I may make an account on the website "board game geek" (for fans of light war games like Settlers of Catan) to make some improvements and add content to their rather neglected page on Go. I don't know if the page gets any traffic, and if it does, how many of the visitors might actually experiment with go if there were more useful information, but it's worth a shot.

Anyway, one of the first things I will suggest changing if I do make an account is the default photograph of the game, which you can see here: http://boardgamegeek.com/image/38998/go --- You can see why they chose that picture. The slate and shell are pretty, the camera was nice (or at least the lighting was good), everything is shiny... but it's so irritating to look at that inexplicable empty triangle! If anyone can suggest an equally pretty photograph depicting a higher level of play, I would appreciate it.

(Also appreciated: an explanation that this is really a high level empty triangle suji which I am too weak to properly understand.)

Something which shows a whole board game, with multiple groups fighting and interlocking in a way which is so complex and confusing, but intriguing at the same time. Where (as a beginner) you don't understand it, but want to understand it. Of course, it presents itself almost like another language, because people familiar with the game will be able to understand the position with relative ease.

I don't have any specific suggestions, just vague ideas, I guess.

While I'm at it I want to post a link to this photo, which is ridiculously hard to find on the Internet;

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=3712&view=previous



Maybe your idea would be better, annihilist, but you know how it goes... I'd rather propose that they use a picture similar in concept but better in one crucial aspect, than try to change everything all at once.

I have a BGG account, as do other members of L19. They're free, and registering is pretty easy.
Have you looked through the game's photo gallery there?
A lot of good pictures.
If you find one you like more, let me know. There's usually a link on each image there to propose making it the representative image. However, if the request is denied, you can't propose it again ever, if I remember correctly.
With a game as old in the database as Go, others might be used to the current image, so I'd pick a really good one, and have a good reasoning as to why it should be the representative image.
It's easier to have it accepted after that, I think.

Or, if you can take a better picture, you can always upload it to the game gallery, and then do the process above.
I'm Phelanpt there. Let me know if you need help.

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a1h1 [1d]: You just need to curse the gods and defend.
Good Go = Shape.
Associação Portuguesa de Go

Here's the BGG Wiki page for "representative image".
On other games, there's a lot of discussion on whether to have the game or the box as representative, but in Go's case, a commercial box would not make sense as representative.
The image, to be picked, has to work as a thumbnail, and in several sizes, and still be recognizable.
Examples of the various sizes:





You don't need to upload the various sizes, the BGG software resizes it internally.

_________________
a1h1 [1d]: You just need to curse the gods and defend.
Good Go = Shape.
Associação Portuguesa de Go

By the way, forgot to answer this part of the post.
It's not really just for fans of "light war games", a definition where I definitely would not include Settlers of Catan in.
It's for fans of Board Games in general. And when I say in general, it's a pretty general general, since it includes the most simple dexterity games to card games, to strategy games like Go, to wargames with maps that span almost a whole room.
It's pretty comprehensive, and inclusive.

The page does get some traffic, yes, but not as much as other more recently popular games. Go is at 48 in the overall ranking, and is linked from a lot of parts of the site, as a classic reference, among other things.

There's people posting on the Go subforum there, but not as much as here. I try to answer questions whenever I see them, as do others (wms among them).

What do you mean by more useful info? The info on the main page can always be improved(I just reordered the links for the game servers, there was a weird one on top), so ideas are welcome.

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a1h1 [1d]: You just need to curse the gods and defend.
Good Go = Shape.
Associação Portuguesa de Go

Yes, I plan to respond to your helpful posts at greater length when I have a bit more time, but: I was originally starting with "light games" then added several other genres that really aren't light because I'm compulsive like that, and then deleted everything because those sorts of exhaustive lists bore everyone else, and somehow ended up with "light war games".

More people would be attracted if one of the players was a nice looking girl.

This is the strategy used by every electronic device or new automobile.

There are a lot of professionally photographed images of interesting positions on our site. For example here (click on the pictures, they get bigger).

We have copies of all of these pictures in much higher quality than the ones we put on the web, so if you see something you'd like to use, let me know and I'll email you the (uncompressed) hi-res version.

The same deal for pictures of pros playing Go if someone wants pictures of that instead.

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David

Go Game Guru: Learn Go | How to Get Better at Go | Go Game Shop | Go Boards | Baduk TV

I think a game position would be better welcomed as representative image, as the focus on that one should be the game, not the people.

