KGS Wishlist / Social

Sub-page of KGSWishlist

1. Social

Preface

Lists related topics (buddies, observers, games, rooms etc. - most of them) moved to KGS Wishlist / Lists

Chat related topics (most of them) moved to KGS Wishlist / Chat

Here we collect ideas for improvements and feature requests concerning the KGS social idea.

If you are new to KGS:

If you just used KGS for the first time, these wishlist pages may be quite confusing to you. Your experience, however, is very valuable and you can help to improve KGS by adding it to KGS First Time User Experience.

Table of contents


Unsorted ideas and requests


[11] Logging In

Switch between different identities

  • On the login window, being able to switch between different identities without retyping username and password (using a scroll list, or some icons like a WinXP login ?).+++++.

Show "login since:" plus time of login

  • When logging in, show "login since:" plus time of login (instead of showing "now"); when logged out, show "logged out since:" plus logout time.

Keyboard focus should be in the password entry box

  • On the KGS: Log In window, the keyboard focus should be in the password entry box instead of at the end of the username. +

New users could already have the Beginner's Room open

  • Upon logging in, all new users could already have the Beginner's Room open in a tab. That way, instead of being directed through the rooms menu, they could be instructed simply to tab over to get started. For those new players who are not beginners, they could simply close the tab, or keep it open and be encouraged to tutor weaker players.++

Room for all the advertisings

  • Why not having a room for all the advertisings? (Tournament, new rooms, lessons) or any area to do it. Instead of polluting rooms and always reminding for : "one ad per day".

[12] General User Handling

Chat text: option to turn auto-scroll off (and turn on)

  • Add an option where you can turn off (and turn on) Auto Scroll so you don't have to worry about flooding and just look at comments and stuff at leisure.

Lesson, teaching game: teachers can ban a person, which disturbs a lesson

  • Maybe there should be a way for teachers to ban persons which disturb a lesson from that specific lesson (because sometimes there are to many persons to allow them one by one to talk in the silent mode)+++

Open games list: "view user info" in context menu

  • Possibility to see the user info directly from the open games list (with one click of course)+++

User icon for teacher accounts

  • Please add an user icon for teacher accounts

Option to "hide opponents picture"

  • please add the "hide opponents picture" feature for the KGS client +
    • RueLue: opponent's picture or opponents pictures?

Store your own personal notes about players

  • Being able to store your own personal notes about players. Stored locally, and kept private, just as a way to remember who's who. Not a public database (this may be illegal in some countries). Suggested that these notes be stored on the user's machine, not on the server +++++-+
    • ProtoDeuteric: You can do this just with whatever word processing programs you already have on your computer, even if you just use Notepad (for Windows) (I don't know the "Notepad" equivalent for Mac).

separate language from locale in the user preferences

  • Gresil: Please separate language from locale in the user preferences. I'm Finnish, but am uncomfortable using translated applications and much prefer to use English. In 2.6.5 it seems that setting English as the language causes things like the showing of dates in the perennially weird month-day-year format. A bit of a tomayto-tomarto problem, yes, but still it would be a nice improvement. +

Context menu on names in chat window

  • Context menu on right-click of handle in chat window. ++++
    • Also suggested upon right clicking anywhere on the chat. ++
    • This menu could also be present in the game chat window and should include options to ignore the user permanently or for this game only. This would be very useful in games with a large number of observers, so you wouldn't have to find the user in the observer list first.-

Short user-defined messages, when private chat initiated

  • Short user-defined messages when private chat initiated, brb, afk, out to lunch.... ++++++++

Rooms: buddies games tab (like fan tab)

  • Buddy Games option in Rooms menu (like Fan Games). +?

Chat: IRC style slash commands

  • Some IRC style slash commands? eg: /who <nick> faster than going through menus ++ + -

Game window: statistic of games previously played against this opponent

  • When playing a game, be able to pull up a summary list of games that have previously been played by yourself and that user. ++

More personal "nick groups"

  • blubb: More than two personal "nick groups" (I think of something like the "buddy" and "censored" list are already), and make their properties configurable. To which group a player belongs could be displayed by toggable icons attached to his/her nick. There should be a way to sort players by these icons. E. g., there are people I don't like to play with again, but whom I still want to be able to chat with, which is why itīs not appropriate to censor them.++

Categorize buddies, allow aliases for names

  • Jade: Ability to categorize buddies and give buddy nicks aliases (a la Gaim and such)

User status: give yourself a status.. like 'Away', 'Busy', etc..

  • Please add IRC style "/away" feature so if mark myself away, i will not be logged off when 30 (is it 30 min?) has passed.+
  • I think it would be nice if you can give yourself a status.. like 'Away', 'Busy', etc.. which would appear in a private chat next to your name (same place were 'Playing a game' is.) Shouldn't be very difficult to implement I guess.

Window management: tile windows and other window handling options

  • Okay my request has nothing to do with all of this off the wall discussion unfortunately. I would simply like a tile window and other window handling options in the windows menu. Perhaps if it's not too much we could get it to save the current window arrangement as well.
    A note to the other posters that have posted regarding request. This is a real feature request Bitching about whether your client installs with a label on it as the US client or not isn't a request it is simply winning.

