11

Proposal: Game of Go

I'll be frank: I am afraid this site might fail.

In my opinion, it is absolutely necessary to be able to include content from Sensei's Library without loss of functionality. Most of what the SE model provides should be fitting, but I'm not certain about the site-specifics like diagrams.

We obviously have to look at http://www.shidogo.com, the SE 1.0 site that tried to solve this issue. The basic idea back then was to include Eidogo - which is certainly somewhat reasonable and was somewhat successful. However, I doubt that most casual users are fine with going over to Eidogo.com to create their diagrams - it's just too much of a hassle.

Instead, I think we need to be able to create diagrams within SE. The content (sgf file) should also be stored locally - for instance to enable comparison between revisions.

The question (to the SE mods) is: Would this be possible? If you require more information about the topic, I'll be glad to answer - of course I suggest to contact the author of shidogo (mindeavor) as well.

Apart from that, there are multiple other sites that revolve around Go as well - most of them in a wiki or forum style. I believe their users could find accept the SE model, too - except for heavy discussions, which are likely in this game. What should we do about them? I feel we need to improve the comment functionality further, there are certainly a lot of ideas on MSO already. These should be given increased priority.

4
  • 3
    I totally agree. We need to be able to make game diagrams as quickly as we can add syntax highlighting on SO or math markups on mathoverflow. Aren't you a C# programmer, mafutrct? Would you be able to write that into the code?
    – ixtmixilix
    Feb 17, 2011 at 15:22
  • Yes, I am, but I'm not very familiar with the technologies involved. I will try to help, but I can't really do much without guidance. :(
    – mafu
    Feb 18, 2011 at 8:49
  • Maybe implementing make-screenshot-and-upload-to-imgur in eidogo would be enogugh? Then we could create links that are pictures and lead to eidgo with variants when applicable.
    – Łukasz Lew
    Feb 18, 2011 at 11:19
  • That would be kind of crude though :\ I'd love a built-in tool.
    – mafu
    Feb 18, 2011 at 12:07

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
2

On lifein19x19 we have three different go specific features:

  1. Sgf Diagrams
    A Sgf diagram represents a game tree that can be navigated.
    These are based on Eidogo which is an AGPL licensed piece of javascript. The essential features require no server side support. There are some other in browser sgf viewers, but I think this one is the best. License might be a problem though.
  2. Board diagrams
    Renders a one time snapshot of a board. The text describes the stones present on the board. There is no game tree.
    We use http://senseis.xmp.net/?GoWiki%2FSLtxt2PNG which is written on php 5. But if necessary I can write something similar in C#.
  3. Go specific "smilies"
    These are short strings that the bbcode parser replaces with go specific icons such as numbered or marked stone. For example ":w10:" becomes a small image of a white stone with the number 10 on it.
1

Go already has a home on Board & Card Games. (6 questions)

Moving Go to it's own dedicated site at this point, would be destructive.

I have a great deal of respect for Go players, it is perhaps one of the most sophisticated traditional board games to ever exist. And Go has a long and ancient history dating back centuries.

Nevertheless, it probably does not have the interest-level required to survive on the stack network, and thus would only hurt Board Games which is barely surviving as is.

7
  • Is it possible to include Go-specific features on B&CG? I guess I would not mind to have Go over there if all requirements are met.
    – mafu
    Jun 15, 2011 at 9:06
  • @mautrct: Neither the Board & Card Games site nor a future proposal would have Go-specific features. All the sites, with the exception of Area 51, use the exact same engine. So it is unlikely that any site will have go-specific features for the foreseeable future.
    – Mark Rogers
    Jun 15, 2011 at 14:09
  • 2
    @Mark Maths, Physics and some other sites have LaTeX math support, Guitars had some guitar tabs support. So there is a precedent for site-specific features. If there is a library with a useable license they might include it.
    – Mad Scientist
    Jun 16, 2011 at 13:46
  • @Fabian: I did not know that, thanks for the correction. Nonetheless, it's seems unlikely that a Go proposal is going to offer more than the Board & Card Games site does. The only reason I can think Board & Card Games may not work for Go, is simply because the name of Board & Card Games seems to be really unattractive to people for some reason.
    – Mark Rogers
    Jun 16, 2011 at 13:53
  • @Mark The different competitive board and card games like Chess, Go and Poker don't really have much in common. By grouping them all together you're just hiding the lack of critical mass. There's just not the overlap like in programming, combining them does not give a substantial advantage. And like you said, B&CG is difficult to sell, the game-specific sites have a marketing advantage.
    – Mad Scientist
    Jun 16, 2011 at 14:01
  • @Fabian: I gotcha, but the only logical conclusion to draw is to destroy the Board Game & Card site. Because if it can't attract Chess, Go, or Poker users, then it has no point. Except to serve obscure games that no one cares about. I think the BG&C site needs to be taken down, or unless it becomes successful, before the GO proposal should be created.
    – Mark Rogers
    Jun 16, 2011 at 14:09
  • @Fabian, I disagree: there is overlap in gaming just as there is in programming. It is possible to be an expert at only one game and to not play anything else at all, and that's fine; but there are also people who have a good deal of knowledge about many games. B&CG can serve both of those groups until there is critical mass for a specific game ... and those specific games could be working out problems that would make their own betas easier when (if) it gets to that point.
    – Dave DuPlantis
    Aug 31, 2011 at 14:06

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .