A Plethora of Bugs (July '14 Edition)

[StephenM]

I have been very active on the site in the last month. Here is a list of bugs and problems that I experienced that require attention:

I use Google Chrome.

1. Preferences are not stored on the server and are lost if you clear your cookies or change browsers or machines. This is hugely problematic for those of us who use multiple machines and devices.
2. The board has no border at all when you don’t show board coordinates - in fact, it looks like stones are clipped by a pixel or two. Adding a small border would make hiding coordinates a viable option. Also, there should be an option to have small coordinates instead of either obnoxious, large-font coordinates or no coordinates at all.
3. The lines and stones on the board frequently disappear - particularly if you keep your browser window open, but minimised, for a long time.
4. Chrome desktop notifications don’t open the OGS browser window when clicked and don’t automatically disappear when you manually restore the OGS browser window.
5. Chrome desktop notifications frequently fail to appear when moves are played by one’s opponent.
6. On the home page, there is no point listing open challenges (in the top-right game list) that I can’t accept. Similarly for the open-challenge chart. Also, we still need an option to hide this box and the open challenge chart.
7. On the home page, on the board list, the green border that indicates that it is “me to play” is too similar, visually, to the mouse-over border.
8. On the home page, on the board list, the mouse-over border often displays even when the mouse is nowhere near the board - this appears to be linked to the use of multiple browser tabs and minimising and restoring the browser window.
9. Stone-click sounds are still too loud, relative to System volume, and unconfigurable.

In addition to these, I strongly argue that the following should be implemented as soon as possible:

1. Preference to hide user avatars/images - this is standard on most Internet sites for a reason.
2. Preference to return to the board list after playing a move in correspondence games (this would be an alternative to auto-advance)
3. Finished correspondence games should not disappear from the board list immediately but remain there for at least a day, giving you the opportunity to say “thanks for the game” and notice that the game you have spent two-months playing has actually ended. This is even more critical in the case when your opponent resigns.

[yebellz]

@StephenM

Preferences are not stored on the server and are lost if you clear your cookies or change browsers or machines. This is hugely problematic for those of us who use multiple machines and devices.

This one has been brought up in other threads. Apparently, this is a deliberate design choice. Personally, I don’t like it very much either.

Along the same vein, it seems that whether or not you’ve seen a message from another user is stored locally. I’ve had to dismiss the same message across multiple devices.

[nispio]

Since I know that anoek and matburt are both too nice to tell you so, I will. You are sounding a lot like Veruca Salt:

I’m sorry that your free online Go experience is not living up to your every expectation, but perhaps you don’t understand what a “bug” is. Most of your “bugs” sound more like “No Daddy, I wanted a white pony, not this stupid brown pony!”

I’m not saying there is anything wrong with feature requests, It’s all in the presentation.

[StephenM]

2, 3, 4, 5 and 8 are definitely bugs of the “it’s broken” variety.
1 is a bug in design and is widely criticised.
6 is also a poorly designed feature - arguably not a bug, fair enough.
7 is a usability issue
9 is also widely criticised

I didn’t sign up for this site - I was forced to use it when, without warning or community involvement, it annexed the old OGS, a site I was quite happy to use. If the developers don’t want people like me in their community, resent my feedback or feel that I (and the constituency that thinks like I do) do not matter, that’s their prerogative. Bemoaning the things that are sub-optimal is mine.

[nispio]

Disclaimer: I am not involved in the development of this site. My opinions do not in any way represent those of the developers/maintainers.

@StephenM

I didn’t sign up for this site - I was forced to use it

Sounds like a human-rights violation.

As far as I understand the situation, this site has exactly two developers, namely anoek and matburt. Both of them have a day job and work tirelessly on improving OGS in their free time without remuneration. As long as I have been visiting the forums, I have never heard either one of them complain about user feedback. They have a long list of bugs and feature requests which they prioritize and address as quickly as possible.

@StephenM

If the developers don’t want people like me in their community, resent my feedback or feel that I (and the constituency that thinks like I do) do not matter, that’s their prerogative. Bemoaning the things that are sub-optimal is mine.

And bemoaning grumpy users with an entitlement attitude is mine.

When the site transitioned to version 4.0, users came in droves and complained about how everything was broken and they hated everything about the new site design. I watched in amazement as the developers took all of the criticism in stride, and even responded with kind words to people who were being downright rude. So I can say fairly confidently that yes, you and your feedback matter to the developers.

My point was simply that there are more efficient (and kind) ways of addressing issues than posting a huge list (with a snarky title) of all of the things that (in your opinion) are wrong with the site. In most cases, using a separate forum topic for each bug report is preferred because it encourages more community involvement. It gives other users the chance to jump in and say “I’m having this issue too. I am using browser ABC and I see the issue after performing XYZ.”

With all that said, I actually agree with a lot of your requests, just maybe not with their urgency. So let’s talk about them.