Invite option (only for teachers?)

  • Invite option. My Friend Fox has a teaching account and loaded a game of mine for review. It took me a little while to find it among all the active games in english room. I'm sure i'm not the first person to search for a game in a populated room. My friend Fox suggested that there be some sort of invite button or other feature that would allow the teacher to invite the player to join the Demonstration rather than the teacher giving directions on how to find the demonstration game. I think this would or could have potential for abuse so maybe only available to teacher accounts.++

Manage a contact list (only for teachers?)

  • While on the same track as the previous suggestion perhaps a method for teachers or those with teacher accounts could have a way to manage a contact list of students or other teachers. This could be used to broadcast messages to the students in a certain category. As with the previous suggestion this has great potential for abuse.++++

Chat: click on name or text highlights the name in the user list

  • A feature to click on someone's name in a room's chat window (beside their comment) and it highlights their name in the user list would be nice. This way it would be possible to more easily look up people who make comments in the chat room - especially if, like me, people have the English Game Room for example, sorted by rank instead of name. This would not only make the rank of the player easier to find, but also look up their past/present games if they ask for a review.

Login: popup "OK to stay connected", there could be a disconnect button

  • When the client has been inactive for a while a message pops up telling you that and that you should click OK to stay connected. When I'm busy using my machine for something else and this pops up I don't want to interrupt what I'm doing to switch to the client and quit it - instead there could/should be a Disconnect button on this pop up message as well as the Ok button to allow me to immediately disconnect and close the client. asbo?

Rooms window: a tab that displays all 7d-9d games of the last 24hrs

  • Bonklers: I hope this suggestion is in the right place. I think it would be great to have a new tab that displays all 7d-9d games that have occurred in the last 24hrs.++

Rooms window: a tab for finished games

  • Bonklers: I've been logging onto the english game room 2 to reduce lag, but i find myself going back to the english game room to check out the latest 8d or 9d games that have recently been played and are currently at the bottom of the screen as "grey" games. It would be nice to have a new "grey games" tab, next to the "active games" tab and "open games" tab. I would then continue going to EGR2 without missing EGR. thanks.

Game auction

  • Toosexy: Pro game auction.
    - The idea is that you allow KGS users to purchase a block of $2 bids via paypal from KGS for a certain account name. At any time the player can offer a bid in the English game room. The total bids are displayed in the upper part of the interface. Certified professional players will have another button labled 'accept bid'. When they feel the total amount bid is worth their time they click accept bid and as soon as another player also accepts they are randomly assigned colors and begin a game at a fairly slow time control.
    1. Only one bid per account at a time
    2. Bids last ten minutes. If no game is started the bid is cancelled
    3. Winner is immediately paid 63% of the total bid by KGS. The loser receives 30%, KGS gets 5% and the remaining 2% goes into a pot for the highest money winning pro of the month.
    4. Only certified pro accounts allowed. I thought first about 9d too, but that would open up a can of worms with people making 9d accounts and giving/selling them to friends who are maybe a few stones less but could still play a credible game against a pro.
    5. If the system is well supported I think KGS runs the table on pros just hanging out on go servers. If they know they could make potentially hundreds of dollars per day just playing online then why go anywhere else?
    6. We win because we get to have many pro games to watch all for just $2 per game
    7. What do you think?

Private chat: button opens an ongoing game directly

  • wayward People often want to open the game played by someone. There are two ways to do it, neither of them very convenient: either sort the game list in the room where the game is being played (provided we know which room it is), or open private chat with the user, click on their Info, Game tab, then on the game. The other way is simpler in that it requires linear processing (i.e. the task can be performed with little or no searching). A convenient way to do that would be to have a button in the private chat title (next to or embedded in the "(Playing a game)" message) which opens the game directly.
  • ukiyo? Very often I want to contact a buddy whose id I see in a room's user list. When the chat window comes up and I see he is playing, I think it is better to join the game rather than interrupt. This means I have to go back, click View Info, select Games, and select the current game to join it.
    Instead of this, I would like to have a menu option like this: After clicking on the user id, a menu option Join Game is made available if the most recent game's window is active *and* that user is present. Join Game functions like the existing menu item that exists elsewhere.

Message window: reply button

  • backpacker? : Please provide a reply button when you read a message sent to you

ex [13] Chat (part moved to page KGS Wishlist / Chat

Room: separate the games list from the chat

  • Since you are already considering having the game list between the two english rooms shared, maybe also think of doing the extra step and doing something of a decoupling of the game list and the chat function (each game list would by default be docked to a particular chat window, but we could also decide who goes with what, and have for instance a french chat window open while also watching the open games list at the same time on the same screen.

Room: Semi-public, the room owner can exclude people individually

  • Hu: Semi-public rooms that anyone can join, but the room owner can exclude people individually. +++
    • RueLue: This could be possible by any room owner / game window owner. The other way would be to disallow chat to unwanted / loud persons. This way a teacher could restrict the chat to game related.

