Chess.com lies?

In my recent issue of the USCF 2009 catalog, chess.com advertised on the back of the front flap, boasting, "Over 1 million members!"

Um...I believe the member count (as of this writing) is 882,806.

That is not 1 million members. Don't get me wrong, that's alot of people, and chess.com is one of (if not the) top chess site on the net.

But lying? I feel that is wrong.

I think they included people who use the facebook app

I hope so, and I think that it would make sense for them to include those people.  Otherwise, it is a false advertisement.

Not lying :)

The numbers below are lower than the 'actual' number

Chess.com members: 882,806
Chess.com Facebook members : 115,337  (active members)
Chess.com iGoogle members :     41062

Total members : 1039205

You're lucky you have iGoogle, or such a claim would be completely unfounded. 

Not really, we have over 500'000 on Chess.com facebook that have registered so far :)  

I play chess on Facebook, so you've counted me twice. I played several games there a few months ago, then started another last week (perhaps I was listed as inactive).

look everybody nows you kinda sorta round off things,like in golf, but not when you owe money... then logically it goes the 'other way'.....anyway no big deal, a million good enough, god bless him

this post seems a bit childish to me

Yes, presumably many of the facebook users are already users here. So could well be below 1,000,000. Not that it matters. In fact by now I've realised this post is completely pointless, but as I've already typed something I'm not just going to completely scratch it.

On the other hand, I've conversed with several Facebook opponents that tell me they play no where else. Many people try internet chess one place, not every place. Only a few hard cores play everywhere.

None of the ordinary members know - and we don't in this other thread either - for very sound business reasons.

Are you really that much of a victim?

In your work paul211 in a company, do they tell to the public what is their salary ? I don't think so. 

for private companies like chess.com that kind of transparency simply isn't required.  It's Erik's right, as owner, to decide what financial information is and is not made public.  If you were an investor it would be a different story, but you're not so your sense of entitlement to "transparency" is once again misplaced.