I also just remembered that many English terms also make little sense to a beginner: why is a ladder called a ladder, and not the more appropriate stairs? Why do we call it an iron pillar? What’s a monkey jump or a tiger’s mouth?
Like I said, for me it’s not about tradition or about paying homage or anything. It’s about using the term that’s most likely understood by the most people who view it. On a Go site, the proper term for Rengo that will be immediately understood by most people, is Rengo.
Calling it differently would be similar to calling the Rook in chess a horizontal mover, and the bishop a diagonal mover, etc. Sure, it’s easier for a beginner to learn what the term refers to, and what the piece does, but it’s just confusing to anybody familiar with the standard chess terminology.
You keep saying that it will be understood by most people. Where is the data on that? Have you considered that many people that come here to OGS are newcomers to go? Not OGS Forum regulars and r/baduk subscribers?
nobody has ever requested that OGS will implement “Team Go” or “Group Go”.
Senseis redirects their “team go” page to the “Pair Go” page, and writes “The more general form, where players can be of any gender, is usually referred to as Rengo.”
Wikipedia itself mentions “rengo” as the proper name, and explains why Pair Go is something different
KGS calls it rengo
Like I said: we shouldn’t cater the term to absolute newcomers, just like why I don’t call chess pieces for what they do, but I call them with their proper name. It won’t help against confusion to call something by some non-standard name, it will at best extend the time before the newcomer learns the proper term, and at worst make the confusion larger if they think the two terms refer to different things.
@anoek What’s the current median rank for new accounts after 20 ranked matches suggest regarding this idea that “many people [who] come here are newcomers”?
Fair enough. They have asked for Pair Go though (and I assume they didn’t care about gender)
meh PandaNet calls it Pair Go
DGS calls it team-go (Rengo specifically for 2v2 ) (source)
Not even absolute newcomers. I mentioned playing Rengo once in my local Go club, and folks who’ve played longer than myself were like, “Sure! What is that?”
Not even absolute newcomers. I mentioned playing Rengo once in my local Go club, and folks who’ve played longer than myself were like, “Sure! What is that?”
I agree. I have several friends who play Go casually, and none of them would know what “Rengo” is about.
If possible I would suggest something like “Rengo (teams)” to clarify somewhat while keeping this name.
But the site itself is able to explain; granted, it doesn’t do that, but it could. You could click on the tab, and read some info about it there. Reasonable, the same should be true for the Joseki section, the puzzle section (of which I think the more usual “tsumego” is a more appropriate name, but let’s not get into that ), the ladder section, etc. They are all a bit mysterious now anyways.
There has been a lot of concern about beginners mentioned here.
Indeed, one method to assist them is to make terms as descriptive and intuitive as possible.
Another method is to make terms as specific as possible, so that when they don’t understand something (as is common for the newcomer experience in any field) they have nice precise search terms in which to query an engine or else a helpful user.
It’s fine for beginners to ask questions, I don’t think people step into a new discipline expecting all aspects of it to be self intuitive. I certainly don’t in any case.
Just a side note - international transactions may take around 3-7 business days, but there is actually no specific international regulations for how long they may take at most.
Still, I assume (despite the pandemic) the wiring to complete within the 3-7 d time frame.
I got diverted slightly by the deployment of the new OJE back-end, which of course has a few teething problems, but will be back on the Rengo soon.
One of the things that OGS does is teach westerners about Go. Learning the terms of Go seems to be part of that mission, I think Rengo is a good name. Part of the appeal of Go is ‘eastern mystique’. I don’t think beginners need their hand held by diluting this. But I’m just coding
) (
), the ladder section, etc. They are all a bit mysterious now anyways.
