Calling all testers for the next big OGS release, 4.2

Hello all,

We’ve got quite the release in store for y’all! Of course before we release we’d like to recruit anyone willing to help bang on the new code to help chase out any bugs that might have crept into the works.

To test things out head on over to the beta system: https://beta.online-go.com/ and start playing around with things! Remember, this is a completely separate system so you’ll need to create a new account if you haven’t already, and of course any games you play over there won’t affect your rank or be added to your game history on the “real” site. Feel free to create multiple accounts to test things out as well.

Here is the current changelog for 4.2


##Tournament related changes

  • Added two new tournament types, single elimination and double elimination

  • Tournament pairing methods are now configurable with options being slaughter, strength, slide, and random pairing. Optionally, the first round may have a different pairing method than the subsequent rounds.

  • Tournaments will now automatically start at a time specified by the tournament director, providing the minimum player count has been met (also specified by the tournament director)

  • Optionally, tournaments can start when the tournament is full as well

  • Players who are not on in the tournament lobby (either on the tournament page or in chat) when a live tournament begins will be automatically dropped from the tournament

  • OGS now has automatically created site-wide tournaments and will be scheduling a variety of very regular blitz, live, and correspondence tournaments.

  • A new leaderboards page has been added which ranks all tournament players on the server based on their performance.
    ##Rating & ranking changes

  • Your rating and ranking is now tracked separately for blitz, live, correspondence, and overall.
    ##UI Changes

  • All connections to the server will now be running over https. There are many benefits to this in terms of security and connection stability, however one slightly negative side effect is that you may need to update any per-browser settings (such as your move preferences, board themes, etc). If you aren’t already, you can begin using the secure version of the site now at https://online-go.com/ to get your settings all setup before the update to ensure you are not caught unawares

  • We have documentation! http://ogs.readme.io/

  • The site has been re-skinned a bit. If you have any problems finding anything check out the site documentation.

  • A new omni-search box has been added. This can be used to find users, groups, tournaments, various site topics, and hopefully more in the future. This has replaced the generic players search screen.

  • You can view a your win/loss statistics vs a particular player by viewing their profile page
    ##Teaching tools

  • Private games and private reviews are now supported. Once created access can be granted to additional users or to entire groups by clicking the icon

  • Voice chat has been added (again) for reviews. Viewers will automatically connect into the voice system and can disconnect by clicking the button. Review creators can begin broadcasting clicking the button. Note: this feature is only available on browsers that support WebRTC, which is only Chrome and Firefox for the time being

  • Full-screen mode has been improved for presentations / videos
    ##Chat changes

  • The chat subsystem has been replaced; joining channels should be much faster and chat should be more reliable

  • Once closed, private messages will no longer come back to haunt other browsers you may use.

  • Private message chat history is no longer limited to 50 lines total, and is instead limited to 50 lines per player but will be automatically purged after a few days of not chatting with that user.

  • Private chat windows are now movable (open them up, drag around the title)

  • You can now see the online status of the person you are chatting with, as well as open their profile and challenge them directly from the chat window
    ##API Changes

  • The real-time API is now stabilized sufficiently and we’re opening it up for anyone wishing to make an alternative game client or otherwise use the system. Documentation is here: http://ogs.readme.io/v4.2/docs/real-time-api Note: While the API is free for light non-commercial use, please contact us if you are planning on using it for commercial purposes so we can work together to form a mutually beneficial agreement. For heavy non-commercial use please contact us so we can ensure the system can adequately handle the load or help figure out an alternative solution.
    ##Challenge behavior changes

  • Users can no longer accept open challenges from other players if they are already playing a game against them. (Multiple direct challenges are still allowed.)

  • Users with less than 500 games completed can no longer accept multiple open live games at the same time.

  • If you cancel a game after accepting an open challenge you will now need to wait for a couple of minutes before accepting a new open challenge.
    ##Supporting OGS

  • Users can now support OGS using Bitcoin

  • Sadly, google is shutting down their google wallet purchase system, so we have to remove this support mechanism. The system will still work for supporters using this mechanism until early Q2 2015, afterwhich it will be shutdown for good. Anyone wishing to continue to support us will have to transition to a different system before then (simply cancel your OGS google wallet subscription on your wallet page then head on over to OGS and select the new support method of your choice :))


Generally speaking, bugs and feedback in this thread, requests in https://ogs.uservoice.com/ and if you’ve got criticisms keep them constructive, useful, and polite please :slight_smile:

Thanks everyone!

anoek

17 Likes

I love you. :heart_eyes: (Great Update!)

