Go daily desk calendar?

[DrQuantum]

Hi all -

I have searched high and low to no avail, so I hope I'm simply missing something obvious. Are there any page-a-day style desk calendars featuring go problems out there on the market? If not that's a shame, but if so, who sells them?

Thanks for any pointers,

Todd

[daal]

[TheBigH]

If such a thing existed, I'd buy it.

Daal, I see your MSPaint-fu is formidable.

[Kirby]

I've looked for this in the past, too, but never found anything. I think it'd be really cool to have in the office, for example.

It might be good to have a few different skill levels of calendars, since people have different abilities - or simply have an easy, medium, and hard problem for each day.

In any case, I'd also love to hear if someone's seen one of these.

[Annihilist]

It's a really good idea. Someone should make them.

[TheBigH]

I wonder if David Ormerod might be interested in making these.
I suspect that creating 365 different tsumegos (or even 1095 if you want easy, medium, and hard) would be more effort than actually producing the calendar. But I don't know if his shop has equipment to produce things, or if it's more just a warehouse and shipping&receiving thing.

[Unusedname]

Easy problems Monday so you feel good when you go back to work.

Harder problems by friday and the weekend since you have more time!

[TheBigH]

Yup! And for the first Monday of the year, when the effects of christmas and new year's still linger in your mind and bloodstream, something like this:

$$ black to kill
$$ . . . . .
$$ . X O X .
$$ . X X X .
$$ .....

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$ black to kill
$$ . . . . .
$$ . X O X .
$$ . X X X .
$$ .....[/go]

[gogameguru]

Thanks for pinging me TheBigH, I think this is a really cool idea and it sounds like it would be fun to give it a go (no pun intended).

After a little bit of thought, here are some questions and ideas for discussion:

1. Given that it's already December and we're more or less fully booked at the moment, I doubt I could get something decent out by January. How about (for the first year only) starting the calendar mid-year in July and running it for 18 months? If the project was successful, we could aim produce to produce 12 month calendars in later years.

2. My gut feeling is that the best types of problems to use for this would be basic instinct tesuji type problems. You know, the kind of one move, stone crushing techniques that make you feel like saying "Bond, James Bond" . The reasoning for this is that they're accessible, fun and useful to a wider range of players, they're not too time consuming in the morning, sticking to a single version (at least to start with) would reduce costs and keep the price down, and the answer could be provided as a simple one move coordinate for people who want to check it.

3. On that topic, I think answer diagrams could waste space on this sort of small product. How do people feel about only having the first move (i.e. the tesuji) instead? Or would 1-3 small diagrams over the page be better? One concern is that these sorts of calendars often use thin paper and you don't want to be able to see through to the answer by mistake.

4. What do you feel is a reasonable price to try to aim for, for this?

5. What do you think about format? My first thought is that a ring bound booklet in portrait format with the binding at the top might work well. What about those calendars some people have that are already hole-punched and need one of those random metal things to go on, too inflexible or preferred? A standalone, ring bound one would still be useful as a pocket book after its use as a calendar ended.

6. I'm thinking that this could be a good one to put on Kickstarter to ensure that the demand is great enough to produce something at a reasonable price, before going ahead with it. That would make July a more reasonable starting time.

Thoughts?

[daal]

Thoughts?

1. An 18 month calendar sounds wacky. I think you should just wait until it's time to bring out a regular 12 month calendar.

2. Sounds like a good idea, though another possibility would be a full board position with answers A-E and the "solutions" on the back would simply be a score from 1-10. Maybe for Sundays. I also like unusedname's suggestion to increase the difficulty throughout the week.

3. Inadequate answers can be irritating - though it would offer the possibility of bringing questions into the forum.

4. $12.95

5. Being able to keep it as a pocket-book would be advantageous.

6. Kickstarter is ok but in general, a calendar is tricky, because you don't want any leftover stock. Maybe instead you could write a book and call it 365 tesuji problems. On the other hand, if you are going to write a book, just write the best damn book you can.

[msgreg]

www.printedowl.com

313 go problems, start any day (not sure if there's a minimum, or if any one that orders can start on their own day).

I think if it's a one stone answer, have the problem on one page and the next page have the grid location of the answer along with the picture of the next problem.

Could span us go congress 2013 to us go congress 2014.

[TheBigH]

1. Yeah, the timing is pretty poor for this idea . 18 month calendars are unusual but not unheard of so it's definitely a possibility.

2. I agree. Short, powerful problems are the way to go. Long problems with branched sequences and lots of reading are not really suitable IMO.

3. I'd provide the answers as coordinates, rather than diagrams. That way translucent paper isn't so much of an issue. I also like unusedname's idea of increasing the difficulty throughout the week.

4. Ten to fifteen dollars. That seems to be a common price for desk calendars.

5. I can see advantages to both formats. If you have a stand-alone ring bound calendar you can keep it when the year is over. But the hole punched sort on the metal dealie might actually be a sneaky way of promoting the game. The reason is that you can write quick notes, like phone numbers and things, to co-workers on the back of previous days' pages. Then the co-worker might ask you what the puzzle on the other side means.

6. Daal is right that having too many unsold calendars would be a waste, but I think in your case it might not be too much of a problem. You sell plenty of other books, so if it gets to February or March and you have a few left over you could always include them with other purchases as a special offer or something.

[skydyr]

I'm wondering if one of those print on demand places would do a calendar like this.

A little research lead me to http://printedowl.com/

[msgreg]

Would be great to mix in some go proverbs, but we could start slowly (just problems and answers for this year).

Is there an available free for commercial use source of 313 go problems?

[xed_over]

in general, a calendar is tricky, because you don't want any leftover stock.

The Tacoma Go Club sells a number of "print on demand" items through Cafe Press. I buy the same calendar (the photos are the same) from them year after year.

maybe Cafe Press offers a daily desk calendar? (I haven't looked)