Preferences: change chat bell, volume control

  • Less annoying chat bell. Ability to set a user-defined wav/mps file for this; volume control.+++++++

Preferences: option to have the bell ring only once per chat tab

  • blubb: I'd really like an option to have the bell ring only once per chatting partner - until it gets re-enabled by me looking into that particular chat. Currently, frequent typers can make the alarm really annoying, whilst switching it off misses too much. +?
    • A customizable bell sound would be really nice as well

Rooms window: tabbed boards

  • Tabbed boards, inserted alongside room tabs +
    • This makes so much sense. I love it.

Preferences: block private chats, while playing

  • Preference setting to block private chats while you're playing a game. ++ - If this is implemented, do we take it off the wishlist? I think so.
    • RueLue: not really implemented: now you begin your game and decide to toggle-chat-off, go back to the rooms window, open the user menu, check "No chats" and go back to your game. If it is a blitz game, you have already lost by time. If you don't like hundreds of settings (wms doesn't either), you need a fast switch, possibly in the game options, or directly as button; this could toggle chat off until the game ended.

Game window: resize chat window

  • Ability to resize chat window. perhaps better to be able to size it within a range the user prefers. wms says the size of the chat window is dictated by the size of the other elements, and that there's no reason to shrink the chat window (can't be bigger).

Nick autocompletion

  • Nick autocompletion (tab completion of nicknames, like in IRC clients) ++++

Rooms window: manual ordering of tabs, tab order

  • Optimize tab order to minimize rows of tabs; allow manual ordering of tabs. ++

Rooms window: color codes for chat tabs

  • A simple way to implement a buddy 'pounce' would be to color code the chat tabs with a light-ish color that signifies 'online'. This would mean three total colors, grey, 'blue' for new text, and probably a very light blue for 'available'. This way you could leave chat open with all your friends, and see who's online by scanning colors. (not sure what this means, not summarized in WME...help.)
    • RueLue: for convenience: the tabs should be already open, when you login

Room: see room owner

  • mgoetze: Ability to see who is the owner of a room.
    • ProtoDeuteric: Are you sure that you don't mean "owner of a game"? If that is the case, then ...+
      • RueLue: It's like he writes: behind the room name is enough place to write the name(s) of the room owner(s) - bold, if (s)he's there, e.g.
        Annecy Go Club (Celila, it, mgoetze, ...)
        ... and when you click on it, it opens a chat tab or a message window ...

Rooms window: see joins/quits in selected rooms.

  • Option to see joins/quits in selected chat rooms.

Query server for a name

  • When trying to find a user - ability to query server for a name that start with "XYZ" and who is a stronger then Ak and weaker than Bk. Ability to recognize wildcards like "*"
    • I love it! Then we can search for the smallest free number of our favourite nicknames ... and maybe someone registers Hikaru13 just because it wasn't taken +

User lists: resize the players list

  • epilogue be able to resize the players list (as you can the chat window). this would permit users of low res screens to tailor the cgoban2 to their limited real estate.

Demo, teaching game: toggle kibitz (on/off)

  • Semi-private teaching games.
    • As I watched a teaching game between a 3P and a 4D, I couldn't help but notice that no one would shut up. I would like to see semi-private teaching games that work the same way ranked and free games work, where the players can't see what the observers are saying. The only difference would be that they would never see anything the observers said, even after the game was over. This would give the teacher and the student a chance to review the game and not be bothered by peoples comments, without having to go to the other extreme of a private game.
    • wms: Already there. In a teaching game, the teacher has a "quiet" checkbox in their editing tools; if they click the checkbox, then only they can talk. Then they can right-click on any name in the game list, select "Grant access", and that person can talk too. So, in any teaching game, the teacher can shut off all chatter any time they want, then selectively turn on chats from individual users. As a side note, a further improvement of this system is coming in release 2.5.8.
      • Karl Knechtel: That's completely different, though. The ability should be there for kibitzers to kibitz; but there should also be the ability for kibitzers - and players - to ignore all the kibitz.
    • impu1se: I've noticed lately that a lot of the chatter during lectures with a large class is irrelevant and distracting to the teacher. People can be prevented from making comments but then the teacher has the burden of dealing with them. Could there be a mode to separate making comments to the teacher and making chatter between classmates? General chatter could show up in a lighter gray font. Along these lines it would be nice if teacher comments were darker, if not bold.
    • IMHO both are great ideas and I don't really care about its implementation (separate panel or some intuitive color coding).
    • Please make this high priority on your list.
    • + I think separate panels would work better, though.

Rooms list: search function

  • Conan: search function in rooms. the not 100% clear classification and the number of rooms makes it hard to find them (i read it twice, once looking for dutch windmill, when it was THE dutch windmill)+
    sigue?: To be more specific, I would like to be able to search in the Rooms List window. It would probably be sufficient to have a text entry line and have the rooms list trimmed to only show rooms that match what is typed there (updated as you type).

