Reporting: A guide to making good use of the ‘Call moderator’ and ‘Report’ functions

I’ve asked the moderator for clarification, as it’s not really clear what the outcome was in the end :slight_smile:

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invade it

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If a cheat or a beginner stalls by infilling his territory or playing multiple self-atari moves, his stalling is acceptable to OGS as long as he fails to close his territory? Am I understanding that correctly?

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It’s a grey area, playing on to scoring is fine. Playing nonsense to delay the end of the game might be unacceptable stalling. Whether that is before or after boundaries are closed is likely less important than the overall impression of intent. If it seems a genuine attempt to achieve something in the game then that’s likely fine, even if it’s a kind of desperate or heroic attempt. If it’s the type of thing you describe them it’s likely unacceptable.

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I’d add, that it also depends on how likely it seems the player is playing moves with the intent to waste the opponent’s time, or in the hopes that the opponent will abandon the game, as contrasted with players who don’t know any better or want to give a hopeless invasion a shot for learning purposes.

It’s a bit of a case-by-case decision to make whether something is to be considered stalling or not. The level of play is also involved, as some obviously nonsensical moves to a 5d might be highly educational to a 15k.

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Both responses seem to contradict the post I was responding to. I am now more confused than ever.

I’ve edited the original post, but this really shouldn’t be that confusing to an ex-moderator… :confused:

This is also a good opportunity to repeat this post that I sadly only discovered recently, but has the idea of playing until endgame is finished quite nicely put:

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What is this bug? Seems like mod 2 should have just told OP that it was his turn to accept.

Also, why is the scoring history only visible to mods? My opponent shouldn’t be allowed to secretly change the score.

I don’t see any edit relevant to the issue I raised. The issue is not about resigning nor about politeness. It is about stalling, which is done by beginners (who therefore need instruction from a moderator) or by cheaters (who need to be warned or banned).

It is false that the autoscore can’t correctly score a game where the boundaries are not closed. It does so virtually every day. The open territory simply gets no points assigned per the rules of go. Whether or not the borders are closed is irrelevant to the issue of stalling. The post in question still seems to say that a person is allowed to stall by infilling or by self-atari moves as much as they want as long as a boundary is still open. If that is not the policy for judgment, it is simple to make a correction by saying so.

At that time, my rank and my opponent were both 12k.

The order is this:

  1. Enter the scoring stage
  2. I press auto grade
  3. I confirm the scoring result.
  4. The opponent changed the dead stone state, four seconds after I confirmed the scoring result. (This is what the moderator told me after looking at the log. Since the opponent changed the dead stone state, I should have gone back to unconfirmed scoring results, but I didn’t.)
    (At the same time, I’m pretty sure I’m seeing the correct state of the dead stone, the score still shows me a 3.5 point win, and I’ve re-entered this game several times over the course of two days!)
  5. The opponent leaves the game without confirming the scoring result.
  6. Two days later, the opponent returned to the game to confirm the scoring result, and the result was that I lost by 4.5 points. (However, I did not confirm the scoring result after the opponent changed the dead stone state!)
  7. I called the moderator. After checking the log, the moderator said that this was a bug. The scoring result could not be changed. The moderator could only cancel the game.
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When I first passed, the opponent’s territory was indeed not closed.
However, when I called the moderator, the territories of both sides had been closed.
But the moderator just responded to my first pass question…
(But, now, the territories of both sides are closed!)
After the two sides’ territories are closed (of course, I have a pass.) The opponent fills the meaningless dead stone several times (I called the moderator at this time), and then the pass starts to score.

I honestly don’t know how to respond to what you are reporting and I don’t even remember if I had anything to do with it (in which case I apologise) but remember that we moderators are volunteers and that we are not perfect…
You send a lot of reports and we answer most of them satisfactorily it seems, since you are only reporting four cases.

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If the borders are not closed, the borders are not closed and the game isn’t finished. There is no such thing as my border and the opponents border. If the border isn’t closed, just crawl into what should be (but isn’t yet) the opponents territory.

That of course has nothing to do with playing meaningless dead stones. If that’s done with understanding (which may depend on rank) and just to annoy the opponent, a moderator should take action.

Actually, thinking about it there might be a connection: if you pass while the borders aren’t closed, that pass is also a meaningless move. That makes it harder to complain about the opponents (arguably even more) meaningless moves.

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It would help everyone understand your case if you provided a game link. If your descriptions are accurate, then your opponent stalled, and when that failed to make you abandon the game, they score cheated. If that is the case, they should be warned for both (or banned if a habitual offender). If score cheating changed the result, then the game should be annulled, regardless of any other factors. A lot of “ifs” need to be resolved. BTW, score cheaters often try stalling first.

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I’m not a moderator, but if your opponent’s territory boundaries are not established, the game is not over. You need to reduce your opponent’s territory in order to keep your lead according to the AI estimation (as the AI bases it’s estimation on the assumption that you will reduce the territory). Your first pass lost three points. Your opponent managed to reduce your lead from more than 90 points to about 3 points, I think this proves that it was not unreasonable to try and turn the game around.

My thougt about finishing won games: Either you don’t have to think for more than a few seconds per move, then it doesn’t cost you much time to finish the game*, or you still have to do some reading, then you can still make big enough mistakes to lose the game and your opponent is right to continue anyway.

*True for correspondence games, in live games you’ll have to find something to do while you wait for your opponent’s answer. To myself I recommend cleaning my room.

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I think the opponent tried to capture your B5 and B9 groups. It didn’t work, but it wasn’t meaningless.

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Thanks for your hard work!
Well, I know that sometimes what seems obvious to you (no violation by the opponent), you feel the reporter should know too.
Or, you simply forgot to reply.
It doesn’t matter, everyone has the chance to forget.
I don’t mean to accuse you or any moderators.

I looked through the game history and I remember only two games that I’ve reported.

(edited by Vsotvep to remove the names of the Black players)

The first of these games was reported three times.

All right. I thought I only needed to close my territory, and the opponent saw me passing, he would quickly close the territory and then pass as well.
Judging by the estimated points, he lost by 93.5 points, and even if he fills up all the dame after closing the territory, he cannot possibly win back that many points.
But he didn’t! He went and moved the dead stone, which is what annoyed me.

All right. I’ve put the game link above.

In 3, the moderator canceled the game, and the player was warned.
That one was exactly what _Sofiam handled, thank you so much! (1 and 2 are not Sofiam.)

The opponent moved the dead stone in the process of closing the territory or filling the dame.
I didn’t kill those dead stones properly, causing over 70 points of damage.
If the opponent just closes the territory or fills the dame, it can only chase from 93.5 points to more than 70 points at most.
If the opponent thinks those dead stones aren’t dead, he should have acted early instead of moving in the process of closing the territory or filling the dame, shouldn’t he? His behavior made me think it was a sneak attack…

Hmm…his behavior made me feel like a fool, especially after closing off territory or filling up dame.
As said above, he should have acted sooner rather than closing the territory or filling the dame later.

No. I believe the post in question is an out of context misquote.