I just registered on the site and I’m a complete beginner. I played an AI game and really that’s what I plan on doing until I leave the “so-bad-at-Go-it’s-shameful” stage, which honestly could take a number of years…
After a few minutes, I received a couple of e-mail notifs, that a game with me as a participant had started (!!) and subsequently that it had ended. I didn’t see a notification/ invitation or anything, and I don’t want to come across as rude in another similar situation by not responding.
Is there a way to show my profile as “Unavailable for matches” or something, until I decide I’m ready to be whipped by other players?
A while ago I have finally entered the SDK (Single Digit Kyu) ranks, after more than a decade (I’m old and entitled to learn very slowly ), and let me tell you that, IMHO, there is no “so-bad-at-Go-it’s-shameful” stage
So, I’d recommend playing humans right away, with appropriate handicap, and maybe first on smaller boards like 9x9 and 13x13 … humans are more fun to play, AND they can teach you better (teaching games and reviews).
Thanks for the encouragement. (I’m not the freshest rose myself. :-).)
At least until I learn the basics, I’d like to play against AI first, though. Or at least know that I don’t appear available for a match when I might not be.
You can look at your profile by clicking on your name, you’ll see a game history there. You lost to Mantis (which I wouldn’t call an AI by any stretch) in a 9x9 and you had an annulled 19x19 game with Hihikwan.
If you don’t want notifications, enter the menu (click top left triple line), go to Settings and scroll way down. If you want to play bots to improve, don’t play mantis. Play minusGo. Mantis is garbage and your brain will pick up its mistakes if you train with it. If you want to test yourself however (because you will probably never actually win against minusGo), playing Mantis on and off is fine.
I want the notifications, I don’t want to have people starting a match with me without me knowing; basically I’d like to not be listed as an available opponent for the time being.
Why wouldn’t you call Mantis an AI? And what it minusGo?
People cannot start a match with you without you knowing. Either 1) you accept their game offer on the Play page, 2) you accept their challenge or 3) you get matched if you used the Quick match finder. Strictly speaking there’s also 4) you entered a tournament and the match was created automatically, but you didn’t enter any tournaments so this one is demonstrably not the case.
AI stands for artificial intelligence. Mantis makes almost random moves. Something slightly superior to a random number generator bears no intelligent traits.
minusGo is a strong 9x9 bot. Strong as in… I’m in the top 10% of players here and my record against it is 3-40. Learn from the best, not the worst!
Ask admin to delete your account or just abandon it. Create a new one when you are ready to play.
That seems terse and unfriendly but it is merely terse. Here’s a warm, fuzzier version:
If you are really feeling that you are not quite up to the demands of intense competition, or feel put upon by overly assertive users, you could reconsider your choice to open an account now and come back when you feel up to it. Your options might include deleting or just abandoning the account and making a new one later. You can always get help re-activating it if you lose the password as long as the system doesn’t drop it after some period. You are always welcome! And always encouraged! But do things at a pace you’re comfortable with! You can always ask for advice in the forums…
I know I didn’t do 1 and 2 since, as I said, there was no notification (on the site or by mail), other than the two I mentioned, that I was even in a match, and I haven’t even gotten so far as the quick match finder, so maybe a bug?
Might be some weird glitch. I would not worry too much about it. Rest assured, until you join a ladder or a tournament, no-one can force you to play against your will
If it keeps happening, please let us know, but otherwise don’t worry.
Nope it is certainly not your fault, otherwise there would be a game record in your profile OGS is probably to blame (sorry about the confusion). But at least now you know your way around forums too!
@Gia Don’t listen to this. Everyone plays in their own way, at their own pace, against computers or people as they feel comfortable. The vast majority of the Go community is kind and accommodating of the fact that we’ve all got different ability levels and different comfort levels. Don’t let a bad apple convince you otherwise.
Seriously? Yes, it’s a solution not previously considered. No, it’s a bit radical, probably not necessary.
It sounded like he was somehow forced into games he didn’t want. There is no indicator provided that signals a user’s interest in playing. DGS has a free-form text field in the user’s info labelled Open for Matches?
If there were such a field (maybe it could be a set of menu options, yes, no, maybe,… and an associated free-form text field that could be used to qualify the selection, like, no - not until 2020, yes - but only with girls, and so forth) then users could be provided a way to search the user list to find others who might be receptive to an invitation from a stranger.
If you want to play an AI, try Cosumi (https://www.cosumi.net) which does not require you to create any account or download any software.
To get past the shamefully-bad stage, apart from practising against an AI, read a beginner book or two and practice introductory tsumego (puzzles). Stronger players here would be more than happy to review your games and give you teaching games.
Hope that helps! I am also a relative newcomer (18 kyu after ~100 games over six weeks).
It seems I’ve been accused of intending to “discourage new players from using this site…” in spite of an edit to a post that tries to make it clear that was not the intent. Maybe it went unnoticed?
), and let me tell you that, IMHO, there is no “so-bad-at-Go-it’s-shameful” stage 
