I just recently discovered the Malkovitch option in the chat window, and so far I love it. It seems great to be able to takes notes as I go.
There’s only one thing. Could we please please have it so that if the last thing I typed was a Malkovitch, then the default for the next thing is a Malkovitch.
IE the Chat/Malkovitch selector for the game should be sticky.
I just inadvertently typed my observations for this turn into chat, doh! 
LOL, it has happened to me SO OFTEN that I have put the variations for my devilish board domination plans in the normal chat instead of the M log 
I just move on then … laughing …
BTW, did you know that your opponent can see your M log if they are not logged in? (Or, of course, using another account.) I don’t care about this because I say to myself that if I am fit to win that game then I should also be able to win if my opponent knows what I’m doing.
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Even more embarrassing if the variation contains some totally stupid mistake that becomes obvious right after you’ve posted it 
</edit>
Hmmm - the not-logged-in thing is a heavy dampener. Does it have to be like that?
I think the “opportunity for spectators to see Malkovitch in real time” is outweight by the nagging feeling that the opponent can see Malkovitch in real time. That should not be possible, at least for ranked games.
Hi,
It should be already the case. What is your browser?
Arnaud
Chrome on Mac.
I just typed in a Malkovitch comment on one of my active games then reloaded the page.
The selector is back on “chat”
I think it’s a side effect of reloading the page. When I go through other games, it stays Malkovich. When I reload, it forgets.
Arnaud
That is the exact problem that I would like to be protected against: it’s the way I fell into the trap.
I came back to the game (which is always a reload from last time for a correspondence game) and happily typed my next Malkovitch comment without realising it was back on Chat.
However, the priority of this has receded for me since I just learned:
Malkovitch is currently an honour system - not really suitable for a ranked game environment.
That makes it pointless for me - this would only be worth discussing/fixing if that were fixed first.
GaJ
(Notes:
People who want to cheat will find a way. Often it’s as simple as consulting a computer during the game. So I don’t think “my opponent might check my super secret notes as a different user” is an overly concerning risk. Furthermore, Go is a game of perfect information. If your strategy is a good one, it should not matter whether your opponent knows it or not.
Note that they don’t have to make a different user (as I understand it). They can simply log out.
I don’t agree that it doesn’t matter whether your opponent knows your strategy in a game of perfect information.
In fact, what your strategy is is exactly the information that they don’t have and need to deduce.
Further, each player is imperfect (very much, at my level!) so information about what you didn’t think of is extremely valuable.
But really there are two things more important that I don’t want:
Why do we need Malkovich to be available to spectators during ranked games? Because that’s what would be given up to solve this (in the way I am suggesting, at least).
GaJ
Well, if you really want to solve that problem, you can just make all of your games private. That way, only your account and your opponent’s account, (the one they’re currently playing in), can view the game.
Good tip.
I might just do that.
In my opinion this would not be as good as making Malkovich not available till after the match for ranked games, because I like looking at my opponent’s games, and I feel they should be able to look at mine as well.
Can you unprivate them after they are finished?
Pretty sure the answer is no. Your decision is locked in once the game is created.
I’m not sure as I’ve never set up a private game, though I would think there would be some sort of option to do so?..
It might make sense that you can’t, because arguably you could chat about something private and then your oppo finds that you’ve opened it to the world. I dunno - just thinking about what might the argument be?
Anyhow, more importantly: why not just make Malkovich private until the ranked game ends?
As a fun read, I found this topic thread while looking for the answer to the “can private games be reversed” question.
EDIT: also this
Extra EDIT: I couldn’t find the answer to the above question, so I gave it its own thread here.
Why not have both options, i.e., a public Malkovitch that’s visible to everyone except the opponent during the game and saved to sgf, and a private Malkovitch that’s visible only to the player making the log and not saved to sgf? 
I think the answer to this is “because generally you want to be able to write it privately during the game (unless it is a spectator game specifically) but you want to be able to share it later”
So the need is not for two sorts of Malkovich, but rather improved control over when it can be seen.
GaJ
Yeah I think if you had a private mal option during play that auto combined with the public one when the game is finished that’d be good.
And is there really some benefit to having the malkovitch visible to spectators? What’s the use? wouldnt it be simpler to just have one Malkovitch that is private until the end of game? I am not really a fan of having twenty buttons almost no-one will use…
If you know the game is being watched you may want a way to talk about the game to them without your opponent seeing it mid play