended to post only once in the FINAL Variations topic. Feel free to update it if necessary but it really shouldn't be there if it's not "FINAL". If you did have to edit it for some reason, please click the EDIT button and not make a new post. Just post in the comments section that you edited it so we know (we'll look at it again before voting anyways).

For casual talking, please use the notes, which are only open to group members. The forum should only be for the discussion of the moves.

This is our first attempt at this. The process is subject to change if you guys think it's necessary.

Feel free to discuss any problems, concerns, or suggestions regarding the procedures stated above in this topic.

Any attempt to rephrase and shorten any of the above points will also be considered.

Let's try.  My sense is that the rules are more complicated than necessary, so people will inadvertently not follow them correctly.

Hopefully, once we get the topics for our first move up, everything will become self-explanatory.

I will surely do my best :)

Personally, I think the concept of presenting our experts agreement on what is the best move to the whole vote chess team, and explaining if other moves are inferior is more important that having a "union block vote" concept. We should be about convincing, not ordering.

Agreed. I am thinking about creating a graph of [votes vs time] so we have an idea of when it will be too late to influence votes. If any member(s) would like to record these two values (time and total vote count) every 30 minutes in the first 12 hours next turn, please let me know.

To be honest, I was kind of happy that we didn't have to go against the majority in the main game. We are just starting out so if we had to go with Qd8, we would be losing much support already. At least this way, many members are able to feel more comfortable and place their trust in the system and its decision.

bump (to keep this visible to all)

Lol, the procedure is kinda pointless now XD

Then remove the warning "READ BEFORE JOINING" - more might join without the warning sign

so basicly, im not in this group yet, vote for the move they say so right?

Yeah. If we divide votes between two good moves, A and B, move C (a mistake) might get voted. Our goal is to first choose which is better, A or B, by voting here and the move that wins becomes the "Alliance move" which everyone votes for. A lot of people are inactive now so the pool of people voting is small and we don't really announce the move anymore. However, most alliance members generally agree on the same move at this point since everyone reads each other's analyses. You can see which move would have won by checking out the "Vote Box" thread a couple of hours into the game.

Agreed