Your posts sound so hostile, I wonder if this is really only about this congress, or more a general problem, maybe based on a political position of general distrust against the USA.
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Not at all. I spent a big part of my life contributing freely to the development of weiqi and I am just amazed about that kind of choice for selecting the players. I never mentioned anything against USA . One of the worst thing I met many times in the association life is how they get closed on their own I called that the family trend.
Once again and last, to think that in the whole world and each country, there should be a go association and that the members of this association are the only one eligible to participate is so wrong, excluding a lot of players as untrustable because they don’t follow your own view. Is that really the way to develop weiqi, to grow our community, to make these players to become more active in the real life go community?
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How about you present an example of some player who is very active in Go within their own country, plays at local tournaments, wants to join and tried to join the member-only parts of the AGA Congress, but has been denied because of this problem you’re having?
Everything I’ve gathered from xhu98’s posts points toward inclusivity, and I would be surprised if an example of such a player existed.
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@Vsotvep If I understand this correctly, everyone can watch, but not everyone can compete. The argument is about competing in the tournaments, not joining the e-Congress.
I think.
P.S. @xhu98 I understand the issues and guess the reasons why it’s not finalized yet, but I would like to point out (and use you as an intermediate with the organizers 
) that, although I’m sure the cost will be mostly affordable and not a deterrent, it’s better to disclose it sooner than later. Although probably it wouldn’t affect my decision personally on whether I’ll join or not, I think it’s proper for this information to be available really soon.
I guess the counter-argument by many will be “you can join for the free events anyways and if you don’t like the cost for the paid ones, just don’t join”, but I feel obliged to offer this constructive criticism, and I hope you take it as that.
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Yes, that’s what I meant, fixed it.
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So you mean you have to be very active at go in you own country and play in local tournaments to have the wish to join this e Congress?
Let’s say that’s fine although I think myself a less motivated player could wish to join too
Now yes I know let say a few hundreds players around here who have a quite active Weiqi life and participate from time to time in some IRL tournaments and who will not even ask to join as soon as they know that you need a membership card. Speaking about my place here. I guess there is a bunch of players on OGS too who don’t play IRL who even didn’t participate in any kind of IRL tournament and don’t have any member card of their federation. Why would all this make them ineligible for the e-congress tournaments?
Avoiding the financial debates which are not really involved here the best answer I got till now was
Quote:
“The only things that require a membership are tournaments, which makes sense, as those are part of the AGA event, and not supposed to be a “the whole internet” kind of thing. You can see how that could get out of control pretty quickly.”
So I am disappointed to that “let’s stay in the family attitude”.
Yup, definitely working on this tonight! 
EDIT: Thanks to everyone who’s patient to offer constructive criticism in these past few days! Like I said, we are doing the best we can to address individual cases; our goal is try to accommodate everyone in some way!
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As far as I could gather, if you’re active IRL you should have little problems:
And if you exclusively play online, never supported Go monetarily, and are not in any tournament system, then it’s not too weird to ask such people to at least pay for a membership to join?
If I’m not mistaken, it’s even possible to join the AGA itself without being an American.
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I think so, not 100% certain what the exact clauses will be yet, although I’ll make a suggestion to the policymakers (although I am not one myself).
Yep! No residency requirement needed
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If I meet a online player like you describe, I would try to bring him first to some IRL place to play to let him discover that pleasure before maybe one day asking him to contribute to the community.
There are many players online who are no more beginners already and who don’t see the advantages to be in a federation, closing doors isn’t the right way to me to get them interested. Well all that is surely a debate inside American players and the aga, which from the start I wanted to stay away. I was more concerned about foreigners and the requirements for them to enter the tournaments.
What proof is given to the aga with a member card of another country? I know even members who just want to support the association, but in fact don’t play that much. I know online players with Dan ranking and quite some experience of the game. I know people who don’t like their federation. I know finally that most federation federate maybe 10% of their players, and pretend to be so representative of all of them.
Why aga come in all this and say if you pay your own federation we accept you? Isn’t it as I said ruling the world?
Why am I so concerned? In these quarantine times, we have opportunity to more contacts between different worlds and players, time to discover each other and not just the time to keep the family United.
Why is AGA’s responsibility to offer an e-Congress open to anyone, anyway?
Why do you hold AGA to such a high regard that you place on their shoulders the sole responsibility to “welcome”, “encourage”, “include” all players?
(sorry to AGA, no disrespect) but AGA is just a Go Association. One of many. Why don’t you hound EGF (random example) to organize an e-Congress open to everyone and show everyone else how it’s done?
Any go server can accomplish that, why does it have to be this congress in particular? What is so special about it that you have to make sure everyone is included?
People want to run an event. It’s their event. It’s not universal healthcare; it’s an event.
Why does the whole world have the right to take part? Because it’s on the internet?
Such a weird hill to die on. 
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Maybe because the name is e-congress not e-US Congress this year.
Maybe because they invite us in some restricted way which I don’t like and this could have been better.
Maybe because I am a dreamer.