Library function, like translate command in igs

  • Conan: some kind of library, like trans function in igs, for foreign Go Terms.
    1. I am tired of "what is kikashi". It would be cool if they could write it and it gives a def, or directly goes to the definition in senseis.+
    2. If that is not comfortable (it wouldn't be for me) kgs could have a glossary, for the which i could find a well defined one.+
    3. An option to turn on floating popups with mouseover Japanese (and other languages) Go terms which tells you their definition would be a very nice way of implementing a glossary. +Zacrias
    4. Or, basically make the chat wiki-like; if you type anything in square brackets, it's made a link to SL. This has actually been implemented on several Czech (non-wiki) discussion servers I have been visiting in the past, with some success. + +

Room for audio demonstrations

  • one extra room (just) for audio voice demonstrations, independent of the language

Info alert: subscribe to room messages in individual rooms

  • Sebastian: Room Alerts: Allow users to subscribe to alerts in individual rooms. When another user enters text that starts with an "!" every subscriber gets an alarm (similar to the individual chat ring). This should address KOCMOC's rengo wish and be useful for many more people, so it should have a bigger chance of being implemented.

Login / join room: display last 10 alerts

  • Sebastian: Addition: Display last 10 alerts when a user joins a room. +?
    • RueLue: and last, say, 10 chat lines + + +?

Preferences: audio warning only on new private conversations

  • Maaaarius?: It's great to get a audio warning when a private conversation is started because normally I would never notice such a private conversation. But there is one problem with this warning. As long as I stay in the chat window it's ok, but as fast as I browse the web or do something else, the audio warning beeps every time the other person writes something. This can be very very annoying. Would it be possible to have a warning option like "audio warning only on new private conversations"? Just one beep when a new conversation is started, and that there will be no more beeping during that conversation (if not new conversations are started).

Preferences: Custom graphics etc.

  • Taurus?: Custom graphics - ie. font, font color, background image, stones textures or skins in general.

Rooms list: rooms can appear in multiple categories

  • louisg1?: the ability for rooms to appear in multiple categories.

First login: option to select starting room

  • tapir: Maybe it is too much to ask, but maybe it can helpful to some people if they get an option to choose a starting room when logging in for the first time. Maybe offer only beginner room and main rooms for starters.

[14] Handling Nasties

Escapers

Please go to KGS Issue - Escapers instead of cluttering up the Wishlist.

  • There is already a system in place to deal with escapers - if someone has a too high proportion of escaped rated games, their old games get forfeited. Anything beyond this is unlikely to happen because (1) wms does not want to burden admins/assistants with unnecessary tasks (since there is already an automated system) and (2) people should not be forced to play games they do not want to play. If you feel a really urgent need to talk about this, please go to KGS Issue - Escapers instead of cluttering up the Wishlist.

Other Nasties

tags: Warning, if the user is close to being marked with a ~

  • Display a warning if the user is close to (1 game away?) being marked with a ~. Players coming from other servers or new to KGS have no idea that they should play weaker players and its being enforced on KGS.

tags: for guests and possible escapers; autodetect sandbaggers

  • Tags for guests and people with a lot of unfinished games. Autodetect of sandbaggers somehow.+-
    • LithiumTwo: The only way a sandbagger could be judged as such is by a human - so an automated system probably isn't possible, but I think assistants and admins, if notified could probably do something. However, I don't know what could be useful against sandbaggers other than boosting their rank - but as the rank system (as of v3.0.0) is entirely separate from the rest of the server I don't see how this could be done. Tis a tricky issue.
    • Most importantly, differentiate people who lose rank from escaping from people who choose not to be ranked. -
      • LithiumTwo: In what way?
        • Why can't sandbaggers be detected? Maybe not all, but it seems there ought to be some statistics on game results that would at least produce a list of potential candidates. Evaluate these for the kgs population, then use a hypotheses test approach to identify the most suspicious playing histories.

tags: Better system to encourage playing of ? ranked accounts

  • Better system to encourage playing of ? ranked accounts. May not be an issue but I'm seeing a lot of "No ?" in the game requests.
    • (Sebastian:) IMHO the worst experiences are with guests, because guest accounts are perfect for rude people. Many players want to avoid bad experiences, and therefore they just don't play anyone marked "?". The proposed "G" mark [2501] could help here and encourage people to switch from guest accounts to permanent accounts.Conversely, the current stigma on "?" accounts forces people to play rated 19x19 games (even if they would prefer to play small games, e.g. because they are beginners).

Ignore list: "Noplay" option separate from censor option

  • Noplay option separate from censor option.+-
    • LithiumTwo This is nice, but I think the complication it would cause to new users outweighs the gain (I only censor escapers, but I don't want to speak to them either).
    • Karl Knechtel This is a duplicate of the idea in the previous section. :/

Chat: don't allow guests to chat/option to censor all guests

  • Don't allow guests to chat/option to censor all guests. wms is dead set against the former option, and may be against the latter as well. - -?
    • LithiumTwo: Awful idea. You don't even need to say wms is against it, I can't imagine the logic that would be for it - it's horrible! Name one good reason? Just one? What do you have against guests? May I remind you that you were a guest once
      • Karl Knechtel: Simple: guests don't have the kind of accountability that's associated with a login - the same reason we're all putting our names (real or otherwise) to comments on this wiki page. You don't need to be heard by ordinary users in order to register.
    • impu1se: Would it be possible to add this as a sort of advanced option to the censor / buddy lists using regular expressions. If the user's rank is appended to their name for the purposes of matching a regular expression in the list something like "*\[\]" would match all guests and "*\[[^d]*?\]" would censor all non-dans. Or you could use hikaru* to add all 10,000 hikarus to your buddy list.
  • zinger: I would dearly love the ability to censor guests. Currently this appears impossible. There seems to be nothing stopping guests from flooding in-game chat with annoying nonsense. (moved from unsorted)
    • Dave: Censoring guests is possible but smart guests just log in and out to get past the censor.
  • kaleido?: Preventing guests from chatting or having a culture of censoring them gives a terrible first impression to someone who is visiting KGS for the first time, and I haven't seen evidence that guests are more of an issue in the main chat rooms than registered users. New users are likely to have questions about how to get started or how to use the app when they start as guests, and it's beneficial for more people to see their posts so someone can help them out.