However, adding good photos of professionals playing (or other good images of Go) to the game's image gallery might be interesting.

I can add suggestions people make to this thread, as long as they have the rights to share the photo there, or can get permission. Or people can just create an account there, and add them themselves, it's pretty easy!

Like I said, if you need help with anything BGG related, let me know, and I'll help to the best of my ability.

_________________
a1h1 [1d]: You just need to curse the gods and defend.
Good Go = Shape.
Associação Portuguesa de Go

This is the people part of the gallery, ordered by how much users like the photos. Some nice looking girls there already.

_________________
a1h1 [1d]: You just need to curse the gods and defend.
Good Go = Shape.
Associação Portuguesa de Go

Two ideas:

1. A picture of the Yugen no Ma in the Nihon Ki-in showing the esthetic environment, with an interesting position on the board, but no people. This would convey the idea that go is something beautiful.

2. A picture of two people, preferably a male and a female, playing a game with a crowd of onlookers around them. This would give the idea that go is something people can be very interested in.

So first, to Phelan, thanks for cleaning up the links. That was probably the main thing on the front page that I thought would make it difficult for people to figure out how to get into Go. What do you think the attitude would be towards the following changes to the front page? (i) Removing the name of the "artist", Nestor Romeral Andres, who surely played no role in designing Go; (ii) Lowering the number of "Alternate names", which mixes different CJK names for go, different transliterations of those names, brand names under which Go is sold, and names of Go variants; (iii) To be minimalist, the only change to "Description" I would make is correct the reference to "The earliest mention of Go," since the game is called Yi in the Analects, not weiqi; (iv) "Playing time" seems to me to be inaccurate, since the majority of games of Go probably last 20 minutes (i.e., blitz games), and games on smaller boards are possible. I wasn't sure what the best way to communicate that would be - a range ("Five minutes to three days") seems unhelpful, whereas multiple caveats seems too complex.

Other than that, I was planning to post some FAQ in the forums, and maybe submit a geeklist suggesting affinities between what people might like about other games, and what they might find in Go. It makes perfect sense that the most popular games on BGG don't have nearly as much useful information in their forums as games that are only popular by the standards of BGG. You or I know that the best places to get information about Go are Sensei's, L19, or in the KGS chat. For the majority of recently published games, BGG is the most widely-trafficked forum available. But people who are used to finding casual or not-so-casual games to play by browsing BGG (is that 10 people? 1000 people? I don't know!) don't magically know that if they are curious about how to play Go, the material available on that page is only 0.001% of what is available on the internet. So I think a how-to FAQ for total noobs, a basic strategy FAQ for beginners, and maybe a "so you want to be a go geek" FAQ to start to reveal more complex questions.

I agree with Phelan that a zoomed-in mid-game photograph of a board position with nice stones would be the best bet in terms of successfully replacing the photograph. To people who play go it looks a bit silly, whereas people who *don't* play go are learning to associate it with the empty triangle. But I appreciate the other suggestions.

I think the most reasonable is (though 10 minutes is on a 9x9 board)
Game time: 10 - 90 minutes
Game time: 10 (small board) - 90 minutes

For most people playing from BGG, this will be an appropriate range.

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Founder, Central Mississippi Go Club
Free tips and resources for clubs and teaching
Go Kit Club Pack - pack of 13x13 go sets for clubs
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I took this shot a while back, if it's of any interest: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rifqidahlg ... hotostream

It's published under a creative commons licens so feel free to use it (or not) in any way you like.

I'd just like to resurrect this thread to say that the representative image for Go has been changed on BGG, after the matter was brought up to the admins.
This is now the new image:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/1728832/go

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a1h1 [1d]: You just need to curse the gods and defend.
Good Go = Shape.
Associação Portuguesa de Go

For a long time, Go used to be the top rated game on boardgamegeek.

I think this has been a long long time ago, no? How long was it, and where did you see those numbers?

Because I've always saw Go in the general rating outside of the top 10.
The best rated games there are usually euro-style games, with more mechanics than theme, and some american-style games, with more theme than mechanics.

I don't think I've seen abstracts higher than 11 on the ratings list. From the comments I've seen in the ratings, most people don't get as invested into Go either due to the lack of theme, or when they realize the time investment necessary to improve to higher levels.

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a1h1 [1d]: You just need to curse the gods and defend.
Good Go = Shape.
Associação Portuguesa de Go