Updating Doc & FAQ

[Atorrante]

Some time ago a number of players wrote together the instructions for how to play rengo on OGS. Later this group effort was added to the Documentation and FAQ section.

I really enjoyed the group proces in which we created a good text together in just a few weeks. And I wasn’t the only one who enjoyed it.

I wonder if there are people who like to contribute to updating the Doc & FAQ wiki on Github. Some players recently did some updates, but wouldn’t it be more fun and stimulating to do this in a team?

One thing that always seemed odd to me was the two column system. Is there some logic in it (which I don’t see)? Or did it just organically grew?

Some items in the right column could very well be placed/integrated into the left column.

Updating Doc & FAQ is important, since OGS rapidly evolves from time to time.

Maybe the players who initially contributed to creating Doc & FAQ would like to help. Or maybe you would like to help. Together we can do a lot in a short period.

[Conrad_Melville]

Yes, I am available. I have avoided getting an account on GitHub, because I already have so many accounts and passwords (partly due to my job), but since it is already a Wiki, I guess I could give in and finally sign up.

Is there a means of version control, or to prevent misinformation getting in without rereading the whole doc every day? For example, can a working version be segregated, and then finally posted to replace the current version only after everything has been proofed?

[Conrad_Melville]

@Atorrante

One thing that always seemed odd to me was the two column system. Is there some logic in it (which I don’t see)?

I think the right column is a kind of index to the left column. The left has broad categories for organization, but the right drills down to more detailed topics that one can click to get right to the point. There is some overlap, but I think the concept is worthwhile (I am speculating, as I did not devise the layout.)

[benjito]

@Conrad_Melville

I already have so many accounts and passwords

Get u a password manager and you’ll never have to remember a password again!

[Feijoa]

Sure, I’ve had fun adding my little bit to the docs. I was thinking it would be particularly fun and useful to document the rules of the game as implemented on OGS. With details like how handicap works and scoring and so on, for all the different rulesets.

What do you have in mind for doing this as a team?

@Conrad_Melville

Is there a means of version control, or to prevent misinformation getting in without rereading the whole doc every day?

Version control is the whole point of Git and Github, and I think you can get a lot of the benefit by looking around just a little behind the scenes - click near the top of any wiki page where it says something like “45 revisions”.

[Atorrante]

Cool that there are some players who want to contribute to this updating project.

How can we do this in an efficient way?

Not all players have a Github account so let’s do it in a thread. This should be a wiki thread/topic, so that others can add their contribution to the text directly.
When we agree on it that the text is good, we add it to the Github section.
Please do not transport the text earlier. This is rather confusing.

This worked very well in the thread that @GreenAsJade opened on March 27 (see OP). It was finished and added to the Github version of Doc & FAQ only a week later.

Let’s start with the first chapter: First steps

I suggest that we do this in a new wiki topic titled:

Updating Doc & FAQ: First steps

If someone wants to create this new topic and copy the Github text (including illustrations) into it, that would be fine.

[Atorrante]

Recently I have updated a few pages of the Documentation and FAQ.

If you want to have a look at them, here are the links:

• rating calculator

• sgf downloading

• how and when to end a game (resignation)

And don’t only look at them, also check and double check them, give feedback, spot typo’s, give suggestions, etc. I am sure that many of you are probably more knowledgable and experienced in some fields than I am.

Do you miss info in the Documentation & FAQ?
Did you stumble on forum posts that contain info that actually should have a place in the DocFaq?
Are you willing to help keeping the DocFaq updated?

Well then, this is the place to drop it.

[Atorrante]

Note to myself

I think @yebellz post on Japanese versus Chines counting should get a place somewhere in Doc Faq. So when I have time …

To be continued.
Hope I don’t forget.

[trohde]

@Atorrante

spot typo’s

typos, not a genitive.

[scnr]

[Atorrante]

@Atorrante

To be continued.
Hope I don’t forget.

Done.

[gennan]

@trohde

@Atorrante

spot typo’s

typos, not a genitive.

A very common spelling error for Dutch people writing in English, because a Dutch spelling rule is to insert an apostrophe before plural -s when the singular form ends with a long vowel: theorema’s, collega’s, foto’s, memo’s, buro’s, kado’s.

