I was introduced to Malkovich after posting this topic ( Are shared variations deletable?) a while back when I accidentally shared a variation with the opponent with the main log. After being introduced to this alternative i happily used it for correspondence games till I realised today that it wasn’t as private as I thought it was…
Whilst not able to be seen by the opponent, they can still be seen by everyone else (which really could also be an alternative account or just unlogged-in me). I have a feeling that more than a few people who do use Malkovich are not aware of this.
Now this is no issue in any live games with or without analysis disabled for the simple factor of time. But during correspondence (especially tournament games), the opponent not only has the time, but a bigger motivation to make that little added extra effort to check on the Malkovich logs of their games to try to get an advantage.
I saw this answered by Mod Amoek here: Malkovich log visible during game, saying that it was once private and it was changed to public viewing (other than the opponent) to see it for teaching purposes. After that the topic just died so I thought of reviving it and going 1 step further by proposing it as an idea for the devs to consider/reconsider it here ( https://ogs.uservoice.com/forums/277766-online-go-com-suggestions-and-feature-requests/suggestions/14696247-make-a-private-malkovich-log-separate-from-current) which complements this 1 ( https://ogs.uservoice.com/forums/277766-online-go-com-suggestions-and-feature-requests/suggestions/9430953-visual-indication-that-malkovich-log-is-not-empty) as well.
I think it’s pointless to allow games to be analysed, create a separate log to note down variations but still not make it really private. This half-hearted attempt really means that games can be analysed and recorded for future reference when you look back at the correspondence game, but not without potentially throwing your whole analysis out the window and backfiring in your face if your opponent decides to look at it by previously said loophole.
I could also just use another application/site to analyse my games, but if I had to go through all that trouble then, again, that ‘Share Variation’ button to remind yourself of your previous analysis is useless.