OGS and DGS are best go servers

[ephriam22]

It is understandable that a player who joins a new server and ranks himself too low can be taken as a sandbagger but that does autocorrect after time. However it is jarring to an opponent who expects reasonable competition but gets overpowered. I found myself in this position (sandbagger) and tried to compensate by playing initial stones at 1 1 points but that was taken as an insult by some. So what to do . . . ?

I have seen a number of comments about 'sandbaggers' on IGS. Are these referring to people who purposely underrate their strength? Are there more than a few ?

[Bill Spight]

It is understandable that a player who joins a new server and ranks himself too low can be taken as a sandbagger but that does autocorrect after time. However it is jarring to an opponent who expects reasonable competition but gets overpowered.

Don't most servers indicate a new or uncertain rank?

I found myself in this position (sandbagger) and tried to compensate by playing initial stones at 1 1 points but that was taken as an insult by some. So what to do . . . ?

If you have a good idea of what your rank should be, create a new account at that rank. Or play as a guest. Or see if you can win by exactly two points.

I have seen a number of comments about 'sandbaggers' on IGS. Are these referring to people who purposely underrate their strength? Are there more than a few ?

There are people who like to beat up on weak players.

[hyperpape]

and tried to compensate by playing initial stones at 1 1 points but that was taken as an insult by some. So what to do . . . ?

I understand how you thought of it, but it's not a great solution. It has the potential to seem insulting. But worse, if it works, you'll win 50% with the handicap and stay stuck with your rank.

As Bill said, you can create a new account. Ideally, you can just keep playing and the server should correct your rating quickly enough, which it should on OGS or KGS--IGS might take awhile, and I'm not sure about DGS.

Side note, since people were complaining about OGS stability upthread. I've been playing on OGS with no problem recently.

[seberle]

For live and blitz games, OGS is number #1, no doubt about that.

I suppose it depends a lot on the person and what they are looking for. OGS certainly has the advantage of being very popular right now with English-speaking kyu players. But as others have mentioned, it has both pros and cons, including occasional server stability issues. The GUI is nice, I suppose, though it frequently doesn't work quite right in my browsers. Still, OGS has the advantage of working on mobile devices (though I haven't tried that yet). Personally I find the OGS site overwhelmingly complex. KGS has a few oddities, but at least there is complete help documentation on every feature of the site. I'm frequently frustrated that help pages are still not written for large parts of the OGS site. What does this button do? How does this feature work? What does this graph mean? When I ask these questions in the OGS forum, no one knows, and the help pages are of little help. I'm still lost on how to know in OGS if the person is still connected or not after the game. Why isn't my opponent answering me? Have they disconnected? How can I know? So I sit there waiting for a reply about reviewing the game for a while and then eventually give up.

Personally, I'd rather have "old" graphics, like KGS or DGS, which are at least simple and accompanied by complete help pages to understand everything. The KGS room system is nice when looking to see what's happening in a particular community of players. I agree that losing your rank after a bit of inactivity is frustrating, but then again it doesn't take long to get it back again, and you seeing a "?" next to a players rank is a good warning that their rank may not be accurate. OGS is probably best for the occasional user and KGS works better for dedicated players. The KGS ranking system (and "?" ranks for infrequent players) is designed to prevent sandbaggers, but it's not a perfect system. I continue to play on both OGS and KGS for live games because they both have pros and cons. I agree that DGS is absolutely the best for correspondence games.

Actually, the thing that keeps me away from OGS most of the time is not the site itself, but the culture. By default, OGS games are played without handicap and so it seems to have attracted players that prefer playing without a handicap. That's cool if that's what you prefer, but it means that if you want a good game, you have to find someone very close to your rank. Personally, I prefer using the handicap system with anyone more than a couple of stones away from my rank. It gives me a fighting chance to win if I'm weaker and it gives me a challenge if I'm stronger. This is one of the great things about go which initially attracted me to the game. On OGS, there are very few handicap games posted, so I create my own. But the culture of playing without a handicap on OGS is so strong, that when I post a game with handicap, it's usually accepted by someone who apparently didn't notice there was a handicap and then they immediately quit when they see the handicap and I have to post a new game all over again until someone finally accepts. With KGS, handicap is the norm and there is a dialog period of accepting an opponent and any modifications to the handicap; you can choose between several people who click on the game you posted and dialog with the potential opponent if there are any questions. Actually, I like being able to check out my potential opponent before accepting. With OGS, you are obliged to play the first person to click on your posted game. I suppose I should go to the OGS forum more often and seek a game there instead of just posting a game and seeing who will accept?

I suppose the ideal would be to have a modern site with nice GUI, complete documentation, a simple game agreement mechanism and stable servers. Hopefully OGS and KGS will tend in those directions! DGS is pretty much already there.