Loving ladder system, but...

Hello!!! I have been really enjoying playing in the site ladders. Getting live games has been harder and harder, and even when you get them they can feel quite yolo. The correspondence games have really upped the quality of my games. That said, they are really slow some times…

I like almost everything about the current setup, but I think a faster option should be standardized. And I feel it would be fairly easy to implement. What I’m thinking is a “19x19 fast correspondence site ladder”. The time controls could be completely the same as the normal ladder except give ~12-14 hours per move instead of the 24. This wouldn’t even require you to play two moves a day if your opponent is taking their time responding, because of how the clock works… And the main time cushion +conditional moves should make it fairly easy to add in those extra move at your convenience.

Considering other groups and comments I have seen, I think this is something many people would like. And I believe setting it up as a site ladder would really really help support the format a lot, and help many people get the games they are looking for!

Thanks for hearing me out! Hope this is the right place to put this.

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You may want to check out this group: Fast Correspondence

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it would also be nice if groups could have different time settings for their ladders.

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Wait, was that not implemented? I thought that was added a while back? If not, absolutely yes, it should be

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i’m not sure. none of the ladders tell what the settings are (that i know of). i think alternate rulesets and handicap are possible now.

Yes, group admins can set these. But no time settings.

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Ah, I thought custom time settings were added when that was; I guess not

is this on a wish list somewhere?

I just remember it has been discussed before. But I don’t have any deep insights into the development process.

Huh o.o

I thought timesettings were one of things group admins could tinker with, just as handicaps and rulesets, but i cant find any way to edit those o.o

weird >____>

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It certainly does seem like an obvious thing to include. Wonder why it wasn’t.

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I guess this counts as a ping… I’ll try to take a look soon-ish!

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FYI, I’m seeking feedback over in this thread: Poll: Default time control for ladders (and tournaments)

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I appreciate everyone’s comments, and agree that custom timers would be cool for group ladders, but I feel I should point out it isn’t exactly the topic of my post… I think standard options would really help game quality. I am no expert, but something like

Normal:
7 days max, +24h per move
(0-1 move a day average, ~6 month commitment)

Fast:
8 days max, +12h per move
(1-2 moves a day average, ~4 month commitment)

Blitz:
10 days max, +8h per move
(1-3 moves a day average, ~2 month commitment)

I believe the higher max time is important for faster time controls to allow players to still have control of when they can play, and reduce timeouts because of life events. Lower max is important for slow controls so players don’t just ignore/forget the game.

Lastly, while I am here giving suggestions, I also think a half handicap option would be cool for group ladders. Full handicap would make a ladder pretty chaotic and almost pointless but half would still allow some balance/tension between players of differing ranks, which could be nice for the smaller size community group ladders. And I think it’s generally underemphasized how good just a few handicap stones can be for learning and exploring the game.

Just some thoughts to share!

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In the polls from @dexonsmith thread it seems that we are far of any consensus about modifying the global ladder time system.

Interesting suggestions which could be used for groups ladders as an initial probe?

I wonder…

Why do we only have 3 sitewide ladders? Can’t we at least try some “fast ladder” as the 4th alternative and see if it becomes popular? I’d assume coding would be quite simple ‘copypaste with few tweaks’ type of thing?

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Maybe that one?

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