Allow unfinished free games to be cancelled if someone leaves

  • Allow unfinished free games to be cancelled if someone leaves. Possibly any other non-rated games as well. +++++ +?
    • LithiumTwo: I'd prefer an option to allow to resign any unfinished game without resuming it (especially for free games).
      • Tapir: You have the option to resign a free game already. (Was it ever different?)

Ability to ping users

  • Ability to ping users to see if someone has network problems or is just not responding.+++

Ignore list: I don't want them talk in my games, observe my games, ...

  • Ban people I've censored from talking in my games at all. This way when I go back and read later I won't have to read irritating comments from irritating people.
    • LithiumTwo How about it banning them from even observing your games - I find it off putting sometimes when playing depending on who is there.
      • Furthermore, it would prevent some cheating (observers giving advice to the opponent, telling the score estimate...), in rated games at least.
    • ukiyo? Censored users should not be allowed any form of contact. This should include sending private messages; for example, imagine my surprise when I logged in and a harassing message from a user I recently censored was the first thing I saw. This should also extend to prohibiting them from even observing a game one is playing. The very presence of their username in the list is a form of harassment. By doing this, the problem of comments or kibitzing is eliminated. (v. 3.4.1)
    • ukiyo? Furthermore, the red "X" indicator should be displayed in all game lists. I don't remember the usernames of all the idiots I've encountered and have made the occasional mistake of clicking on a game offer by a censored user. (v. 3.4.1) +
      • RueLue: the red "X" is shown in the "new game" window (v.3.4.5)
      • ukiyo? Once I have been pushed to the point of censoring someone, I want absolutely no further contact and appreciate the system supporting that in all ways possible. (v. 3.4.1)

Possible to find an admin without going room-hopping

  • Make it possible to find an admin without going room-hopping.
    • LithiumTwo There are admins in most medium-sized to large rooms. I think a solution to this problem is more people to become admins/assistants?
  • ukiyo? Maybe under Help there could be a menu option called "Contact Admin". It would display a list all Admins who are currently logged-in, with their status - active or sleeping - and which rooms they presently available in. The capability to contact a chosen Admin from this list would be provided; Perhaps double clicking on the Admin name brings up the chat window. (v. 3.4.1)

Game: allow admins to take control in the scoring phase

  • Allow admins to take control in the scoring phase (maybe earlier). So that an admin can determine which stones are dead. (Helpful against opponents who won't end a game to get a win without them "escaping" ) +

Don't display the move number for a censored comment

  • When a censored commentator speaks during a game, do not display the move number unnecessarily. +

Game, scoring: when cancel during scoring, add 30 seconds to opponent's time

  • If you cancel during scoring, add 30 seconds to opponent's time. This is to prevent abusing the cancel button during scoring to force opponent to lose on time. Also, an upper limit on the number of times you can cancel during scoring.
    • All cases in my games at least are due to players not seeing that the territories were not fully closed off,and I suspect that in about 99% of the cases that is what happens. -TimBrent

User info: players are given "nice guy/gal" points and can become a negative value)

  • I believe there, somewhere on the wishlist, is a suggested system whereby players are given "nice guy/gal" points, so if they play weaker players they get some points.. if they give handicap they get lotsa points, if they give teaching games they get points, if they escape (by this I mean losing a game through it - not simply leaving a game) they lose an awesome amount of points (as this is the peek of impoliteness).
  • There should be some report bad manners button in the game, and when u think your opponent is not manner, u can sign him, so u can see how many games of some players were signed as umanner+--
    • LithiumTwo I might be tempted to take tesujis as bad mannered, and others might aswel, it would need to be checked by assistants, however this'd be too trivial a strain on their time.
    • ProtoDeuteric: I think that this would be too severe. Many players just don't know what good manners in Go are. Simply pointing out bad manners to the person in the chat window/section of the game would probably remedy the annoyance. Most people don't deliberately use bad manners.
    • lithiumTwo I agree with Photo, to some, even not starting in the top right is bad manners... and to some not having the right orientation in the top right for your first move is bad as well.
    • tapir: the points you can gain are only for stronger players. how does a new 20k player gain those points? he may play a game against a 22k if there is any. but i would not like to encourage him to give teaching games.

How many assistants

Autocensoring via collaborative filtering

  • Autocensoring via collaborative filtering

Blocking / banning: "forced nick change"

  • Allow blocking a specific nick instead of the IP or better yet, allow "forced nick change" - Making the user re-login or allowing him to change the nick, staying online... (Since apparently none cares if you don't get the note in french since you're in the french room...)