Sometimes the reverse also happens, Dutch people who write a lot of English might insert an apostrophe in a Dutch genitive form (-s ending), while it shouldn’t be there by Dutch spelling rules (except when the nominative form ends with a long vowel).

[trohde]

Ah, thanks, TIL:

@gennan

a Dutch spelling rule is to insert an apostrophe before plural -s when the singular form ends with a long vowel: theorema’s, collega’s, foto’s, memo’s, buro’s, kado’s.

I remember that I have wondered many times when I read Dutch posts elsewhere.

[Feijoa]

That’s interesting about Dutch. It’s also an extremely common mistake among English speakers but maybe was acceptable usage not too long ago?

Going banana’s* about the greengrocer’s apostrophe

[gennan]

I’d like to add some clarification about the use of apostrophe before -s in Dutch. It doesn’t have a grammatical function, it’s purely a pronunciation indicator. Without the apostrophe, the vowel in front of the -s would be interpreted as a short vowel, so “fotos” would be pronounced as “fotoss”.

There is one case where Dutch does use an apostrophe in genitive forms, and that is when the nominative form already ends with an -s. In that case, you would put the apostrophe after the -s.
Example: “James’ kat” (James’s cat). But in that case, it’s only a grammatical spelling rule. The apostrophe wouldn’t change anything in the pronunciation of “James”.

Edit: and ofcourse, the genitive form of a word ending in a long vowel would also need an apostrophe before the -s in Dutch, for example: “Marco’s”.
But in that case the reason for inserting an apostrophe before the -s inflection is the same as other cases where the uninflected form ends with a long vowel: pronunciation (so a different reason than the English genitive form “Marco’s”). Without the apostrophe, “Marcos” in Dutch spelling would be interpreted to be pronounced as “Marcoss”.

I guess that the great similarities between English and Dutch, the pervasiveness of the usage of English in the Netherlands and a gradual anglicisation of the Dutch language are causes for confusions like these to Dutch people writing in English and even to Dutch people writing in Dutch.

[Atorrante]

I did some edits in these pages of our Documentation & FAQ in the last few weeks.

Getting Started | Creating and Adjusting Your Account

Finding (starting) a game

The game view and playing games

Anyone care to proofread and give feedback?

[Conrad_Melville]

I have started to compile some edits, but it will take a while, as I am going back and forth with my work computer during moments when I have down time.

[Conrad_Melville]

Here is the first installment of some edits. As before, I do not have a Git-Hub account and have no desire to get one. Sorry for the inconvenience, but that’s the way it has to be. On the plus side, doing it like this is more transparent.

Creating a New Account (signing up)

“To create a new account”—Add comma after

“Email” has usually been written without the hyphen in the U.S. for the past 20 years.

“However (to combat spam)”—Use commas rather than parentheses.

“are not allowed to use”—Substitute “cannot use”

“Sign up”—Periods and commas should be inside the quote mark since OGS is a U.S.- based server

Adjust Everything to Your Preference

I would substitute a colon at the end of the first sentence (because the list, standing alone, isn’t a sentence). Then I would insert commas after “you)” and “other)”

Preferences
The text about the OGS logo is outdated. Starting in the second sentence substitute this: “Hover over your name in the upper right of your home page and click on “Settings” (or go to…”

“adjust:”—Strictly speaking, a verb should not be separated from its object by a colon. That is why the traditional usage was “adjust the following:” or to put in no punctuation. But this is me being pedantic (I am “old school” as we say).

General Settings

“Language of the interface” —For consistency, wouldn’t it be better to say just “(you can choose your browser language)”?

“Profanity filter” —substitute "(censors swear words and can be disabled by switching to a language you don’t use)”

“Game thumbnail list”—Add s to limit. Add comma after loaded and delete the hyphen

“Show offline friends”—Add comma after disabled and delete hyphen

“Show tournament indicator”—Add comma after disabled and delete hyphen

Game Preferences

“Game-control-dock”—Add comma after in and delete hyphen

“Voice countdown”—Add comma after disabled and delete hyphen

“Board labelling”—I suggest changing this to “Board coordinates.” Then change the parenthesis to “(controls the style…)” I think the duplication of the word is okay here.

