Several problems I have quite often in OGS

Support
1

Please tell me what I’m supposed to do when one of the following situations happens (almost at every session)

  • my opponent left, and I realize it just because X minutes lapsed (generally X > 4 min)
  • my opponent doesn’t play move 1
  • my opponent doesn’t accept the score, I call a moderator but nothing happens
  • I have some usability issue or a bug with the website, how to tell the devs?
1 Like
2

  1. There has been a lot of discussion about “escapers,” as they are called. You can search the forum. An important point to know is that some are cheaters who come back just before timing out, to see if you have left, in which case they will jump back in and wait for you to time out.

  2. After waiting a reasonable amount of time–whatever you are comfortable with–simply press the cancel button.

  3. Most people who do this are beginners, trolls, or cheats. You’ll need the moderator to deal with the latter two. With the beginners, it may be possible to nicely explain why the scoring is correct.

4, You can PM one of the devs, or post the issue on github (I think that’s the name). You can search the forum for the URL.

4 Likes
3

Give them a bit of time. It won’t be instant but they’ll get it sorted.

1 Like
4

Thanks for making the extra effort that I was too hurried (or lazy) to undertake.

2 Likes
5

thx for your answers.

  1. well, escaping is an issue indeed, common to all go servers I guess, but what is specific to OGS is that you don’t realize it when it happens. It’s not easily visible in the UI (*) So OGS adds another problem to an existing problem.
  2. I tried “cancel” and I observed that it became “lost” in my game list (note that no moves were played) That’s a bit frustrating.
  3. ok
  4. ok, “hiding” this URL probably prevents a bunch of usabiliy issues to be reported :wink:

(* my general feeling about OGS is that all “most-often-used” functions are a bit hidden in the UI amongst a bunch of optional functions. Just an example: waching remaining time while playing is very important, but is sometimes hidden by notifications, quite frustrating in rapid games… This would deserve another post to be really constructive, I first wanted to focus on the most annoying problems)

2 Likes
6

If the game referred to in #2 is vs.sdf on 8/18, then the game has now been annulled in your game list. I believe there is sometimes a slight lag between the cancellation and the annulment, presumably because it processes in two steps…

2 Likes
7

Two suggestions to add to this issue.

Firstly: using Fischer timing with a small initial time allocation can greatly reduce the frustration of dealing with escapers as the total time is more proportional to the length of the game.

Secondly: using Chinese rules makes it easier to deal with opponents who don’t understand why their stones are dead because you can make the necessary extra moves without changing the score. Useful for ‘Bent-four-in-the-corner’ and other situations. This may also reduce the demand put on moderators to everyone’s benefit.

1 Like