Room management: "consensus ban system"

  • jeremiah: Create a "consensus ban system" so that some (large) proportion of the room can boot an offensive player when an admin is not around. This could well take some of the burden off of the admins/helpers if well-designed against abuse.++

Game: Make it impossible to resign the game very close to the end

  • idefix making it impossible to resign the game very close to the end to evade a big loss in your game record --
    • RueLue: How should the server decide, that the game is close to the end?
      • Shujaa: Perhaps just forbid resignations in the scoring phase. However, I'd much rather have someone resign than escape...

Room management: "room flood detection", "Flooder's Room"

  • labradors: Add "room flood detection." Potential ideas:
    1. Do not allow more than X number of the same character in a room comment.
    2. Reduce the maximum number of characters allowed in a room comment.
    3. Prohibit a user's comment from being the same as his previous comment.
    4. For guests and users who have only recently logged in, require at least X seconds to elapse between comments.
    • Heretix: Adding to the room flood detection: have a Flooder's Room. When a user is determined to be a flooder, close off all the other rooms he/she is in, and move them to this Flooder's Room (which has admins in there, of course). Let them let off their steam for awhile in this room. Also lets the flooders entertain each other perhaps. :-) A win-win!

Chat: allow users to filter terms they consider offensive

  • gDIEte: Parental Controls including a user specified word blacklist to allow users to filter terms they consider offensive. Even though a blacklist might be circumvented via intentional typos or more complex offensive phrases, the blacklist would still handle the basic ones and admins can still handle the ones missed by the blacklist. KGS currently relies on admins to handle 'offensive' terms, but this is extremely poor way of handling this for several reasons:
    1. Admins are not consistent
    2. Admins are not always paying attention
    3. Admins are reactive to the text already showing up (the kids already saw the bad term)
    4. Language and cultural differences that admins can't possibly address
    5. Negative reaction from users when admins enforce seemingly arbitrary rules.

Sanction discrimination

In game relays, non-English speakers are regularly and openly harassed by some users for not using English. This behaviour should not be tolerated at all and sanctioned if continued after pointing out the multi-lingual character of KGS. (taken from here) +

  • Tapir: The multilingual character of KGS kibitz seems to be established right now.
  • Nada: "Intolerance to intolerance" is hypocritical. I discriminate against women who are obese or of unsavory character. I discriminate against poorly made food. Discrimination is but a neutral word, and any strict enforcement of rules without regard to circumstance only further incentivizes Admin abuse, which is already killing KGS.

[15] Games lists

Invite a particular person to play

  • Peterius: Occasionally I'll want to review a game I've played earlier with someone or some such thing and it would be nice to either be able to search through games or to invite a particular person to play (who had, for instance, agreed to review a game).
    • fadasa: Seconding this. An "invite" button would be fantastic, especially so you can play a game with someone on your buddy list without having to make a game in the open list and praying that your buddy is the first person to find it.

Private chat: "(Playing a game)" when it's just "(Waiting for a game)"

  • Don't put (Playing a game) in private chat windows when a person has placed an offer, but is not actually playing yet. (Waiting for a game), perhaps, (Challenging such and such a game). Direct link to said challenge?+++
    • Karl Knechtel: Also mentioned in the Social section. This whole page needs a WME pretty badly :/

Private chat: options, when recipient is in a game: "send later", "cancel", "send anyway"

  • Notification when a chat is sent to a person in a game, and options to postpone sending chat, don't send it, or send it anyways

Merge game lists

  • Merge game lists: whatever room tab I have selected, put in the game list all the games of all the rooms I have open. Make it optional with a checkbox in preferences. This would let me chat in the English Chat Room while keeping an eye on the interesting games of the French Room.

[16] New Users

Login: allow unicode characters for user names

  • LithiumTwo: I would really like the name 力二, but I can't because we're only allowed latin characters and arabic digits... I see no reason for this? (as the server transmits chat and saves sgf in unicode anyway?). Please please please can we open up usernames to unicode?
    • It would only appear as "square square" to people who don't have the right fonts. Then it will be quite impossible to distinguish two "square square". And for users who don't have the right keyboard, no way to drop a message or look for their info...
      • LithiumTwo: I see what you're saying - but still, if it becomes popular then I don't see why people can't just add the fonts if they're really distressed by it (it isn't hard at all). This small modification would probably dramatically increase the uptake of KGS for chinese users - which can only be a good thing.
        • RueLue: You can't just add a needed font on the fly in e.g. a pc, where you are guest, in an internet cafe etc. What is with the children, who use a pc but are no computer nerds or use their parents' pc...
      • SirLyric: There's a further issue with Unicode names - for many characters, there are several distinct Unicode code points that map to a similar-looking character. This can lead to abuse via impersonation - someone creates an account with a name that looks exactly like a well known one, but has a different Unicode 'a' instead of the normal one, for example, and then starts making trouble and harms the reputation of the well known user.
      • mike111?: another problem with foreign languages is that, like me, sometimes the files you need to install east asian languages are missing on your computer and it can be hard to find those files unless you have another computer with the files... it can be quite annoying
      • Patrick Traill: Perhaps one could get round these problems by insisting that names start with unique Latin(ish) characters, but can continue with whatever Unicode the user wants.

