Life In 19x19

Posted: **Sun Jul 22, 2012 9:59 pm**

I have seen many admins warn about keeping discussions or comments game related in kibitz. That got me thinking, what exactly was the kibitz policy? I decided to look it up and found it in the kgs help pages. http://www.gokgs.com/help/faq/newbies.html#gamekibitz

There doesn't seem to be any mentioning of off topic discussion in kibitz warranting a warning. It seems to me that bullet 1 says that discussion must be kid friendly and can't interfere the purpose of the kibitz, bullet 2 says that you can't flood in chat, bullet 3 just states that off topic conversations aren't the purpose of the room/game and bullet 4 says no controversial topics. The only fuzzy part I see is bullet 3. It doesn't seem to say that off topic conversations aren't allowed, it only says its tolerated as long as it doesn't interfere with the main purpose. This doesn't seem to be the case with most kibitz. When off topic conversations happen, often people ask questions about the game while the conversation is happening and they usually get answered at the same rate as when off topic conversations aren't happening.

Where did admins get the idea that it's kgs policy to end all off topic conversations or comments?

Posted: **Sun Jul 22, 2012 10:20 pm**

From the page you mentioned:

Main Rooms Policy

First, KGS is a family-aimed server. So the main chat rooms should be readable by people of any age from any culture. Thus, no swear words, no sex related conversation, and so on (see the current Terms of Service).
Second, the primary purpose of the main chat rooms is to help users with go and KGS.
Any discussion unrelated to either go or KGS will be tolerated only if it doesn't interfere with this aim and the bullet at the top.
If questions from users are (or would be) flooded in such a conversation, then the conversation should either stop or move to another room.
"Off-topic" discussions are only a tolerance and are not the purpose of the main rooms.
Discussions of a religious or political nature can quickly become heated and disruptive, so are not allowed in the main rooms.
Note: Long discussions in a language other than the room's default language should move to the main room dedicated to that language. This does not apply to conversations with lost newbies.
The admins enforce the main room policy and the TOS. They can terminate a user's connection without warning and they can ban them from KGS. Newbies asking questions are treated more leniently than regular users.

Game Kibitz Policy

Same as above but replace "help users" with "commenting on the game" and "questions from users" with "comments on the game".
Note: All languages are welcome in game kibitz.

Translation for Game kibitz Policy with the necessary replacements as per above.

Game Kibitz Policy

First, KGS is a family-aimed server. So the game kibitz should be readable by people of any age from any culture. Thus, no swear words, no sex related conversation, and so on (see the current Terms of Service).
Second, the primary purpose of the game kibitz is to commenting on the game with go and KGS.
Any discussion unrelated to either go or KGS will be tolerated only if it doesn't interfere with this aim and the bullet at the top.
If comments on the game are (or would be) flooded in such a conversation, then the conversation should either stop or move to another room.
"Off-topic" discussions are only a tolerance and are not the purpose of game kibitz.
Discussions of a religious or political nature can quickly become heated and disruptive, so are not allowed in the game kibitz.
Note: All languages are welcome in game kibitz.
The admins enforce the game kibitz policy and the TOS. They can terminate a user's connection without warning and they can ban them from KGS. Newbies asking questions are treated more leniently than regular users.

Posted: **Mon Jul 23, 2012 11:22 am**

RobertT wrote:I have seen many admins warn about keeping discussions or comments game related in kibitz. That got me thinking, what exactly was the kibitz policy? I decided to look it up and found it in the kgs help pages. http://www.gokgs.com/help/faq/newbies.html#gamekibitz

There doesn't seem to be any mentioning of off topic discussion in kibitz warranting a warning. It seems to me that bullet 1 says that discussion must be kid friendly and can't interfere the purpose of the kibitz, bullet 2 says that you can't flood in chat, bullet 3 just states that off topic conversations aren't the purpose of the room/game and bullet 4 says no controversial topics. The only fuzzy part I see is bullet 3. It doesn't seem to say that off topic conversations aren't allowed, it only says its tolerated as long as it doesn't interfere with the main purpose. This doesn't seem to be the case with most kibitz. When off topic conversations happen, often people ask questions about the game while the conversation is happening and they usually get answered at the same rate as when off topic conversations aren't happening.

Where did admins get the idea that it's kgs policy to end all off topic conversations or comments?

In broad terms... If there is a long conversation about something stupid, you should expect to see a warning (at some point) to end the conversation. What constitutes talking about the game, is not generally accepted. Some people want to see ONLY comments about the game. Some people will talk about the tournament. Some people will talk about the players. Some people will relate tales related to the position. You get the picture. This is why the old KGS policy, of keeping comments only related to the game, was abandoned a long time ago. Now you can talk about what you like, with the caveat that you may get warned under the red text above.

From my perspective, it's quite hard to get a warning in game chat these days.

Life In 19x19

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KGS kibitz policy

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