Best Go servers?

[Uberdude]

BigDoug was the admin that did it.

I suspected it was he when you first made this post. He is well-known as a trigger-happy bully who expects genuflection, instant obedience and reverence from us pond scum (aka normal KGS users).

I think the real reason I was IP banned was because a few people were complaining and sticking up for me after he posted that no one could see my chat and that I was banned from the room. To scare people into silence he made an example out of me by banning me.

Indeed other people coming to your defence and criticizing BigDoug's actions are a common prelude to his use of the ban hammer.

I don't understand why the user base puts up with heavy handed admins.

I don't put up with it, I have by and large quit KGS (or at least the social aspects of chatting/kibitzing/reviewing) because of it. Many others have too, though I did see XY0908 (a well known chatty user and great guy who sponsored some tournaments some years ago and quit over the admins stopping chat) had returned when I logged on recently.

P.S. Can admins on KGS now "shadow-ban" users so that they chat in a room but no one (except admins) sees their text? I wasn't aware of such a feature (or maybe Temp misunderstood what was going on?).

[arndt]

I am also an admin on KGS.

If you tell us what your nickname was, and when this happened, then we can look in the logs and try to find out more about what happened.

[Temp]

I am also an admin on KGS.

If you tell us what your nickname was, and when this happened, then we can look in the logs and try to find out more about what happened.

I already pmed Nyanjilla my info. I just want to move on at this point. I will probably use a different user name for other servers and maybe for this website because I don't want to be associated with this incident anymore.

[Temp]

I'm around 3kyu KGS, what should I register for on Tygem? Are all the servers equal in rankings? My strength seems to fluctuate a lot. I was beating 3-4 Kyus pretty easy, but then 1 kyu would destroy me easy, Didn't make sense to me. I also seem to mess up a lot in the beginning with joseki and a lot of times I'm playing from behind due to screwing up the first corner. But they say don't study Joseki. I do go to Josekipedia to see the mistake I made, but I'm not sure it's sticking since I don't study it. Not even sure how to study it without attempting to memorize it.

I would try 1d on Tygem. All servers are not equal in rankings, but Tygem seems to be around 2-3 stones inflated than KGS.

You said that there were pros on Tygem. Are the people with (P) after their name and 9dan pros? Or is that just a stone stronger than 9 dan because of the rank difference?

[Nyanjilla]

Ah.... now that I know the name you used, things become a bit clearer. Trouble is, you weren't registered and you used a guest name that has attracted our attention in the past. Like I said, we've had problesm with people using guest accounts repeatedly, and some of them have used them to test the boundaries. And it's not easy for admins to check names fast---we have to log into a different site and go through a rather cumbersome process to do so.

Once a guest logs out, that name is available for use again and you must have been unlucky in picking it. That doesn't happen with a registered name (at least until that name expires and someone else registers it, of course).

So please feel free to come back to KGS, it's a great place to get teaching games too, but please register to avoid such problems in the future. There are plenty of other rooms there if you want to chat---explore the Rooms menu.

[Solomon]

I'm around 3kyu KGS, what should I register for on Tygem? Are all the servers equal in rankings? My strength seems to fluctuate a lot. I was beating 3-4 Kyus pretty easy, but then 1 kyu would destroy me easy, Didn't make sense to me. I also seem to mess up a lot in the beginning with joseki and a lot of times I'm playing from behind due to screwing up the first corner. But they say don't study Joseki. I do go to Josekipedia to see the mistake I made, but I'm not sure it's sticking since I don't study it. Not even sure how to study it without attempting to memorize it.

I would try 1d on Tygem. All servers are not equal in rankings, but Tygem seems to be around 2-3 stones inflated than KGS.

You said that there were pros on Tygem. Are the people with (P) after their name and 9dan pros? Or is that just a stone stronger than 9 dan because of the rank difference?

Anyone with a (P) and 9d is a verified pro. The verification allows them to play immediately at 9d, rather than starting at 5d which is the highest rank allowed for a fresh account. However, some pros do play on accounts without doing this as well (e.g., "tmch" is a pro).

[Calvin Clark]

OGS is not such a haven of bliss anymore (if it ever was), as they also have some abrasive and argumentative admins now. I wonder if that's a universal feature of internet communities, once they get to a certain size you end up with trigger-happy admins on power trips. There's probably sociology papers about it.

