Well, I guess that nobody minds cross server gossip here. So the word is that KGS had been sold. My question is: Does anybody know who it has been sold to?
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This is actually the first I hear of it. Can you source it, somehow?
There is a thread on reddit which gives the original source. It seems an unlikely subject for a hoax, but I suppose that we can not discount the possibility that it is somebodyâs idea of a joke.
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Change coming.
p.s. Rumor on the floor of the exchange is there will be a Dutch auction IPO. Shhh.
The post came from user Billy McBoatface, aka Bill Shubert, on boardgamegeek.com:
No word on who the buyer was or who might be interested in buying a Go server in the first place. I wouldnât dismiss the possibility that it was an internal sale, in which case there might not be much change at all.
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Letâs hope the new team can make a decent UI.
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I went to KGS and asked the people there what was this about.
Got told by mod that those were âunfounded rumoursâ and that that kind of talk was not welcome in the chat. Even got warned by another user that others had been banned for talking about it (because, you know, asking is now a crime somehow).
It seems that at least the unwelcome environment and the unreasonable mods havenât changed at all.
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I suppose that you just have to ask about it in the correct room, like the Help Room maybe.
Anyway, this kind of information seems to directly contradict the original post. I know that it is not unknown for some or part of the adminstrators of KGS to be kept in the dark about whatâs is going on, but selling the server seems a bit extreme. Some guy on Reddit kind of promised that there would soon be an announcement on the sale - but there has been nothing about nearly a fortnight, so maybe the whole thing is a practical joke. (Funny joke though!)
Score one for our favorite online Go server, OGS!!!
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Score one what?
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One stone. What elseâŚitâs Go. And sometimes thatâs all it takes to win.
Any change at a competitor will initiate new activity at the alternatives. Even the discussion of a sale, whether it happens or not, has that effect. This is especially true given the alleged conversation-chilling position in KGS forum (described above) and the purported statement from the selling owner, one which casts a gray cloud over the long-term future of his website.
So, for OSGâŚyay! 
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Hopefully theyâre reacting like that because they realize anyone with half a brain would can and ban half those mods.
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Hmmmm ⌠What if WMS transferred ownership to the KGS Admins? Just speculating, but there was a hint.
then they would be the new owners
And they wouldnât can themselves, for starters.
Interesting news. Itâs pretty hard to point to anything of value left in KGS environment. There are few things which would be extremely hard to transfer or monetise - like learning environment, some study community, and only one really âinnovativeâ aspect (imo) that is the ranking system.
Honestly we do need a one solid western Go sever rather than a multitude of so-so platforms. I do believe that OGS is the platform of the future, but KGS barely floating on the surface doesnât seem to help the cause. Iâd much rather hear that OGS stuck a deal with KGS - purchasing the ranking algorithm and setting a deal where KGS officially could bless OGS as itâs successor and worked on ways to migrate the users/rooms to OGS automatically. Problem solved, everybody are happy.
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Finally, an announcement. The American Go Foundation now has KGS! http://www.gokgs.com/ownership_announcement.html
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Thanks, @Marathon, this is very interesting.
Ugh
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