Using high-dan games as chat rooms

   

It is an extremely and annoyingly usual online bad habit, specially at KGS, that tons of people gather to watch a game between high dans and then some of them start chattering about something completely unrelated to the game or go in general, often about a topic which is completely uninteresting to the majority of the viewers. This is very impolite towards people who would like to discuss the game itself, ask questions and make comments. Also, specially at KGS, it clutters the sgf file (which the server saves and offers for anyone to download) with tons of unrelated obsolete chatter, not only making the sgf bigger but also reducing its value as a source of interesting commentaries.


Ectospheno: On servers like KGS where it is a problem just censor those people who aren't talking about the game. When the game is over you can uncensor them (or not). As for the SGF file, stripping unwanted comments out of one is trivial.

  • Warp: That's only partially avoiding the problem. It's burdensome to have to browse the list of names and censor people and then uncensor them. Also editing out irrelevant chatter afterwards is not trivial, specially if the amount of text is very large. And that doesn't even solve the main problem. If the kibitz window is flooded with off-topic irrelevant chatter, that might discourage stronger players from commenting on the game because there simply is too much noise and they might get the feeling that people are not interested. Also questions presented by weaker players may get buried under all the chatter (stronger players will quickly stop reading the kibitz window altogether if there's way too much visual noise there).

George Caplan I have some sympathy for the view expressed. Particularly on the Captain's popular games, the comments get quite out of hand, indeed, I am often tempted into the fray. Of course, you want a strong game, and several players to learn from comments. But when a group starts trying to top one another it degenerates.

My suggestion is to get a group of like minded folks and pick a strong game, maybe not the strongest, but still stronger than you, and hold your own study session.

ilan: Just observe games on Cyberoro. The chat there is either "Foreign Language" or else the set phrases such as "Hello Baduk Fans!" Speaking of which, the Honinbo match is being broadcast there live, on the Japan1 server.

IanDavis I personally feel this annoyance is over hyped. These are not exhibition games, they are not lectures, and they are not study groups. What the observers comment is up to them providing it is not obscene. Live Action Learning from a blitz game between 9 dans is not likely to be significantly more effective through clear kibbitz. If you want to study aren't you going to gain more from doing it after the game is over - or from cloning the game (which is minus kibbitz) - and is sifting through the kibbitz really such a chore? It's very much an Open University vs Mystery Science Theatre 3000 debate.

blubb: Your way of speech suggests that you're a native english reader, being able to browse through superfluous chatter effortlessly and quickly. Please keep in mind, that doesn't apply to all, probably not even to the majority of kgs users. Beside of this, many high dan games are slow and provide fertile grounds to educating real-time comments by skilled observers, as e. g. often by Principia[7d] recently. I agree with Warp: too much noise not only incumbers reading but also deters valuable comments. (Cloned games are just a different thing, mainly focussing on one distinct (usually tactical) problem rather than on learning "in the flow".) However, I don't see much of a chance of a solution at users' side - people simply won't refrain from discussing the coolest pics and such in games. I wouldn't even consider this a misbehaviour per se, because it can be fun in its own way. What seems required is a customizable client-side kibitz filter.


Using high-dan games as chat rooms last edited by hnishy on November 2, 2022 - 02:10
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