I also have problems getting the iPad app to work. When I tap the green button in the middle, there will be a popup with a QR code. I do not see where I can enter my logon information.

_________________
Stay out of my territory! (W. White, aka Heisenberg)

If you mean the green button at this screen, I think that's used to log in with WeChat by means of a QR code (you scan the QR code from the WeChat app to complete the log in procedure).

https://i.imgur.com/O6ycPjE.png

I've been using the red button to log in with a kind of guest account to avoid the hassle of getting QQ or WeChat working,
but the downside is that it will frequently temporarily block access.

https://i.imgur.com/It45gLR.png

Curiously, occasionally the green button just goes missing for a while (though it usually seems to come back eventually).

https://i.imgur.com/cA8lZMV.png

I've been using Fox to observe games (rather than playing) for some time now, and yesterday I had a login error. "Account or password incorrect".

I have read comments here about locked acounts and so on, and I was wondering if it was my case. I was hoping it was a general issue. Anyway, is it possible to unlock an account? Or even first, is it possible to check that it is locked for some reason?

FYI I played on Fox yesterday without problem, and I could log on this morning.

I've noticed that if my password is autofilled sometimes I have to delete it and retype it. But not always so it's not an issue of it autofilling incorrectly. Unsure if that will help in your case

First time playing on Fox today (using the foreign client from https://www.foxwq.com/soft/foreign.html ).

I clicked "choice" to choose my preferred time settings, then "Fast matching", and a board popped up almost instantly. I said hi, and then the game ended right away with a message:




I tried again: maybe people are impatient here, I need to play a move before saying hi? On the second attempt, the board popped up, I was black, I placed a stone as quickly as I could, and ... same message. And again, twice more.

Then a challenge popped up from someone else. I accepted ... but same again.

So now I'm 5-0 up, but I haven't played an awful lot of go.

On the next automatch attempt, I was white, the other person played a move instantly, I replied, and they kept going. Finally, a game! Or, 58 moves of a game. As soon as it got complicated, they stopped playing moves, and I just sat and watched until the time ran out.

Is this sort of thing normal on Fox? Is there something I should be doing differently?

I almost never send or receive a greeting on Fox, but I don't think it hurts to send one. When I try to get a game with the Automatch, a majority of opponents cancel the game immediately, but I usually can get a (normal) game after 2-3 attempts. One possible reason is that if you don't have many games in your history and/or your winrate is high, they are afraid of sandbaggers.

Well, there are many primary school children on Fox playing on your level, and they have absolutely no patience. They play Go much in the same way western children scroll social media.

OK, got it. Keep clicking automatch, don't fear rejection, just try again right away. With thousands of people online, it only takes a few seconds per attempt, so you still get a game within a minute.

Got it on the third go today, and the other person actually stuck around for the whole game. So now I've seen the famous "Fox style" close up. White made six groups, and after I killed one, the game looked close. I had to kill two groups to actually win. Don't think about territory, just strong and weak (and dead) stones. Joseki are a distant reference point, not a thing that appears on the board.

If this keeps up, I think I'll have a better appreciation of thick and thin shapes :-)

And of surviving risky attacks. This is why my Go teacher told me to play a lot on Fox

Don't assume you have a won game if you killed a group, your opponent may kill back. And vice-versa.