Any way to merge OGS & KGS?

Oh cool I wasn’t too far off. My next guess was Wichard Matthew Stallman. :joy:

So where did he go? Does anyone maintain it now?

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No idea but yes there is developer taking care of the server as far as I know.

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For a long time he was hoping to find time to work on KGS, but in the end he had to admit that it wasn’t going to happen.

So he sold it to the American Go Foundation. See https://www.usgo.org/news/2017/05/shubert-hands-kgs-over-to-new-management/ and https://www.usgo.org/news/2019/12/agf-invests-in-kgs/

But I haven’t heard too much about plans that the AGF might have with KGS.

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Do nothing with it for 5 years then give it to us is my guess :sweat_smile:

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Hey they did make KGS+ free!

From the article (AGF VP):

We feel that KGS builds community in a way that other servers don’t.

What shade! :rage:

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They must have meant *apart from the obviously superior OGS community

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Agreed I do not like downloading software I know nothing about.

The KGS web interface allows you to play. But is rather limited. Not at all impressive.

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I’ve spoken with the bill payers and attempted my best to make sound and empathetic reasons for merging… they did not bite. That being said, I hear word Anoek is doing some positive things for KGS as well and his efforts may ultimately build the bridge needed.

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Ah well time to migrate the bill payers of the bill payers! :joy: but first… we need more Go-related 501c3’s. I wonder if the heads here have ever considered going the non-profit route…

Not sure if non-profit would make sense for OGS. My understanding is that Anoek is the only to get paid (as he should). On top of that, 501c3 status would require hiring a board and doing lots of unnecessary paperwork and I’m not sure how beneficial it’d all be.

KGS is owned by AGF, which is a 501c3, but there mission is about teaching kids Go. I’d be remiss not to mention the good work of the MGF as well MGF | Massachusetts Go Association

I’m curious what your line of reasoning for Go needing more 501c3’s is?

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Any great benefit from the 2 servers merging together? It’s not like any of them are struggling. Both have reasonable amount of players.

Anyways, I just recently learned that KGS has a neat feature that tells you how much time a move takes. SGFs playback by move time Definitely useful for teaching.

Unfortunately, it seems the shin KGS web interface was an abandonware.

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From a user point of view I can understand that a merger might be desirable.

But from a owner/manager point of view, what are the benefits that would outweigh the substantial amount of work/money required to realize a merger at the server level?

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The spirit and origin of both servers are not only different but even opposite.
Kgs is born and developed around blitz and live games while OGS came from the correspondence games community . This even is reflected by choices of technology by using a client or not. Ofc these kind of boundaries tend to smooth with time but at least this basic differences can stay alive in the heart of affictionados in each side.

For an integration on one side kgs may have to get a more modern feeling and give a bit more functionalities but on the other side OGS is still having a lot of bugs and issues to fix and still doesn’t have rengo.

When you think merging you should have some guaranty that users will follow the move. What if they don’t like it too much and prefer to go play in some other places (igs, wbaduk,etc…)?

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