80/20 (81/19)
Hopefully not to beat a dead horse, but here's a thought experiment for this funny concept.
If the population proportion between each strength demographic was 1/5 per group, how could that be?
7d(2650+); 1
5d&6d; 25
3d&4d; 125
1d&2d; 625
SDK; 3,125
DDK; 15,625
TPK; 78,125
For Twenty Plus Kyus:
The main theme is that of a lighthearted or intriguing nature. 75% associative, i.e. only a quarter of those may consider themselves a 'go player' per se, but do know the rules and can play with any beginner wanting to improve to mighty heights, for example:
-Someone who is interested in the go equipment materials, or, possibly, a collector of antiques
-Someone who is interested in languages and communication, or history
-Someone who is interested in education or brain training
-etc...
For Double Digit Kyus:
The main theme is that of health and self-improvement; you often get as much at this stage out of learning go and developing some anti-misclick discipline or possibly actually reading. 50% associative. You can train for specific aspects of go, solving tsumego above your level to elevate raw visualisation, or speed reading easy problems to train pattern recognition and sharpness, or maybe opt towards the intuitive with whole-board judgement. In other words, it is evolving the focus from styles of play to styles of training. They could be:
-Someone who is interested in education or brain training
-Someone looking for a rewarding pastime
-A puzzlemanic looking for the next big thing
And so it may continue upwards... but I wonder, perhaps, if we are to encourage more beginners and casual players online, we slightly shift the perspective on the servers? Any innocent beginner may wonder online to find a fierce competition of rank going on. Although initially intended to merely serve existing players, what if a go server may act as a passive tool for go proliferation if appropriately devised!
On a similar note, it may not be so easy attempting to spread go outright, or convince other board game players that go is the best board game, making no difference to the boardgame playing population as a whole. However, we might be able to take advantage of our position as a relatively small to medium sized community within the western sphere. Instead focusing on trying to spread go to more people, we set out on specific projects intended to make a balance of population that will increase the go population with minimal effort. This might be harder to do the larger the population is, so it hopefully takes advantage of situations in which there are smaller populations still. In Korea, mothers believed go might help their children improve concentration and cognition. This might be called expansion by osmosis.
If a specific project is set out to achieved, it is much easier for people to tag along in an effort familiar to them, over spreading go, which they wouldn't be able to relate to at first. The EGF article linked above is a fine example. This might be called expansion by assimilation.
This is something that should, I hope apply to all mindsports, who have simlar problems competing with video games, and is dependent moreso, perhaps, on compassion and creativity more than anything else.
Osmisis-If struggling to expand a population, aim to balance the demographic so that the population expands naturally.
Assimilation-Implement a change in society that others can relate to and identify with. You get double the satisfaction!
.
seems about right.