@StephenM

Preferences are not stored on the server and are lost if you clear your cookies or change browsers or machines. This is hugely problematic for those of us who use multiple machines and devices.

There are arguments both ways. I use OGS on multiple devices, but I prefer having device-specific settings. For example, I like sound on my desktop so that I can hear when another player makes a move in a minimized window, but I don’t want sound or goban labels on my phone. It would be “hugely problematic” for me to have to change settings each time I switch devices.

However, I agree that it would be really nice to choose which settings are local and which are global. anoek is aware of this desire but has said that it is lower on the priority list until he gets some more urgent bugs out of the way:

*Please* give me the ability to disable sound

FTR I think there is a case to be made for storing a default setting on the server, effectively doing what ya’ll want, but then allowing the local settings to override these… and that may very well happen at some point, but I certainly want to get a few more core features done before thinking about ancillary things like this. For now I would recommend just whitelisting the site, or dealing with the pita of updating your settings every time you visit the site. @Tethys I do encourage you to rip …

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@StephenM

The board has no border at all when you don’t show board coordinates - in fact, it looks like stones are clipped by a pixel or two. Adding a small border would make hiding coordinates a viable option. Also, there should be an option to have small coordinates instead of either obnoxious, large-font coordinates or no coordinates at all.

I play with no coordinates on both my phone and tablet, and it is a very viable option. I think the goal is to make the board and pieces as large as possible to maximize the use of screen real estate. Adding more of a border would only make it harder for me to tap the correct location on my phone. I also refute the claim that stones are getting clipped. Feel free to post a screen shot if there is a corner case where this happens.

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@StephenM

The lines and stones on the board frequently disappear - particularly if you keep your browser window open, but minimised, for a long time.

This sounds like a bug. I recommend opening a new forum topic to treat this issue.

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@StephenM

Chrome desktop notifications don’t open the OGS browser window when clicked and don’t automatically disappear when you manually restore the OGS browser window.

Chrome desktop notifications frequently fail to appear when moves are played by one’s opponent.

I don’t think that Chrome notifications ever disappear on their own. When I receive notifications from other websites, I also have to dismiss them manually. For example, reading an email does not dismiss the “new message” notification for me. I’m not sure what the intended behavior of the notifications is, and have been confused by them before. I have opened the following thread to ask more about it:

Chrome Notifications

I don’t understand how Chrome notifications are supposed to work, and have been confused about when they appear. When should I see notifications, and when should I not see them? It seems like I have had notifications pop up for games that were currently open, though I can’t reproduce this. Also, it seems like clicking on the notification should take me to the game in question, but it does not.

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@StephenM

On the home page, there is no point listing open challenges (in the top-right game list) that I can’t accept. Similarly for the open-challenge chart. Also, we still need an option to hide this box and the open challenge chart.

Since there are almost never more than 10 open challenges at a time, this has never caused a problem for me. In fact, I like being able to see the challenges that I can’t accept because it gives me a feel for the current activity level on the site. Having the ability to hide these games, or the entire list, is a reasonable feature request though.

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@StephenM

On the home page, on the board list, the green border that indicates that it is “me to play” is too similar, visually, to the mouse-over border.

I have never had trouble telling them apart, but regardless I don’t understand how this is a problem unless you don’t know where your mouse cursor is…

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@StephenM

On the home page, on the board list, the mouse-over border often displays even when the mouse is nowhere near the board - this appears to be linked to the use of multiple browser tabs and minimising and restoring the browser window.

I have never seen this issue and have used the site very heavily in the exact way you describe, with multiple tabs and minimizing. I just tried a bunch of random tab switches and minimize/restore cycles and could not reproduce. Maybe you should open a new thread and see if others have had the issue and can contribute ideas of how they got to that state. Otherwise the developers will have a tough time tracking it down.

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@StephenM

Stone-click sounds are still too loud, relative to System volume, and unconfigurable.

This is a known issue, and is on the todo list. You already voiced your opinion on the topic. Complaining about it again here does not help fix it any faster: Fine-tuned sound preferences

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@StephenM

I strongly argue that the following should be implemented as soon as possible:

“I want it nowwwwwwwww!” (see above)

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@StephenM

Preference to hide user avatars/images - this is standard on most Internet sites for a reason.

A reasonable request, but hardly urgent. I have yet to encounter an offensive avatar on this site, so if there is a problem, it is not at all widespread. In the meantime, if a user has an inappropriate avatar, you should notify a moderator.

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@StephenM

Preference to return to the board list after playing a move in correspondence games (this would be an alternative to auto-advance)

Great idea! (still not urgent)

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@StephenM

Finished correspondence games should not disappear from the board list immediately but remain there for at least a day, giving you the opportunity to say “thanks for the game” and notice that the game you have spent two-months playing has actually ended. This is even more critical in the case when your opponent resigns.

A reasonable request, but not one that I would want personally. For me the blue notification that says “Game has ended” is sufficient to be able to visit the finished game.