5 Likes

Thanks, @anoek, this is exciting news!

Since I was bitten too often by the chat bug(s), it seems just natural that my question regards chat :smiley:

[quote=“anoek, post:1, topic:2789”]
Private message chat history is […] limited to 50 lines per player but will be automatically purged after a few days of not chatting with that user.[/quote]

  • How many days are “a few days”?
  • What if one of the two people involved in the chat doesn’t log in during these “few” days?
    Can it happen that my message to a user gets lost if they don’t log in for, say, a month or two?

TIA, Tom

Right now it’s set to 7 days, if it’s at all a real problem we can certainly up it… but keep in mind currently we have no guarantee for PMs persistence (it was stored in memory on the IRC server, so if it gets restarted or anything it’s gone) and if absent friend got more than 50 chats from other people during that time.

For more long term reliable communications we’ve always, and continue to, recommend using the mail feature.

As long as either party says something it will reset the clock so to speak - but other than that, if you send a message and they don’t log in before it expires or goes away, yes it’s gone.

1 Like

Thanks, @anoek!

[quote=“anoek, post:6, topic:2789”]
For more long term reliable communications we’ve always, and continue to, recommend using the mail feature.[/quote]This mail feature, I assume, is the PM on the forum, right?

Nah, the mail feature here: Play Go at online-go.com! | OGS :wink: … though I suppose the one on the forum would work fine too

This is wonderful news! Thanks for the effort, and good job! :smile:

Personally, I cannot wait to have a client to play on my Android devices, :smiley:

[quote=“anoek, post:8, topic:2789”]
Nah, the mail feature here: https://online-go.com/mail … [/quote]Ah, that one, thank you :flushed:

[quote]though I suppose the one on the forum would work fine too[/quote]I think rather not because not every OGS user also uses the forum.

Here is my (rather long) Beta suggestions and Bugs report. :sunglasses:

First of all: Amazing work on the new version. I LOVE it! :heart_eyes:

1) The warning text could be better visible, maybe colored or underlined. :slight_smile:


2) The announcements are off the screen in the latest firefox version.


3) When entering http://beta.online-go.com , one lands at the page “/play”. I think “/overview” is better suited as a landing page, because it gives a better overview and choices at who’s online and what to do next.


4): This sidebar is not working in latest firefox, I can only scroll with my mousewheel:


5): When removing custom moves on a demo board, the number stays:


6) Sometimes, the space between the button and the message changes for no apparent reason: (Compare to “1)” )

I now officially love everything about OGS!

1 Like

7) There is no link to the new documentation yet, in the menu down in grey. :smiley:


8) The tournament ui is a bit off in the latest firefox:

I lost a point from won a game against unranked opponent millencolin.
I had rank 1350 before match and now I got rank 1349.

Missed a newline before “Game” (Partida in spanish)?

It would be great if the option “Full screen” could remove the chat and the two people’s logos, so you just see the whole board. Other than that everything is amazing. (I am talking about the normal site, not beta)

1 Like

Only when the site is in Spanish the top menu bar is cropped.

+1 to that, :smile:

If I try to change my user name the same as someone else. The update profile button does not work also there came no warning pop-up.

There is weird extra space in middle of compound word in a Finnish translation. ‘Siirto puu’ should be ‘Siirtopuu’ and ‘Laitto numero’ ‘laittonumero’ (thought I changed last word to ‘Numeroidut laitot’ for the next update).

Hello !

here some quick tests :

  1. When tried to revise a game, I got an error the first (4 pm 29 if it can help). At the second try (some minutes later) it was ok (http://beta.online-go.com/review/126)
    The error here :
  2. I do not found the “resign” button in the list. The only thing I found was the “Cancel game button”

The option listed on the right of the screenshot are :

  • Full screen
  • Information about game
  • Analyze game
  • Suspend game
  • Score estimation
  • Play from here
  • Game link
  • Download SGF
  • Cancel game

I was having the same problem on another game yesterday.

Also it might be a good idea to not hide right sidebar action but only disable it (in grey ?)

Edit : If needed do not hesitate to ask me more details or to restests some things