Go chat server - anyone interested in the idea?

[oren]

Skype as far as I know doesn't allow constant groups, so it's not useful for this.

Having to install Second Life is a bit overkill for this.

[Bantari]

Skype as far as I know doesn't allow constant groups, so it's not useful for this.

Having to install Second Life is a bit overkill for this.

Well, one could argue that going to a club is overkill when you want to talk to a few friends and have a game.

As for Second Life:
It might be overkill, but it installs very easy and is cross-platform, which cannot be said of all the voice chat clients out there. It also provides some other advantages, like actually combining with a Go club - yes, you can play games while voice chatting, which is really cool for teaching, for example. Any voice chat clients can do that? It also provides many other things you can do (while chatting, or not) if you wish - which is really cool while you sitting there waiting for somebody to show up to play or chat with you.

And, I think most importantly - the infrastructure is already there, is free, widely available, and already maintained by somebody without the need for additional admins and/or services.

There are other venues like that as well out there, so I am not necessarily pushing for SL here.
The one thing that speaks in favor of SL is that there already exists a Go community there, although a small one.

But hey - if you wish to reinvent the wheel and get involved in creating and running yet another very important service - knock yourself out.

[rubin427]

I've been thinking about this idea for a long time. At least since May of this year (See previous post).

In the end, I honestly couldn't decide if it would be successful. So I finally decided to jump in and give it a try.

Um. How does it work?

Download and install the client software here:
http://www.teamspeak.com/
Be sure to grab "version 3 Client", since that's the server we are running.

There are some tutorials on the teamspeak page, but they are likely overkill.
To get up and running, you only really have to worry about a couple things.

1) You need a microphone. Possibly a headset. I mostly use the built in microphone on my laptop.

2) dig around in the settings until you find an area to configure "push-to-talk". You set up a key binding, like Ctrl-m (or anything you want). When you press this key combination, your microphone becomes active and transmits chat to the server for others to hear. You must hold down this key binding for as long as you are talking. Once you release the key binding, your microphone is muted. You do not need to change focus to the teamspeak application for this to work. You can stay in KGS, or IGS, or whatever you happen to be doing. When testing push-to-talk, you should hear your own voice in your headset speakers even if you are not connected to a server.

3) Try to connect, you should be prompted with a dialog that will let you enter server details.

4) Once you connect, users are divided into rooms, just like in KGS. you are in the Lobby right now. If you'd like to change rooms, there are a couple rooms set up for general use.

That's the quick and dirty intro.

(Second Life) is cross-platform, which cannot be said of all the voice chat clients out there.

Teamspeak 3 has official native clients for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. It is one of the major considerations I used when selecting it.

[rubin427]

This experiment has essentially been a complete failure.

It's possible that if I had put more effort into it, like possibly arranging a regular Tsumego study session, the results may have been different. But, probably not.

Hmm, onto the next idea...