“Live game submit mode” —As in the other cases, the use of the hyphen after match is incorrect. Either substitute an em-dash closed up on both sides, or add a colon after match and delete the hyphen. Also, change need to want.

“Auto-advance”—Add comma after correspondence game

“Disable AI review”—Substitute “(AI will not analyze your finished games, but you can also toggle this from the righthand panel when in game)”

“Dynamic title”—Delete “streamers - they will” and substitute “streamers, who will”

“Enable function keys” —This starts with a comical dangling participle. The keys are enabled, not “you.” Substitute “(enables use of the F1-F10 keys to enter analyze mode in game and use various tools; this may override some of your browser shortcuts, such as page refresh)”

Email Notifications

Change “e-mail to “email”

After “adjust,” either delete the colon or add “the following” before the colon.

Vacation Control

This starts with another dangling participle. Substitute “When this is enabled,” and delete the hyphen. Also, add “time” after “vacation” and add “on OGS” after “8 days”

Account Settings

Substitute “an” for “and” and “email” for “e-mail” in two places.

Blocked players

Capitalize players in the head

Substitute “to play again.” for “play against anymore.”

Delete “Player” from “Block Player.”

I would keep all the text together and add a line: “Blocking also prevents them from messaging you on the OGS system.”

Profile

Again, the sentence about the logo is outdated and should be deleted. I suggest combining “Profile” and “Profile Details.”

Add a new second sentence: “Click on your name on the home page to get to your Profile.”

Delete the third sentence.

Ratings

This paragraph is problematic due to the two settings for the table.

Substitute “Ratings table” in first sentence. Add a sentence: “The switch on the right toggles to show rank and standard deviation (off) or rating points and deviation (on).”

I would substitute “rank is unknown.”

Substitute em-dashes (closed up) for the hyphens in the second sentence.

Substitute “…and will become definite only after…”

I would substitute 6 for 5, but this is obviously a matter of opinion.

No need to hyphenate “time-settings”

Add a period after “numbers,” delete hyphen, and start a new sentence, “When the toggle is on, the first number…and the second…”

After “give or take,” substitute “(i.e., your possible deviation from the first number). The more confident the system is about your rank, the lower this number will be. Your rank will be…”

Game History

Add a period after “your Game History”

Theme settings

Capitalize settings in the head

Substitute “Clicking on…page brings up…” (making one sentence by also deleting it).

Add a comma after “stones”

Learning the Rules of Go

Add comma after “playing)”

Delete “Clicking the upper left OGS logo brings out a menu. Choose Learn to play Go.” This is outdated. Substitute “Click “Learn” on the navigation bar and “Learn to play Go” on the drop-down menu.”

Your rating

This should be “Your Rank”

Substitute “a player’s”

Add “the” in front of “Glicko 2”

Substitute “For more statistical info on Glicko 2, please see the following references:”

Again, I would substitute 6 for 5.

Comma inside quote for “Glicko points”

Delete “for easier orientation”

Add “the” and “system” to make “the traditional kyu/dan system.

Substitute “at” = “starts at 25k.” Delete “and” and substitute “As you get stronger…”

Lowercase dan

The sentences about the 15-game window should be deleted, as they are outdated. Ranks do not go down like that anymore. The paragraph should start with “The other ratings…”

Delete the commas in the sentence about annulments.

The last paragraph should be completely deleted because the timeout tag was abolished years ago.

Rating calculator

This should be “Rating Calculator”

Add “this” = “looks like this:”

Add comma after “this” = “comprehend this,”

Capitalize “volatility” in the head

Add comma after “general” = “In general,”

Substitute “departure from an accepted set of behaviors.”

Add “the” = “the difference

Substitute “Volatility refers to how rapidly and unpredictably a value will change.”

Interpreting this tool’s value

Substitute “Interpreting the Value” in the head

The second bullet seems wrong. I think the difference just means that Sofiam’s rank is much more uncertain in either direction.

Last sentence: Substitute “But if you lose as expected,”

Deleting an account

Capitalize account

Terms of Service

Add a comma after “ToS” and delete the colon.

