Life In 19x19

I'm not so keen on Drupal and probably won't spend hours watching video tutorials on it, but PHP and JavaScript are fine with me, and if the difficulty lies in integrating modules with Drupal rather than implementing features, then what's the point of using a CMS in the first place.

What do you mean exactly with SGF handling module? What functions should it have, and how would it be helpful?

What do you think about the scheduler/calendar functionality I outlined? As far as I can judge it from the outside and the comments in this thread, it seems to me that making it easier to get matches would be a very important thing to support.

Just to chip in. I've had put in place a drupal system for the University but after two years my view has become that a more ready made CMS would have been a quicker and more robust solution. If you have someone keen who wants to have Drupal development on their CV then its win/win but if you want a site up that does the job, is flexible and can be added to - I'd go with Joomla with this extension:

http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions ... ports/8546

Find a nice (free theme) and set the "authors" and other extensions as you want. It would be quick to build and should do anything you want.

It will look a bit Joomla-ish" but it will do the job..

with sgf integration i just mean that ppl wanting to use sgf on site dont have to code it manually to display it (so integration into wysiwig for example).

to add on my current state of happiness today a few more prizes got added again by a kind donater!!! We got most active player prize and several kyu prizes now!

W00T!!!

I think what the league is lacking is the ability to schedule the games with your opponents. That will be kickass. In Kaya.gs.



Also its not easy to motivate the strongest players in the league. Often being the strongest is just being the teacher of the league. So there is this constant pressure for strongest players to resign from the league. This happened in Alex's league , even though it had prize money, so the burden is even bigger in the ASR.

yes its alwas a big challenge to motivate strong players in the league, but even the insei league, with bigger prizes, have trouble with that as you say.

Still i tink our league is ''healthier'' just because its free the dans who are enrolling for the league know they will play weaker players and be more willing to do so. To top it of, next months alpha winner may choose either a tgame with yilun yang or 3 month kgs+!! The remaining prize will be given to the winner of the beta winners match:)

hows that for motivation?

Damn, I wish I had time to come back ...

One of these months ...

MagicMagor wrote: 1. Getting a game
If the subclass you are in is pretty small, your having a hard time getting the minimum number of games, not even thinking about gaining enough points for a promotion.
This problem is maginified if you (like me) aren't online each evening, but only 1-3 times per week.

This is pretty much why I did quit. I was OK to play mostly weaker players for 2-3 months, but that plan didn't go so well as I wasn't getting enough games to promote or even stay at the same group.

i'm sorry to hear that.

We have since a while now made classes bigger (about 20 per class) and im not certain if you played in that setting.

We are working on the new site bit by bit and we plan to make a scheduling system within each class so you can either see when others are usually online or schedule an actual game. Would this help you?

I am new to ASR, so my opinion could be wrong but.... I will say it anyway.

In my view, the best way to get and keep ASR going is to create more of a community. Part of the reason I play ASR is to meet and get to know people who might be a little more dedicated and within a more controlled environment than the "English Room"

1) I think we should feel freer to play others outside the class you are in. It seems to me that there are no rules about who you can play with, if you do not need to get a point. In other words, if I am sitting online and no one from my class is available, why not just play with anyone who is available? We could play a rated game, a teaching game, or a free game.
Why should I go back to the English Room when there are like 30+ players logged into ASR without a game? I think if we make a clear policy that there are no penalties or restrictions on playing games in ASR outside of league games, that would help foster a greater community among us.
In addition, if a class member comes on, you can always ask your opponent to post-pone the game and go play a league game. The non-league games could be continued later or abandoned depending on whether it is a rated game or not.

2) It would be great if we could have an ASR space on the boards, where people could introduce themselves privately. Perhaps a child board that only ASR members can access.

3) Perhaps you could create an ASR fan page on facebook or something to increase the community beyond KGS. Even KGS does not have a fan page, and it probably should.

Anyway, these are just my quick thoughts. I think 1 is quite valuable and I will be posting non league games and comments in ASR room if it is allowed. If it is not, I think it should be allowed.

Go_Japan wrote:1) I think we should feel freer to play others outside the class you are in. It seems to me that there are no rules about who you can play with, if you do not need to get a point. In other words, if I am sitting online and no one from my class is available, why not just play with anyone who is available? We could play a rated game, a teaching game, or a free game.
Why should I go back to the English Room when there are like 30+ players logged into ASR without a game? I think if we make a clear policy that there are no penalties or restrictions on playing games in ASR outside of league games, that would help foster a greater community among us.
In addition, if a class member comes on, you can always ask your opponent to post-pone the game and go play a league game. The non-league games could be continued later or abandoned depending on whether it is a rated game or not.

What exactly is stopping you from playing a game against whoever in the ASR? Afaik, it's totally fine to do so, it just won't give you league points if the person isn't in your class. Or are you trying to say the ASR should be more explicit in that this activity is okay?

2) It would be great if we could have an ASR space on the boards, where people could introduce themselves privately. Perhaps a child board that only ASR members can access.

