Anyone know how long a ban lasts?

It's a completely arbitrary decision by the admin who banned you. Could be a few hours or it could be a few days. Just go start a game on Nova.gs and you'll soon find that KGS loses it's appeal.

Thanks -- havent tried nova.gs -- better than IGS?

It's better than any server out there. Just needs players and promotion. imo

Getting a bit off topic, but I view it the other way --
IGS is the best server out there, because it has lots of strong players and games ... now if only it had a great client ...

No one's going to suggest the OP try FlyOrDie?

I've heard very good things about IGS. The client seems a little weird, but I might just be used to KGS. I will say that once you are in the game, it looks very beautiful. There are plenty of players and they seem decent - at least as good as KGS players.

Nova confused me a bit because it has seamless support for both correspondence and live games. If you play both correspondence and live go this would be fantastic, but I only want to play live go. I might recommend Nova separate the two, but one of its primary features is this support for both. That's fine if its users want that - there should be a go server like this - but it has deterred me from using it. It also doesn't have that many users, but people on this forum that use Nova seem to really like it.

As for FlyOrDie... it's the worst go server on the Internet. If you don't care about quality of opponents, quality of the client, and don't care to have any idea what rank you are (they don't use any standard ranking system) then I would recommend FlyOrDie.

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"You have to walk before you can run. Black 1 was a walking move.
I blushed inwardly to recall the ignorant thoughts that had gone through
my mind before, when I had not realized the true worth of Black 1."
-Kageyama Toshiro on proper moves

Why do you even read the KGS forum?

A ban can range from 1second to 48hours, the duration is determined by how naughty you've been.

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North Lecale

Wouldn't this make Tygem the best server out there then?

I'm not so sure about that. From my experience Tygem or Wbaduk are great if you want to boost your ego ("wow, I'm only EGF 3kyu but I can easly beat 3dan here!"), but I found IGS much harder than T/WB at least in 2k/2d area.

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I'm a bit confused here. It doesn't matter what rank you are (until 9d) but you will reach a level where you're roughly 50/50 and Tygem will have many more players at that rank than IGS.

I'm not saying that is a great judge of best server, but I found it interesting that someone said IGS is the best server since it has more people when it's often not more than KGS is.

Because I am still a member of KGS and I have spent money on it in the past for KGS+ before I found better alternatives. This forum is for anyone, not just loyal fans of KGS.

But this is a KGS sub-forum, and your beating the drum for another server here seems out of place. It's like joining a beer forum to claim that beer tastes bad and is unhealthy.

Your other post in general go chat promoting Nova seems more appropriate.

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- Brady
Want to see videos of low-dan mistakes and what to learn from them? Brady's Blunders

Pshh... just the type of propaganda you'd expect from a self labeled wine lover! (=

No time to argue now. I'm headed to the Euston Tap to drink some nice pale ales.

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- Brady
Want to see videos of low-dan mistakes and what to learn from them? Brady's Blunders

Well, the topic is related to KGS, so I think that it's a stretch to say that it's not appropriate to post in the KGS forum. We could make separate forums for "pro-KGS comments" and "anti-KGS comments", but as there's only one section, I don't see a problem with posting about KGS... in the KGS forum.

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be immersed

Confirmed. IGS should have just "copied" CGoban and would have won one or the other KGS player. CGoban is just the reference for all clients and a reason why KGS is so successful.

You mean "so successful" in the English speaking world. Not exactly the most successful go server on the Asian markets.

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A blog on Asian go books, go sightings, and interesting tidbits
Go is such a beautiful game.

It's hard to tell sarcasm over the internet, but in case you're semi-serious...CGoban actually is an IGS client. It was frustration with the limitations of the IGS protocol at the time that was a driver for the making of what would become KGS (and its client CGoban2, then CGoban 3).

Ah, I didn't know that. My point is: CGoban 3 is just ways better than what IGS uses (panda2). And the reason that KGS is not so common in Asia is probably that it came too late where many players had already choosen Tygem or IGS. It's hard to make a player change "his" server. I'm at KGS since 2003 and will only change for severe reasons (that doesn't mean I'm mot watching or playing games on other servers once in a while).