ActivityPub-Powered Go Servers

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Have you guys ever thought about self-deploying Go servers while federating with other Go servers? Just like Mastodon. Is it a good idea for letting more people join the game? Like what if players on OGS can play with KGS :thinking:

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Welcome to the forums :slight_smile:

I am not completely sure I fully understand the question (what’s Mastodon?), BUT:
possibly related thread here Any way to merge OGS & KGS?

and

There have been some projects recently that make use of our API to connect and play via their own client (like The Conquest of Go - A Videogame featuring Go Gameplay), so that is certainly a possibility as well

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Our API is open. Tell KGS to do the same and we’ll bake the ability to play there right into OGS itself :wink:

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I’ve thought about it, but haven’t mentioned it to anybody before. Glad somebody else is thinking about this! The biggest feature (and I think the only reason to use ActivityPub in this case) would be that Auto-match would actually be quick. A (Western?) Internet Go Federation would be a frigging godsend.

Only the greatest thing you’ve never heard of :slight_smile: Basically twitter, but not controlled by a single large entity. A little rough around the edges, but hey you get what you pay for. Well actually you get more than what you pay for because you pay nothing haha.

So KGS API is sort of open. ShinKGS uses a JSON protocol that is then translated to binary by this library. At least that is my understanding.

In order to get OP’s idea to work though, there really needs to be some kind of open protocol standard for connecting two unrelated servers. I don’t think it would be hard to create, but ideally it would get input from multiple major server operators. Idk, when I get some more free time, I’d like to put some more thought into this. @singing_salmon or if anyone else hears of any serious talks on this, I’d love to contribute!

Some considerations:

  • Automatch and/or shared custom game lists
  • Gameplay
    • timing/internet connection issues.
    • Should the game be hosted on both servers? Or just pick one? Will forwarding moves through servers give one player a significant advantage?
  • Ranking. This is probably the #1 hardest thing as it’s a difficult thing even on a single server.
  • Would this actually work for different servers, or should a new FOSS server be created with this functionality baked in? Mastodon servers are all the same, just owned and operated by different people. In this case though, there would be benefit in being able to incorporate this functionality into existing servers like OGS.
  • Any other aspects besides games that should be federated? Perhaps user connections would make sense (and definitely supported by ActivityPub)
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