There is a new web-based go server. Very small player base so far, but it looks promising and I hope to see it become successful and grow. https://weiqi.gs/
It is also open-source, which is quite unique among go servers, so anyone can learn from or contribute to its development.
Whoops, perhaps I should not have posted my original message. It appears that it is in violation of the OGS Terms of Service, which states under āCode of Conductā that users agree not to āSolicit or advertise for any competing Go servicesā.
However, perhaps instead the terms of service should be changed.
Some rule āenthusiastā definitely went overboard here. Your original post was not overtly āsoliciting or advertisingā weiqi.gs, unlike Yunxuan Liāspromotion topics for his Youtube channel. Those are still there. You just informed us about and called for discussion of this new server.
Should ads be forbidden in this forum? If they are spammy and from users who do not participate in our community, yes. Itās a case-by-case judgement call.
Why are ads for ācompeting Go servicesā explicitly mentioned? Probably because those are much more likely to be posted here than elsewhere due to the player base also being the exact target audience.
If anyone thinks along the lines of āwe donāt want people to learn about those other services because they might leave OGS and not donate any moreā, that is the absolute worst reason to have such a rule. Apart from the blatantly deceitful anti-user sentiment, OGS can stand on its own merits without resorting to disinformation. Even if it could not, such motivations are not helping KGS right now with the drain on its user base. Think about it.
Things like these are what made me dislike and leave KGS (and other places on the internet). Fortunately, OGS is still a very free and open-minded place. Mods, please un-flag @yebellzā post for the sake of my sanity.
Very surprised that I actually got flagged and censored for that (note: the censoring appears to have happened automatically as the result of the flagging). I donāt think anyone would have even noticed or complained had I not made my second post pointing out my violation of the terms of service.
Honestly my second post was meant to point out and criticize the somewhat draconian nature of that condition within the terms of service, rather than actually asking to be censored.
Seems quite hypocritical when there is a forum thread (apparently start by the site staff) maintaining quite a long list of advertisements for competing go services
Your original post is unhidden. Iāve deleted your other post, as it was not helpful to the discussion in the other thread. Its contents remain here, in case anyone is curious.
I personally believe that choice is a good thing, and I (need I again add āpersonallyā?) did not (repeat: NOT) perceive this post as an ad or spam or the like.
But I did move the thread to the āInternet Goā section where all those other Go servers also have their place.
<edit> I myself have shared those same links to several social networks related to Go ā¦ would I be perceived as a traitor or turncoat because of this? NO! I still am a moderator here (though probably a quite inactive one), and I believe in choice, and I think people will return to OGS, saying: āgood that we compared!ā
And now Iād recommend we get back to substantial dispute </edit>
Here`s hope that this open source go server allows people to implement interesting go variants like zen go, lotto go or quantum go so I can finally play them more often against other lovers of these.
The benefit of open-source is that someone could contribute those features, even if the original devs did not have the time or interest to do it themselves.
I love the model of lichess.org, which is an ad-free, open-source chess server. I think the go community would benefit greatly from an analogous server, and I hoping that weiqi.gs might fill that void.
Got a teeny tiny problem with censorship so I had to check it out.
It looks nice. Doesnāt do correspondence. No puzzle section. No time to contribute code beyond my job. All the same, there is no API.
I am quite happy with online-go.com, the benevolent dictators and their motley crew of moderators.
Open source projects have the potential for awesomeness but they usually end up in a graveyard. OGS was built on an open source stack and, more importantly, the developers listen to their users.
Somebody has to pay for this and Iām happy to chip in the money.
Who pays for the open source go server? If itās not a business with even residual income, how do we keep it going?
Even if you could take the code and set up your own server, would you? Why would you? Thatās crazy.
I believe github and the like offer free hosting for their projects, so it would not be hard to keep a server running for nearly zero cost. Weiqi.gs specifically though, seems to run on their own server (I am assuming so because of the custom domain name, which would cost around $40 a year). Presumably, if the developer wanted money for his work, heād also make a donation option available.
The question of āWho pays for itā is not dependent on open-source or not. In any case itās the maintainer, potentially supported by donations, or other kind of monetization (like ads on OGS).
Being open-source only means that the community has the possibility to contribute to the project, or even start a new project based on the existing work, if they wanted to take the management or vision into a new direction or if the maintainer was not around anymore (for whatever reason).
I believe github and the like offer free hosting for their projects, so it would not be hard to keep a server running for nearly zero cost. Weiqi.gs specifically though, seems to run on their own server
While github/gitlab provide hosting, this is only for static pages and unsuitable for something like a go server. But there are still cheap alternatives. In the case of weiqi.gs, it is running on 3x5$/month servers.
Btw: I have been working on correspondence games this past week and they are now available on the live server.
Who pays for any go server? Perhaps, open-source might actually increase revenue in a donation-based model, since people may be motivated to support free software that benefits the broader community. Further, open-source code allows for crowd-sourced development, where people can choose to support the project through their time and expertise rather that just through monetary donations. On the other hand, funding a closed team for proprietary development may require diverting funds that could otherwise be used for server costs.
Maybe a go club would want to set up their own private server.
However, even if we never personally use or contribute to the code, we still benefit from it being open-source, since others have the opportunity to do so.
Ultimately, I think a new server and new open-source software is good for the broader go community, and hence Iām rooting for this project to be successful.
LOL, did not realize the original post was 5 years ago so I was thinking āoh cool, open source, Iāll check it outā. Then I got to the end of the threadā¦ Dāoh!