Login, new user: quick instructions, short tutorial

  • I thought that maybe it would be useful if when a new user logs in for the first time he/she would get a popup that would give them quick instructions as to how to set up a game and what K and D are; A quick tutorial if you will. As anyone who spends time in the English room knows, we get at least a dozen questions like that an hour. I know there are help files, but most people are too lazy/unwilling to actually open them.
    • wms: As you point out, people don't read help. People don't read popups either if they are too long. The longer the popup, the less likely people are to read it. Right now, when a newbie comes, their popup tells them how to register. I don't want to make it longer - as it is, lots don't read it. so I'd have to get rid of that info to add the "what is k/what is d" info, and I'd have to say that registration instructions are more important than info on what k/d are. :-(
    • Rakshasa: Once they've registered and log in for the first time, they could get another short popup. And that one doesn't need to cover registering ;)
    • Planar: All that information could go into the registration mail. People are not forced to read it before proceeding but they can keep it for future reference, unlike a popup window.
    • Eratos: They can keep it for future reference, but they won't :(
    • Anon:Maybe a solution here is to just give all newly registered users a message (as in User->Leave messages) with a few preliminary items, instead of a pop-up. There will be a greater tendency to at least scan the information before choosing to delete the message forever, far greater than with registration mail, where we usually just want to get a password and get out, and where in the worst case we are using a hotmail account or whatever and don't plan on signing on ever again. People choosing not to delete the message will have a handy bundle of links while they get used to the system.

Login, guests: need to answer 2 questions...

  • isshoni: For guests, have a pop up with 2 questions that they must answer in order to reach the server: 1."Do you know how to play go?Y/N". A No would open a web tutorial (such as [ext] http://playgo.to/interactive/) automatically. 2."Is it the first time you connect to KGS?Y/N" A No would open a "KGS HowTo?/TOS in a nutshell" VIDEO on youtube automatically. <2mn video explaining how to create/respond to a challenge, that ranking takes care of itself given there are less than 6 stones of handicap and the game is rated etc, that offensive language is prohibited. It would help the users who use it, and it would alleviate the problems of the EGR.

Guests, new accounts: chat messages shown distinctive

  • isshoni: For guests (and accounts that connect for the first (say) 3 times, have their chat messages shown in capital bold letters/italics (or anything else that is distinctive) to Admins (or to everyone if the font is less obstrusive than capital bold, say in italics, because admins ain't the only ones supposed to help newcomers). Goal: this way they will be easier to spot and help amongst EGR conversations (which will thus be stopped less often).
    • gDIEte: There are at least two distinct kinds of help commonly requested by new users: kgs help and go help. For KGS help, there is already help documentation and the interface is not rocket science. There's a limit to what can be done to help these users, but one option might be a 'help chat' that delegates questions as pms to online admins/helpers. For go help, the same websites are consistently provided in answer to those questions, sensei's and the interactive tutorial are examples. These would be better provided by the client as some sort of starting kgs tutorial (has to be skippable obviously... but don't make it the default dialog result). The EGR (general chat) is a very very poor option for providing help.

Rooms management: "nasties" list for admins / room owners

  • This distinctive fonts features could be extended to a list of "nasties" that an admin would create for himself the same way users create "fan", "buddy" etc. list.

User info: default picture for new users

  • Give new users a default picture so that it will be more likely somebody will want to play with them -
    • tapir: It is not the lack of a picture what makes people reluctant to play new users.

First login: can check or uncheck a box labelled "Beginner?"

  • cubyrop: Here's a great idea. When new users first log in, they check or uncheck a box labelled "Beginner?" If they are a beginner, they would auto-login directly to the beginner room (a fantastic place for newbies), rather than the EGR (a horrible place for newbies). +

Default room "Lobby"

  • Create a new room called "The Lobby". Any new users (including guests as everyone starts out as one) would log on to that room by default. Additional information for new users can be put on the chat room message (including a repetition of how to register, and what is k/d). - Migeru

Default rooms for guests: with "English" client, EGR and the ECR are opened +?

  • Place guests with "English" default language in both the EGR and the ECR? It's awfully easy for guests to start unrelated conversation in the EGR as it is.. ;) Reuven
    • I'd really love to see ECR as a default room for new users. This way, more users take note of it's existance and maybe stop spamming EGR. --mafutrct
    • This would be a great way to make it more obvious that the English Chat Room exists from the get-go, and introduce the idea of what the EGR vs ECR is for. There's often a *lot* of noise in the EGR. This keeps it friendly, but it can be a bit offputting to newcomers, especially the really juvenile stuff. kaleido?

Buddy list: admins as default on the buddy list

  • mike111?: I'd like it if the admins were automatically on a new user's "buddy list". It would be convenient for new users to just go to the top of the list and find an admin. +-
    • RueLue: Here it would be good, if signs would show their conversation language(s) (I saw this idea on another wishlist).

Obligatory test for making people read terms of service and FAQ

moved from unsorted

  • don: I suggest to create a test of like 10 question to see if they have read the conditions for the chat and the faq, especially the section about escapers. And they will all know that hotmail emails might not work.

