What’s irritating about that?
Same as the “be nice in the chat” thing, preemptively applying actions and motives is irritating.
I know some people see it as “honest and clear”, but the other party can see it as rude.
I guess YMMV and nobody can be forced to undo their cultural/ personal perception of “I’ll just state it beforehand to be covered”, but it’s good to keep in mind it goes both ways.
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it’s a friendly game and atmosphere. people generally don’t misclick and request undo. i would not start a game with a warning.
Along the same line, I can put a standard warning in all my games like this:
Hello, have a nice game. I am serious about all games I play and if I find you use AI, I will call the mod …
Guess i will end up with nobody wanting to play with me eventually.
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Well I don’t view it as irritating, at least that’s not the intention. But thanks for telling me that some people may react like that, it’s good to keep in mind.
But if you feel very strongly about wanting to avoid having a dispute over an undo request, perhaps the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
You know I’m a vegetarian, and sometimes I have the feeling that some people feel somewhat attacked when I tell them. As in, they start to argue with me why it’s okay to eat meat. But I’m really not trying to tell anybody how to live their life - it’s just what I decided for myself.
So do I keep it a secret out of fear that I might irritate somebody? Hell no 
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no, you don’t need to dispute and have all the right to refuse the undo request.
In chinese, go is referred as hand talk. you communicate with your moves. in this case, you click a button to refuse or accept the request. that’s end of discussion. it’s very much like one plays a trick move, the opponent does not need to talk back: how dare you to attempt this on me. you make the refutation move, if you know it.
so the ancient manner of go is to be quiet. never talk as soon as the game starts.
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My undo experience is:
I did a bunch of misclicks, mostly due to no handle well my finger.
Each time I was confused to ask undo but I did in the sake of playing a game of go, not a game of (bad) luck.
My opponents agreed, and when I apologized I got messages like “no problem.” “It happens”…
Warmed my heart. If one refused I would not be especially sad or so. Its rights.
Sometimes when teaching a full beginner I got that way of undo requesting. I do accept but if it started to come too often then I did a bit of teaching on that, with some good results.
All in all, I can’t say I share the same need as the OP is asking for.
On the “write it first” i have less attraction for custom games who feel the need to say I want you to be like this or like that.
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That’s just me personally, but I would find it less “rude” if it were on my opponent’s profile page (Hi, I’m Gia, I’ve been playing for 1 year and I’m a 9dan blahblahblah PS. I prefer games where “no undos” is agreed beforehand) or in the game challenge title (Friendly game-no undos) and not in the game chat.
The first two are more a “to whom it might concern” while the chat is by default directed to the person opposite me. This is my personal interpretation, though.
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Yeah I appreciate when it’s in the profile as a warning. Even if I rarely check a profile before accepting a game offer, it is still the right way to me.
On KGS I have often seen people create open games with descriptions like “No Undo”. I believe this is also possible on OGS, although I realise that this doesn’t help with tournament games and the like. But anyway, would you consider such a thing less irritating?
//Edit: Stupid me didn’t realise this has already been mentioned.
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Fox has this draw request, which drives me nuts. I refuse them all. 
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one of my opponents has this on profile page
I guess, I already blocked 
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I think it is a good idea. It is, after all, a rule of the game that a move is definitive. I always accept undo requests but mainly because I feel I would be a jerk for refusing. On the other hand I always feel bad for asking an undo as it feels like cheating.
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Well, that’s it!
That’s exactly the case.
And that’s why I always grant undo to my opponents: because I don’t think they’re cheating and don’t want to take advantage of their misclicks.
What about the possibility that your opponents requested undo after a reading mistake? If you always grant undo to your opponent, has it ever happened that an opponent requested undo multiple turns in a row, thus going back several moves in the game? Just asking out of curiosity.
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It never happened to me.
I just have experience of isolated undo requests: once in a game.
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Personally I don’t recall many people requesting undo to me. Last time it happened was in a correspondence game, where the move looked normal. I asked why they requested an undo, but no response. Maybe it was on accident. I just played a move and the game continued without any conversation. 
This can’t happen unless you are also requesting undo. You opponent can’t request more than one undo at a time unless they actually ask in chat or something but I doubt this would happen, not least because they would need to wait for you to request undo but while you didn’t their clock would be running…
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To everyone who’s reply goes something along the lines of “I don’t see the problem, just play on…” or “no matter what I always grant every request ever made by anyone ever…”: that’s great, for you. However, not everyone is of the same opinion, hence why I made this thread about making it an optional extra, rather than forcing the aforementioned situations upon players. As stated, this has worked great on Lichess for example, and I’ve as of yet seen no actual arguments as to why it should not be an option. I can see where there’s a bridge to cross in us understanding one another, but try if you will to imagine living in a world where it’s disconcerting having to decide (and it is a decision, playing on as a matter of fact denies the request) whether to allow your opponent to make another move or not. It brings a certain kind of tension into play unlike that created through normal play— and don’t say it doesn’t exist just because this opinion differs from your own, we are all differently attuned to these kinds of things. The matter is not one of right or wrong, the matter is one of difference. Suddenly having to respond (realizing a request has been made in itself constitutes a response to the situation at hand) to an undo request in the middle of an exchange hitherto carried out by moves only, for me (and it seems others in this thread as well) breaks the flow of the game irrevocably. Now if that isn’t the case with you, great, do whatever you want, ignore or grant to your hearts content. All I’m saying is, I think it should be optional whether takebacks are a factor in playing games or not, and not the rule. As stated, this works brilliantly on Lichess, with takebacks being an option only if both players agree to it through their settings. This topic wasn’t really created in order to have us all state our individual views on undo requests, it was a very concrete inquiry as to why this is not an option.
Thank you all for your input, and all the best / Knyttet
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Apologies if I missed this earlier in the thread, but are undo requests visible in zen mode?
If not, my suggestion would be to just use that for now.
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