That's good to know - we'll make this optional

Cool.

The issue on KGS was that some/many people felt distracted by too much chatting/kibitzing during games. I am not talking about the players, but other kibitzers. I thought introducing tabs like that would have been a nice option, solving the problem. I have seen it on Nova and thought: sweet! This way the user has more flexibility, which is always a good thing.

Of course, making it optional, as you say, is even better.
Thanks.

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- Bantari
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WARNING: This post might contain Opinions!!

Another patch!

• Vacation time has been added for correspondence games
• Optional weekend pausing has been added for correspondence games
• Pause support has been added (either player can pause *and* either player can resume). Pause limits are in place to help prevent pausing when the other player doesn't agree to the pause.
• Every group now has a dedicated forum to make use of if they wish
• Private user to user "mail" has been added
• Lots of load time optimizations and performance improvements have been added to improve the speed of reviews and analysis in Firefox, IE, and mobile devices (chrome was already fast).
• Personal rank and rating history is now being stored and graphed, viewable under your profile page.

P.S. Sorry Bentari, we didn't get the optional spectator chat hiding feature yet, we'll try and get that in the next patch though

This is not exactly a bug, but I have had trouble with the interface on my phone. I don't play much on the phone since the screen is so small, but I will check in on games and try to reply if the move is clear. The problem I've had is that while scrolling down to hit "submit" the scrolling accidentally changes the move, and I don't always notice before getting to the submit button. I'm not sure what to suggest, other than a custom mobile interface. Maybe just an option to not have clicking on the board change a move after it is made? If I just had to click a "cancel move" button if the stone was in the wrong place, then I wouldn't move it by mistake while scrolling. Or maybe I should just stop trying to play via phone.

I've noticed that too.. I may have some ideas on how to debounce that input a bit, I'll see what we can do.

We do have an Android client in the works too though, which should help solve this kind of problem.

I'm glad to hear it is not just me. My experiences were on an old iPhone, so android is unlikely to help. The more I've thought about it, the more I think a custom mobile interface is the right path. You could disable submitting for a period after the move has changed, but then people would need to figure our why their submit wasn't going through rather than just assuming lag and clicking again. Alternatively, submit could assume any change in the last second was unintentional, but then what about people who are fast?

I mostly play correspondence speed games, so allowing automatic undos for 30 seconds after submitting would also solve my problem, but it has several technical complications ( what if the opponent has responded? etc )

Just notice there was another update last night. The two developers are not only technically competent but also very open to suggestions. I requested a number of features last week, at least two of them were already implemented. Really impressed.

I just looked at nova. Same as last time I checked, there was nobody playing a live game. I don't know how else to say this, but a lack of users isn't encouraging.

I also saw that macelee recently lost a game on time, seemingly due to a lack of byo warning system? (sorry if this is wrong, I'm just trying to understand the comments he and his opponent made). I guess maybe it still needs work?

The interface looks okay though. You fans out there, please let us know when there are people around.

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

Indeed, patch! This was was focused on refinement, tweaks, and little things (lots of them), mainly around the review system (we're very close to having all the features of KGS, plus features of our own that KGS doesn't have), and other general interface improvement.

@Bantari: We finally got around to adding back in the ability to hide spectator chat. It's not completely separate like it was before, they're still in the same log but you can toggle off or on the spectator chat if it's getting noisy. So a bit of a hybrid, we'll see how folks like it

Plenty of people for my liking, wineandgolover.

anoek, keep up the good work! As far as I'm concerned, you guys are doing everything right.

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"This is a game that rewards patience and balance. You must think like a man of action and act like a man of thought."
-Jonas Skarssen

While I’m also “guilty” of not being online often enough, the problem is really this:So, you and I and a few friends are both invited to a party, and you tell us, “please call me when the heat’s up, then I’ll also come”, leaving the “work” of heating up the stompin’ ground to us “fans”. I don’t intend to blame you, since I can sort of understand, but there is this dilemma, no?

Mh… and the folks who’ll have had the real fun are those who were there from the beginning. (Oh well, and perhaps also the disappointment, but I’d rather concentrate on hopes and wishes and fun and perhaps, if I can, on my own participation than on possible failure.)

Greetings, Tom

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“The only difference between me and a madman is that I’m not mad.” — Salvador Dali ★ Play a slooooow correspondence game with me on OGS?

I went to the party. Nobody was there. Don't blame me for leaving!

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

With the audio/visual warnings in byo-yomi (which are on the way) I think that Nova is not only a complete server but also the best one out there at this point in time.

The only thing besides some small tweaks is getting more users, but it is a new server and one cannot expect it to happen overnight. I'll stick around and more will to.

All in all a fantastic server, and I have managed to play pretty much every day sofar.

I don't think there's any blame going around. It's just an open invite.

Now they have included the audio and visual warnings in byo-yomi. Personally, I find it to be a fully playable and rather excellent server now.

Come join us. More and more games are being played.

I'll be doing blitz games all night tonight in about an hour. See you there.

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Sincerely, Chad R. Sobodash

Major feature and key improvement over KGS.

I have to say that while I really like nova, I'm put off by the landing page. The fact that open challenges are hidden behind a button is strange to me, and makes me feel a bit as if I'm alone on the server. While showing boards for currently played games is nice, it means that it's a very short list, and it's also hard to scan the information of who is playing.

I don't know what the interface should be: just copying KGS doesn't seem right, but I think I prefer that layout (players on the right, games on the left, a nice big list that I can scan).

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Occupy Babel!

Indeed hyperpape, the landing page does need a lot of work, especially as it relates to real-time players. We've got a number of ideas on how to improve it in that regard, so hopefully we'll be able to find some good solutions that you'll like in the nearish future Once we get them in we'd love your feedback on them, we'll post here when we have some of that in place

Oh, odds are I'll see them on nova before I see any posts here

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Occupy Babel!