We should probably move on from this topic. Most likely no one’s gonna change their view based on this discussion.
When is the deadline for registration?
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These people E-CONGRES ESRA - Sign in named their event INTERNATIONAL e-CONGRESS with no other descriptives. Imagine their surprise if I demanded to join.
Ah, you don’t like being excluded. I can understand the sentiment. Life it tough. 
And I really don’t have anything else to add.
I don’t think there is one for open activities, but
and I haven’t found any info on available seats on closed activities.
Working on this during tonight’s organizer meeting as well. We want to make sure that TDs are comfortable with the events they organize, and that we are not overwhelmed with the limited manpower that we have. More details will be announced soon.
In general, you can expect registration for a certain event to close when one of the following three conditions matches. These changes will be reflected in future updates of the registration form.
- The tournament reaches maximum capacity (which will be designated by the TDs, we are also in the process of finding assistant TDs to help them accommodate more)
- The registration deadline for a tournament passes (not certain on this yet, might be 24 hours before start of event; one can be however sure that there are no sudden walk-ins on the day of the tournament)
- The congress saturates, meaning that we’ve reached maximum overall capacity for the organizers to handle (but we are still quite a few hundreds away from that)
However, the following parts of the congress do not have traffic limits:
- The servers themselves (OGS/KGS/Pandanet)
- The broadcasting/VOD platforms (AGA Twitch/YouTube)
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Not to disagree with you at all, but if you’re referring to the cost for the pro reviews/simuls, my understanding is that these are also free to watch. The cost comes into play if you want to have your game be the one reviewed by a pro, or you want to play the simul with the pro. Personally, as 10ish kyu, I have no intention of even letting a pro look at the hot garbage I throw on the board, lol.
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Just in - we updated the Congress FAQ page, so there are more clarifications on memberships now 
You may also find this link in the original post.
Reproducing the membership FAQ here:
Membership FAQ
As a member of the IGF (International Go Federation), the AGA recognizes membership reciprocity with other IGF member organizations, a list of which can be found here.
I live in the US, but I am not a member of the AGA. Do I have to join, and if so, how do I join?
- If your current country of residence is the US, then you need to be a member of the AGA to play in the main tournaments. You can join the AGA here. Not sure if you may have been a member in the past? You can look yourself up by last name here, and can log into your account (or reset your password) here.
- AGA membership costs $10/year for youth through age 22, and $30/year for adult membership. There are discounts available for multi-year membership. Payments are not self-renewing – you will need to renew your membership when it expires.
- For people living in the US, membership will be rigorously checked.
I don’t live in the US, and I’m not a member of my country’s association – can I play in the e-Go Congress?
- If you live in a country that allows you to join an amateur go membership association, we ask that you do so. It is not always possible for us to check membership, but we support national associations across the world and ask you to do so as well.
- If you live in a country that does not allow you to join an amateur go membership association, then that requirement is waived.
I don’t live in the US, and I’m not sure if I’m a member of my country’s association. I play in tournaments in my country, does that count?
If your country does not require membership and has awarded you a rating or other mark of participation and “membership,” then that is sufficient to meet the membership requirement.
I don’t live in the US, but I’m interested in joining the AGA. Can I do so?
- Absolutely – people from anywhere in the world may join the AGA.
- You can join the AGA here. AGA membership costs $10/year for youth through age 22, and $30/year for adult membership. There are discounts available for multi-year membership. Payments are not self-renewing – you will need to renew your membership when it expires.
I want to play Pair Go with someone who is new to playing go. Do they have to join an association to play?
You do not need to be a member of an association to play in Pair Go, the 9x9 tournament, or any beginner events. We encourage new go players to play in these events.
Which events require membership, and which do not?
No membership is required to observe tournaments or broadcasts. We welcome everyone from around the world to tune in to watch!
Membership required: e-Go Congress Open, Blitz, and Double-Digit Kyu Tournaments
Membership not required: 9x9, Pair Go, Youth Relay Go, Relay Go, viewing broadcasts
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Latest update (Source: AGA E-Journal): https://www.usgo.org/news/2020/07/2020-e-go-congress-registration-deadline-wednesday-july-29/
The upcoming e-Go Congress (August 1-9) is proving so popular that one tournament — Relay Go — has already reached capacity and another — the Double-Digit Kyu Tournament — is expected to do so in the next day or so.
In order to ensure that the tournaments run smoothly, registration will close on Wednesday, July 29 at 9pm EDT. Both tournaments will have waitlists and anyone registered for the Congress will also have the opportunity to sign up for small group game reviews and simuls; watch for details soon.
With more than 550 already registered, the e-Go Congress “has surpassed our wildest dreams,” Congress Coordinator Lisa Scott told the EJ.
As noted above, a waitlist will be available for all tournaments. All registrants will receive a check-in form on July 28, which they must return by 9pm EDT July 31 in order to play in a tournament. After check-in forms have been processed, folks who are waitlisted for closed tournaments will be notified if they can in fact play in the tournament.
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Hi, will the tournaments be reported and ranked on EGD?