Isn't this thread in one? I don't see any benefits in restricting a subforum such that only ASR members can access it; actually I think it'd do more harm than good as it shuts out interested people.

3) Perhaps you could create an ASR fan page on facebook or something to increase the community beyond KGS. Even KGS does not have a fan page, and it probably should.

This should be easy enough, as there is already an ASR (and KGS) group; an admin over those groups should be able to upgrade the group with ease (as I did for the Igo Hatsuyoron group, which changed into a fan page).

First of all, if you take issue with my initial goal of creating a greater community within ASR, then all the following points are irrelevant to you. All the points I make below are focused on creating a greater sense of community in ASR.

Araban wrote:What exactly is stopping you from playing a game against whoever in the ASR? Afaik, it's totally fine to do so, it just won't give you league points if the person isn't in your class. Or are you trying to say the ASR should be more explicit in that this activity is okay?

I know that I can do this. What I see is that people are not doing this. So, somehow, it would be good to encourage this more. Perhaps making it clear that you can play games in the league room that do not give points would help. I do not know if it would or not.
When I am logged in, I see like 30-50 people in ASR room and between zero and 2 games in the room. If I click on some members of my class, they are playing games in English or other rooms. This is my observation and it is strange to me when there are 30-50 players in the room.

Isn't this thread in one? I don't see any benefits in restricting a subforum such that only ASR members can access it; actually I think it'd do more harm than good as it shuts out interested people.

Either i wasn't clear or you misunderstand. I am talking about a place where ASR people can introduce themselves to other ASR people without making that information too public. In other words, create a space in addition to this space that is for ASR people only. I am not suggesting to make this space private. I am only suggesting to make a new private space for members only. I have been part of other on-line gaming communities before. One of the best ways to generate a community is to create community-only space.

This should be easy enough, as there is already an ASR (and KGS) group; an admin over those groups should be able to upgrade the group with ease (as I did for the Igo Hatsuyoron group, which changed into a fan page).

That is interesting because when i do a search on facebook for KGS or Kiseido I cannot find it. KGS has a bunch of hits with very few members, except for one private group. There are tons of pages of results, though, I thought it would be easier to find. ASR is the same, with a lot of results and few members. Perhaps KGS and ASR are there, but with a bunch of other groups with the same name, it is difficult to find them without clicking through a hundred different groups.
All I found was a KGS Information page.
I know the search in Facebook sucks, so maybe you can just post the links to those pages here so people know they exist and can join if they want.

Anyway, like I said, if people think that the problem with ASR is within the structure, they try to fix the rules. If people think that the problem is creating a greater sense of community than perhaps these suggestions will help.

First of all, if you take issue with my initial goal of creating a greater community within ASR, then all the following points are irrelevant to you. All the points I make below are focused on creating a greater sense of community in ASR.

Why are you being so defensive? I'm just trying to gain a clearer understanding of what you're trying to suggest.

I know that I can do this. What I see is that people are not doing this. So, somehow, it would be good to encourage this more. Perhaps making it clear that you can play games in the league room that do not give points would help. I do not know if it would or not.
When I am logged in, I see like 30-50 people in ASR room and between zero and 2 games in the room. If I click on some members of my class, they are playing games in English or other rooms. This is my observation and it is strange to me when there are 30-50 players in the room.

So basically just make it more explicit and encouraging it rather than not saying anything at all; got it.

Either i wasn't clear or you misunderstand. I am talking about a place where ASR people can introduce themselves to other ASR people without making that information too public. In other words, create a space in addition to this space that is for ASR people only. I am not suggesting to make this space private. I am only suggesting to make a new private space for members only. I have been part of other on-line gaming communities before. One of the best ways to generate a community is to create community-only space.

So basically an ASR forum, got it.

That is interesting because when i do a search on facebook for KGS or Kiseido I cannot find it. KGS has a bunch of hits with very few members, except for one private group. There are tons of pages of results, though, I thought it would be easier to find. ASR is the same, with a lot of results and few members. Perhaps KGS and ASR are there, but with a bunch of other groups with the same name, it is difficult to find them without clicking through a hundred different groups.
All I found was a KGS Information page.
I know the search in Facebook sucks, so maybe you can just post the links to those pages here so people know they exist and can join if they want.

stalkor is going to try and get the creator of the ASR group to turn the group page into a fan page as only the creator has this privilege. Once it turns into a fan page, it should be easier to find; but no worries, an explicit link should be posted in the ASR channel.

Araban wrote:

First of all, if you take issue with my initial goal of creating a greater community within ASR, then all the following points are irrelevant to you. All the points I make below are focused on creating a greater sense of community in ASR.

Why are you being so defensive? I'm just trying to gain a clearer understanding of what you're trying to suggest.

Sorry, it is the nature of my job. I misunderstood your tone.
Thanks for the response.

Thanks GoJapan for your interesting ideas, and thanks Araban for helping to clarify them!

I like the idea of developing the ASR community. I've been a member for a few months now but beyond buddying people with whom I've had a good experience, I haven't been able to make much happen as far as building on these contacts. Encouraging games in the room but outside the league, as well as offering a forum where players could get to know one another a bit better might help.