Currently you can ask for an undo after you have made a misclick and it is your opponent’s move. But once they play their move, which can happen quickly, you can no longer ask for an undo. You should be able to ask for undo on your move, and if the opponent grants it is undoes their last move and your last move. This is how undo works on other servers. To workaround this you have to resort to the chat box, but this is fraught with difficulties like people not seeing the chat, speaking different languages, and taking a long time, see the examples below.
To pre-answer some possible objections I have encountered before:
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“But it’s not fair to ask for undo once you have seen opponent’s answer” For beginners Go may be a point-and-click adventure game in which every move comes as a surprise, but this is not true for more experienced players. The move to punish a misclick is usually obvious and does not provide useful information to the misclicker. Plus they can always decline.
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“People can request undo too much and be annoying”. This is not changed by allowing undo request on your move, it’s already possible. But as a separate feature it would be good if after multiple undo requests in the same game the choices were: Accept, Decline, Decline and auto-decline future requests. Some other servers have this feature.
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“I don’t like undos, misclicks are your own fault” As is you right, and you can decline. This feature is about using the language agnostic features of the site, rather than the unreliable chat box, to ask for undo. A separate feature to disable undos as an option when creating a game is also a good idea.
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“Use submit move button mode to avoid misclicks”. The presence of this mode does not prevent improvements to the undo feature. As for why to not use submit move button mode: it’s a pain on mobile to keep scrolling from the board resized to fill screen to the the submit button, plus as the submit move button is in the same place as the pass button you can end up with a new form of misclick of mispassing when you lag or mistakenly double-tap.
Example 1
[13:23] Player1: Misclick, undo please.
[13:24] Player1: Hello???
[13:24] Player1: My move was a misclick, undo please.
[13:25] <-Player1 lost on time->
(Player2 either didn’t see the chat or ignored it, perhaps was in Zen mode)
Example 2
[13:23] Player1: Misclick, undo please.
[13:24] Player1: Hello???
[13:24] Player1: My move was a misclick, undo please.
[13:24] Player2: Ask undo then
[13:24] Player1: I can’t ask undo on my move
[13:24] Player2: Yes you can, the undo button is below the board
[13:25] Player1: It doesn’t appear when it is my move, so you need to ask to undo YOUR move, I give that undo, and THEN I can ask for undo!
[13:26] Player2: Oh okay, OGS is pretty weird huh
[13:26] < Player2 asks undo >
[13:27] < Player1 lost on time >
Example 3
[13:23] Player1: Misclick, undo please.
[13:24] Player1: Hello???
[13:24] Player1: My move was a misclick, undo please.
[13:24] Player2: Ask undo then
[13:24] Player1: I can’t ask undo on my move
[13:24] Player2: Yes you can, the undo button is below the board
[13:25] Player1: It doesn’t appear when it is my move, so you need to ask to undo YOUR move, I give that undo, and THEN I can ask for undo!
[13:26] Player2: Oh okay, OGS is pretty weird huh
[13:26] < Player2 asks undo >
[13:27] < Player1 gives undo >
[13:27] < Player1 asks undo >
[13:27] < Player2 gives undo >
[13:28] Player1: Thanks
[13:28] < Player1 plays intended move >
[13:28] < Game continues >
Example 4
[13:23] Player1: Misclick, undo please.
[13:24] Player1: Hello???
[13:24] Player1: Do you speak English?
[13:24] Player1: Sprechen sie Deutsch?
[13:25] Player1: Parlez vous Francais?
[13:26] Player1: Hablas Espanol?
[13:27] Player2: О чем ты говоришь?
[13:27] < Player1 lost on time >
Example 5
[13:23] Player1: Misclick, undo please.
[13:24] Player1: Hello???
[13:25] Player2: 你怎么不玩 [Why aren’t you playing?]
[13:25] < Player1 loads up bing translate >
[13:26] Player1: 我是只喜欢吃圣诞树的炸兔子 [I am a fried rabbit who likes to eat christmas trees]
[13:27] Player2: lol
Example 6
[13:23] Player1: Misclick, undo please.
[13:24] Player1: Hello???
[13:25] Player2: 你怎么不玩 [Why aren’t you playing?]
[13:25] < Player1 loads up google translate >
[13:26] Player1: 我没有按一下,请撤消您的举动,以便撤消我的操作 [I made a misclick, please undo your move so I can undo mine]
[13:27] Player2: 什么 [What?]