Substitute “Short version is this:”

Add pronoun: “ban you outright”

[Atorrante]

Thanks for your extensive feedback. I used most of it. I learned a lot from it.

I realise that the part on Rating Calculator (which I wrote) is shaky, but I leave it as it is.
@Vsotvep already pointed out that it is hard to explain statistical measures to non statistically educated people. But the alternative (not to explain a feature of OGS) is in my opinion worse.
So I wait and hope that some day there will be someone who can explain it better to layman than I did.

[Conrad_Melville]

@Atorrante: Here is another installment of edits.

Finding (starting) a game

Capitalize “Starting” and “Game” in the header

Switch word order = “with preferences similar to yours”

“handpick”—Substitute “accept”

“started”—Add comma after

Automatch (Quick Match Finder)

“of finding—Substitute “to find” (FYI: the use of the participle has exploded in the last 20 years for reasons unknown, but the infinitive is cleaner, more direct, and stronger,)

“multiple…either”—Multiple is an adjective lacking a noun, and either implies two. Substitute “you can select two sizes…” if that is meant, or “you can select multiple sizes if any is acceptable”)

“found”—Add comma after

“are:”—Either delete the colon, or reword: “There are three available game speeds:”

“game with about 10s”—Substitute “game, typically about 10s”

“sitting – about 30s”—Substitute “sitting, typically about 30s”

“About 1 day”—Substitute “Typically about 1 day”

“move)”—Delete the hyphen after this and insert a period between move and the parenthesis. Alternatively, substitute a closed-up em-dash in place of the hyphen.

Adjusting the Automatch

“window”—Add period after

“being”—Substitute “is” in both places

“rules”—Add comma after and delete hyphen

Custom Game

“publically”—Substitute “publicly”

“another player”—Add comma after player

““close”.”—Put period inside quote

“If a challenge that would fully suit you is not available,”—Substitute “If no challenge fully suits you,”

“when enabled”—Add comma after enabled

“Even after the game is over”—Add comma after over

“towards player’s”—Substitute “toward a player’s”

“rule sets”—Delete the s to make it singular

“Pause on weekends”—Add “is” after “weekends.”

“during weekends”—Substitute “weekends, which begins at 8 PM, GMT 0, on Friday and ends at 8 PM, GMT 0, on Sunday). Add “If a game begins during the pause period, the pause will not take effect until the next weekend.”

“You can set”—Add “a” after “set”

“amount”—Add comma after and “but” and delete the hyphen

“(random…directly)”—Substitute “(Random assigns the colors randomly, Automatic assigns white to the stronger player, or the game creator can choose black or white)”

“Disable Analysis”—Add comma after “checked”

“Restrict Rank”—Add comma after “checked.” Also add a comma after “allowed rank” (first half of a compound sentence). Comma after “Ranking” should be inside the quote. Use the standard plus or minus symbol (±) before the 9.

“will appear”—Add comma after

“Accepting a challenge”—Capitalize “challenge”

“can be”—Delete colon or add “these” between “be” and the colon

“If you set a challenge yourself”—Add comma after

Challenging a Player…

“To issue a direct challenge”—Add comma after

“Clicking the upper left OGS logo…search bar right below”—Delete these two sentence as they are outdated. Substitute “A search box appears on the navigation bar.”

“select challenge”—Capitalize “challenge” and add quotes, keeping the period inside the quote mark.

“Send Challenge”—Add period inside quote mark

Playing with a Bot (AI)

‘undo’—Substitute double quotes

“only accept”—Switch order = “accept only”

“rejected”—Add comma after

“bots profile”—Add apostrophe to make it possessive = “bot’s”

Basic Time Controls Explained

“here:”—Delete the word and the colon

“clock which”—Put a comma between

“(you” —Capitalize to be consistent, at least in this section. This occurs in three places in this section.

“clock which”—Put a comma between

“this period”—Put a comma after

“a move”—Add comma after

“life”—Delete and substitute “period”; it is best not to change terminology in the middle of an explanation.

“lives”—Delete and substitute “periods”

"allowed”—Add comma after

“On the Play page” —First I would call it a “tab.” In any case, I don’t see this, so I think more explanation is needed. Or is it outdated?

[Atorrante]

@Conrad_Melville: Thanks, I updated it.