Suggestions...Don’t ask, don’t get :)

Here are a few of my recent thoughts to improve the site, although I still believe OGS to be the best site for playing Go online, my apologies if these have been brought up in the past but thought I would share them anyway :slight_smile:

Translate all messages in chat to language of the user option

Not a big deal but would save having to use google to translate a message from an opponent from another language and would encourage more chat between users

Analysis disabled “Normal” feature for live games

I’m probably in the minority of players here who prefer to play without analysis stones enabled, so currently have to create custom games or blitz to get around this

A prompt to end games

The most controversial one but when the optimal move would be to pass or resign the users will be prompted by pass button changing colour/wording or similar sign, this could stop games being played on a lot longer than they should be, not sure if the OGS A.I would be compatible with this either, and I’m sure users would like the option of playing on at the chance of a blunder from the opponent

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Global option for automatic translation: yep sure

Analysis disabled as default for live games: you are not alone to ask this (See other topics on this)

A prompt to end game: many topics on the scoring and ending of the game are open too. One thing to consider is if your suggestion would help the players as, in the OGS way, external help is not allowed (for example by pointing weaknesses in the boundaries that players didn’t see)

4 Likes

If your opponent is stalling a game, you can report them. “Stalling” does not mean taking a long time to move, but delaying the resolution of a game by any of three techniques: (1) playing self-atari moves that serve no purpose, (2) restarting the game repeatedly (pass, reject score, restart, pass, reject score, restart, etc.), and (3) infilling one’s own territory. Such actions are prohibited by site rules and should be reported so the violator can be instructed by a mod.

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Translate - great idea. Let’s do it.

Analysis disabled - my opinion: yes for live, no for correspondence

Prompt to end games - sorry, but I don’t like this one

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I don’t want to be a downer, but to manage expectations, in my opinion this is unlikely to happen any time soon. While Google Translate (and/or similar service) is avilable for free for personal use, it is by no means open sourced for anyone to use. For websites it is actually priced per number of characters translated so you can probably see how running the widged to translate endless chat would be a very scary proposition in itself, not to mention all the other cans of worms that come with implementing something like that.

And machine translating casual online chat full of shortcuts, typos colloquialisms and jokes would probably not yield good results anyway :smiley:

Honestly, I would like to see that too. :smiley: It’s a long discussed topic, but worth bringing up every now and then

“Optimal” time to end the game differs vastly across skill levels. And personally I do not think it is friendly or a good way to help players learn by pressuring them into resignations. If they do not see by themselves that the game is over, they should play on to discover why. If you believe they are doing it on purpose just to annoy you, please do report them.

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