Dear Go friends,

First I'd like to wish every one a happy new year!

I have been working on a new version of Go4Go.net for quite a while. The new site is just about ready for beta testing for the new year (there are fireworks outside while I am writing this!). I'd love to have some friends here testing it for me as I understand many fans here are actively using Go4Go.net.

The entry points for the new site is at: http://www.go4go.net/go/

* Please help me validate my user data migration - If you have an account on the old Go4Go site http://www.go4go.net/v2/ you should be able to use the same username/password to log in to the new site. You can of course register new accounts. Let me know if there is any problem.

* Please help me test the authoring systems (posting with BBCode, SL diagram format, Goswf integration, smileys etc.) to see if there is anything not working properly. I will use these to create technical topics in the futures.

* Please help me check the go game database section which looks quite similar to what's on the old site but has been completely rewritten (you have some new pages, more statistical information, better navigation).

I have worked on the new tournament section, now containing up-to-date information. This is a huge improvement from the old site.

Once the transition is done, I will have a much better platform to develop new feature. There are a number of new features in the pipeline.

If you find any problems, please kindly report to me here or using the forum entries at http://www.go4go.net/go/forum/active (which I specifically created for beta testing and feature requests).

Thank you very much! And once again Happy New Year!

macelee
Go4Go.net

The transition to the new site appears to be quite smooth . No major problems reported. I have just enabled the new site as the default site and it should be accessible from:

http://www.go4go.net

I went through more than 100 Sensei's Library pages to check the Go4Go links and created rules to the redirect the traffic. Links from other website to go4go should remain working.

The most valuable bit - the Go4Go game collection and its web access - should be working properly now. I left a few hundreds of old forum posts behind. Will try to migrate them at a later time. I also shut down the archive of Alexandre Dinerchtein's game commentaries. This will be temporary as we are working on a new interface and model to allow access to his 2500+ commented games.

If you are aware of any other valuable things missing please let me know so that I can try to save them.

I seem to be having trouble with my account.

http://www.go4go.net/v2/userinfo.php?uid=5736

Marcus316 ... works on the old site, not on the new.

Please check your pm for instructions.

Basically I decided not to transfer all old user accounts. I rather arbitrarily chose to transfer accounts that: (1) has logged in at least once in 2012; (2) has posted anything in the past; (3) are among the very early adopters of the old site. Your account probably does not fall in one of these categories.

My intention is to not to keep a lot of dormant accounts, as well as deleting some accounts potentially created by spammers. If as a genuine Go fan your accounts are affected feel free to contact me or register a new one (which takes less than 1 minute).

Later this year I will provide some user-specific functions on the new website.

I had the impression you wanted to use the javascript sgf player, bit I see the java applet is still being used - is that still a work in progress?

edit: oops - I see both are available (although default is applet)

I have the impression that many people may still prefer to use the Java applet because of its simplicity (or they may have got used to it). Browser support won't be a problem at least for those playing KGS from PCs.

Maybe it is better to change the default to the javascript one? (so people using tablets won't see an empty page). Users only need to select the sgf viewer once and their choices are remembered for future visits.

I have just turned on a nice little feature: for those who study a lot of professional games, the system now can keep your game viewing history so that you can monitor your progress. Just log in first, then click My Account, you will see a tab called Games Viewed. Hope this is useful.

Hi macelee!

Nice work, I especially like that the kifu-print-function is working again.

One suggestion for the game viewing history: it would be nice if one could add and remove games from this list at will, since one may only quickly look through a game to see if it's interesting with no intention to keep it on record. Also in the "normal" game lists games already replayed by the user could be highlighted in some way. I hope I'm not to bold.

Thanks again,
Cheers

Thanks for your feedback. In your first suggestion, you made a very valid point that users may just open a game to see if it is interesting. I am actually working on this - for each game I will provide a thumbnail image showing the board position at say the 30th move clearly showing the opening type and major josekis. I will probably keep the viewing history because given enough data I can generate interesting statistics from it.

I totally agree with you on the second suggestion. I will introduce some visual effect in the game list to show which games have already been viewed.

Maybe you could just keep the viewing history in the background to get your statistics? I'd be excited about the possibility of user-generated lists or some kind of tagging system for games in order to quickly filter interesting games by playing style,fuseki type or whatever.

I have plan to implement exactly what you asked for, and I've even got the logic written down on paper. Just need to find time coding. Will be a killer web application ：） Users will first get a list to store their favorite games. Later they can create additional lists.

Very nice. Looking forward to that!

For some reason, the eidogo board in go4go doesn't respond to arrow keys movement. The only way I've found of advancing through a game is to repeatedly click the forward arrow icon.

Thanks for reporting. This is now fixed. You should be able to move forward and backward using the right and left arrow keys. Let me know if there is any problem.

In fact the default behaviour of the player is not to handle the keyboard. The example at http://eidogo.com/example.html does not support keyboard either. I had to dig into the source code and made a small change.

Still doesn't work for me.

Also, If I make a move on the board and then go back I can't navigate the game using numbers. The functionnality isn't important but it shows that it also doesn't capture the number keys.

Tried on a number of computers with different browsers. This definitely works for me. Let's wait for a third opinion.

In Firefox and it works correctly.

In Chrome it does nothing.

In IE the arrow keys scroll the screen but nothing else.

This really becomes a mystery. On my computer the Eidogo player works well on all three browsers you mentioned. The left (go backward 1 move) and right (go forward 1 move) arrows all behave as they should be. The behaviour of the up and down arrows can be slightly different, depending on if the browser or the Go board program has the focus. You might need to click within the area of the player program once so that it gains focus.

I am sure you have done this already - what is the outcome if you try the Eidogo board on 19x19 forum (say in the sticky post called How to post SGF files)?

Yes. I regularly use boards like the ones in the sticky (and the one in eidogo) with the keyboard.

Another thing, unrelated to what does look to be a focus problem on go4go, why not use the full display? It would allow the user to play stones to try to understand, for example, the status of a corner, and have the full tree to navigate between options.

(I've just watched the board and I've seen the "download sgf" link. Maybe that's the reason to use the smaller display? The link shouldn't be too hard to deactivate even on the big board.)

The boards in http://eidogo.com/example.html don't respond to keys either.