[17] Privacy

[18] Management (of rooms)

Kick a user from a room you own

  • Possibility to kick a user from a room you own +

Advisory board?

  • An instance to solve problems: advisory board !? -

Chatrestriction by rank system

  • Chatrestriction by rank system ("You need a higher rank ... ) - circumvents overrunning of general chat/unstructured chat with all negative effects.

Extension of the server

  • lag - a technical - economical problem - disturbing to many. Unpleasant method of resolution: extension of the server -> additional costs for accounts?

Admins should reduce emotions

  • Server police - is problematic. It is clear, that it is difficult to be admin and that often emotions play a role - but can it be the answer to everything, to answer as emotional and aggressive?

Automatch: 9*9 and 13*13 should be possible too

  • Hello, I would like to get in the automatical gamesearcher a function, where I could search not just 19*19; 9*9 and 13*13 should be possible too. Thank you very much

Banning policy: always warning before banning

  • Anonymous: Admins should always kick someone with a warning message before banning them. This way the person in question will receive the warning and be alerted to tone down before getting banned rather than the admin making a hazy bold message saying "stop argueing"

example: *random person joins game and makes a comment* -BANNED- random person: what the... why did i just get banned?!

+

  • Anonymous: I recommend a warning that is personal, obvious and requires user acknowledgment.
A simple sollution would be a combined warning consisting of both a private message and a pop-up window/message.
The private message should prefferably come from the admin that gives the warning, but can come in a form that hides the admin id/nick.
The pop-up window should require confirmation of reading the warning ( requires 2 clicks, with about 5 secconds delay, but is not triggered by keystrokes like space or enter/new line/ carriage return). Untill that is done, user cannot send messages, but should still access game menu, and continue any ongoing game.
Debatable about starting a game without confirming warning.
Debatable about chatting on the pm window of the warning without confirng warning first.
A closed pop-up window will not trigger confirmation, but will "hide it", and it can be re-opened from the client menu. (also, for those cases where it disapears off screen / minimized)
The admin(s) are notified (either by having a special icon added to user, different color for user, or some other form of fast recognition) that a user has been warned recently, and if he/she has confirmed receiving the warning.

Banning policy: Free speech about other servers (was: Innovations, not restrictions)

  • Restriction of free speech concerning IGS/KGS. Isn't competition refreshing the business? Has the time as market leader lead to some potbelliedness and convenience? But why shouldn't there be a way back to the top? Answer with innovations, not with restrictions!

Banning policy: Chat ban

  • A "chat banned" (for say a standard period of 48 hours) person can't chat in other people games or rooms, but will still be able to play and talk face-to-face and in his own games. While this is still a harsh sanction, it will make the normal bans nearly obsolete and will reduce tension considerably. (taken from here) + + + + + +?
    • mcw85: This suggestion is similar to wayward's suggestion of a chat mute in Chat handling/room use

Earlier proposals to the same end:

  • FabienO: With regards to banning people, can we create a mute ban instead of relying solely on the kick ban, players should still have the right to view/play games while banned if the offence isn't that serious or atleast chat related. Also add some sort of notice to inform banned people of how long their ban will last.
  • wayward: admins could have an extra option to silence a user for a specified amount of time (say 5-15 minutes) for minor offenses. Silenced user's input would then be ignored in both public rooms and games. This could be used as an intermediary measure between warnings issued in bold text and booting a user off the server. + +
    • Karl Knechtel: My suggestion is to, instead of "silencing" the user, automatically add him/her to everyone's censor list. This would IMHO actually be better than booting a spammer off the server, because it won't encourage him/her to come back with another name - s/he simply won't realize that the spamming is utterly ineffective. Doing things via the censor list would allow users to "opt in" to the spam if they really desired it (or more likely, to listen to users who have been so disciplined for e.g. trolling.)
      • Anonymous: Adding someone (temporarily) to everyone's censor list is too inefficient(from performance POV), simpler to simulate this by allowing only local (that cgoban instance) print of his/her chat, while it not being sent to server for everyone else. But any kind of silence will create other problems (ex: cannot apologize, cannot ask for guidance / advice, etc)

Banning policy: Public log of bans

  • All sanctions (ban, chat ban if introduced) should be logged publically and a reason given. This would introduce some accountability and responsibility to banning activity on KGS. (taken from here) + + +
    • Deacon John One down-side of this suggestion is that it would result in more chat-line clutter in the game rooms. IMO, there is already too much of that anyway. dj. June 5, 2010.
    • tapir: This does not need to be via room chat.

Banning policy: Display for how long one gets banned in the "bye bye" msg.

  • Display for how long one gets banned in the "bye bye" msg. +++
  • FabienO: Also add some sort of notice to inform banned people of how long their ban will last.

Banning policy: name of the administrator who enforced the ban in the "bye bye" message

  • Display the name of the administrator who enforced the ban in the "bye bye" message. Currently there is no accountability for frivolous bannings. +++
  • Don't expect accountability from the sort of people who have nothing better to do than to police the behavior of others in an obscure community. If you are banned for not being a Beta, take solace in that statistically, their lives are miserable. - NaDa?

KGS Wishlist / Social last edited by PJTraill on June 28, 2019 - 03:18
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