Sure. See, for example this paper.

I doubt it's the best, but I'm sure further searching will prove your point.

There is a widely accepted point of view that because virtual space is not hierarchical
[3], it is inherently democratic and politically unbiased, and therefore members of virtual
organisations can exercise freedom unavailable in the real world, stratified and burdened
with traditional power and authority structures [29]. According to this view, the Internet
application becomes political only when politicians and large businesses use it for political
games and imposition of power.
In fact, the processes for establishing power relations are imbedded in the communitybuilding
process itself. This paper reports research which suggests that this holds true even
in the cyber communities established for “fun” with no economic incentives, competition,
or explicit political purpose. While there is a considerable degree of negotiation and renegotiation
of one’s status, all attributes of stratification, hierarchy, and power practice can
be observed in virtual organisations. There is a hierarchy of members in different roles
or positions, with access to resources and decision making (novice and expert, respected
authority, ordinary member, moderator, manager, owner of the discussion thread, informal
leader, dissident) [10]

[Bantari]

KGS' heavy-handed admins are legendary;

You must be very young or new to all this.
No offense, but it just struck me like the right thing to say here.

[Bantari]

OGS is not such a haven of bliss anymore (if it ever was), as they also have some abrasive and argumentative admins now. I wonder if that's a universal feature of internet communities, once they get to a certain size you end up with trigger-happy admins on power trips. There's probably sociology papers about it.

Agree. This is what I always said - once you have enough crowd and people are assured of anonymity, two things happen: (some) users start really acting up, and (some) admins become heavy-handed. Power-hungry or not, these two aspects are, to me, the just different sides of the same coin.

We have had some of this discussion when Kaya was the thing, but it never grow to the size where my theory would be proven right. KGS did, as did OGS now, apparently.

[Bantari]

This says something about the KGS admin cabal.

Its a cartel, not a cabal.
They also tip cows and paint kittens in their free time. Awful crowd.

[Bill Spight]

OGS is not such a haven of bliss anymore (if it ever was), as they also have some abrasive and argumentative admins now. I wonder if that's a universal feature of internet communities, once they get to a certain size you end up with trigger-happy admins on power trips. There's probably sociology papers about it.

Didn't happen to us at Participate on the Source, back in the '80s. And our culture was more Wild West than the internet has become. As for size, we had 1500 active members. Not sure what the difference was.

[Celebrir]

OGS is not such a haven of bliss anymore (if it ever was), as they also have some abrasive and argumentative admins now. I wonder if that's a universal feature of internet communities, once they get to a certain size you end up with trigger-happy admins on power trips. There's probably sociology papers about it.

Didn't happen to us at Participate on the Source, back in the '80s. And our culture was more Wild West than the internet has become. As for size, we had 1500 active members. Not sure what the difference was.

Maybe still the size. According to their login page, OGS has 216,912 members with 778 online at the same time. Sure, some of the 216,912 players should be inactive,but I don't believe that there are 215,412 inactive members

[Bill Spight]

OGS is not such a haven of bliss anymore (if it ever was), as they also have some abrasive and argumentative admins now. I wonder if that's a universal feature of internet communities, once they get to a certain size you end up with trigger-happy admins on power trips. There's probably sociology papers about it.

Didn't happen to us at Participate on the Source, back in the '80s. And our culture was more Wild West than the internet has become. As for size, we had 1500 active members. Not sure what the difference was.

Maybe still the size. According to their login page, OGS has 216,912 members with 778 online at the same time. Sure, some of the 216,912 players should be inactive,but I don't believe that there are 215,412 inactive members

How many administrators do they have? 100?

[Javaness2]

Many members have multiple accounts, and many former members ... well it is the same story on every Go server.
https://online-go.com/docs/team shows the team. I'm not sure why Jonathan Markovitz has this unique lecturer role.

As for the best Go server, just try them one by one and see which one you like. It is the only way to be sure.

[wineandgolover]

KGS' heavy-handed admins are legendary;

You must be very young or new to all this.
No offense, but it just struck me like the right thing to say here.

Was Bantari a Tweety victim? Does he remember NNGS and its band of happy anarchists?