When there's a single name on the DNS record, and one person actually doing the payment for the server, as opposed to an organization, they can always take their ball and go home, if they so decide.

I don't think that the forum is very interesting for most go players. Professionals tend to use other outlets to engage the community. You can find some very nice reviews by Catalin Taranu on his new youtube channel - perhaps they are intended as a taster for his pay per view site , perhaps not. I think that it is fair to say that Guo Juan led the field in audio engagement on the internet. Go servers still tend to be the main market stall. It might be accurate to say that the french and german federations act as market stalls for their pros.

What is worrying, from a wider context, is that the overall population of players is dwindling.

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North Lecale

Somehow I missed this post.
But when I read it, it was like "Yeah, spot on!"
Excellent point, fully agree.

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- Bantari
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WARNING: This post might contain Opinions!!

Who is John complaining about? Those people already with professional status in Europe? I think Dinerstein does a perfectly good job of promoting himself and doesn't lack for work, similarly with Guo Juan. Taranu I know less about, but I got the idea he did a lot in Romania, and also decided Go wasn't the purpose of his life. Or perhaps the new AGA pros (Andy Liu and Gansheng Shi)? I believe they are focusing on their university education which seems an eminently sensible thing to do. Or those (mostly young) people aspiring to be the new Euro pros (e.g. Zeno van Ditzhuijzen) or studying in Asia (e.g. Mateusz Surma)?

As much as we all love the sound of our own voices so it seems quite busy here on L19, we are actually quite a small community and a tiny fraction of Western Go players so if you want to advertise teaching, I think promoting on a server like KGS (as Gansheng Shi did a little a while ago) or IGS (as Cornel Burzo who's not even pro does) is probably more effective. Heck, I even got quite a few requests from people for teaching without ever advertising just by being highly ranked on OGS. And there's national Go associations (some even have their own forums too). Of course promoting through many channels is a good idea.

Lol.
We all like the sound of our voices, don't we?

But seriously...
We are a small and struggling community, true, but we can grow and a more active involvement of the existing pros or potential pros can contribute to that greatly. In their capacity as teachers or simply contributors.

As it is, the way I see it, the times when we see any of them post is often when they want to sound the community's reaction to increasing top prizes or something like that, which apparently is enough of a motivation to find this group and write something. It would be nice if the range of topics was wider, even regular contributions maybe. Or is that too much to ask?

It might also create a secondary (or even primary) channel of information and advertising for them, rather than relying on singular servers. And I don't necessarily mean advertisement in the sense of ads which are currently being blocked, but in the sense of 'brand making'. When many people know you from L19 as a nice and reasonable person, who is making nice and reasonable posts, and who involves him/herself with this community, you might bet more students than an unknown teacher.

This forum has potential to reach a much wider audience than national forum or a singular server.
And you have an opportunity to showcase yourself much better than by a short ad on IGS.

Come to think of it, many of the asian pros and organizations profess their undying dedication to popularizing Go in the West. Well, why not then get some pros to start posting here. Can you imagine how much different it would be if we had a few pros contributing, answering questions, analyzing games, or just regularly posting their opinions in here? It might not be a second HnG effect, but it might be close. I think it would do wonders to the community and to Go in the West in general.

However - they do what is best for them, and that's that. What do I know...
Just tossing ideas around. Feel free to disagree.

PS>
I have no clue what John is complaining about, but what I wrote about is part of what I got from his post.
Or at least - this is what resonated with me when I read it. Hope this answers your questions.

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- Bantari
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WARNING: This post might contain Opinions!!

What I would be most interested in is workshops. Similar to what Nick Sibicky does or what I see on the Go Congress videos. Private lessons are expensive and I think I'm way too weak to profit from them. Go camps are even more expensive and require even more time and dedication.
Workshops on the other hand are lighthearted, fun, less expensive and they could build the community too. Later some of the attendees would probably ask for a private lesson. I for one would much rather learn from someone I knew.

I don't know much about go clubs but I suppose go club life is dry in the western world. But if go clubs were hosting pro workshops / game reviews I think they would be more attractive.

I don't think the western part of the world could provide a living for go professionals the way it does in the oriental part of the world.

I feel a little bad about pointing this (since I work on their PR, so I'll also add other options for your consideration) but the NGA Summer Camp is very cheap (the flight would be the problem, specially if you are not in Europe) and the NGA monthly lessons are also very, very affordable. For extra 10€ you also get monthly coaching sessions by one of the 6d (Su Yang.) For comparison, In-seong's lessons are more expensive, but also within reach of a player with some money to spend in Go, and last year there were plenty of other summer camps at very good prices (I remember seeing one in Lithuania, I think, and another one in Romania, in addition to where I was in Finland.)

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Geek of all trades, master of none: the motto for my blog mostlymaths.net

Don't worry I'm very uninformed about such opportunities and I'm glad that you mentioned that camp.
The price is very affordable though the flight alone would cost more despite that I'm living in Europe.

But my point was that since I have family I'd rather spend my summer vacation with my wife and kids. Plus I'm not sure how I'd like to play GO night and day for several days since I only ever play on the net at nights. Same about pro lessons: if I had more energy/dedication to learn I think I could improve a lot more before I felt the need of buying pro lessons. Likewise: I can't buy improvement with money, I'd need to work hard for which I feel I lack the energy.

I don't go to GO clubs because it would again take away time from my family. And I can play form home on the net at night when my kids are already asleep. So it's easier and more efficient for me that way.

But if clubs would feature workshops I think it could be something to lure me there. If there are others like me, it could perhaps be a viable idea.

There's also the Polish Summer Go Camp which is great fun and hilariously cheap (£250 for 2 weeks accommodation and food iirc). It's not just Go players, families go too for the countryside, lake, horseriding, other games and sports etc.

It seems the scheme is now outlined in the eurogofed website

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North Lecale