Ultimate Go Server/ Philosophy

Sub-page of UltimateGoServer

A page to discuss meta-issues about the Ultimate Go Server, like ethics, free speech, open-source, deletion of controversial data, is it okay to charge fees and if so when, et cetera.

Statement of Philosophy

Supporting Commercial Use

Benjamin: How about Pay-In services like KGSPlus? I don't like information hidden from public in general. On the other hand, money is always needed for offering attractive tournaments (including prizes), for having high quality lessons aso. So I'd propose to support sponsored rooms and tournaments (e.g. by supporting banners) while inventing a system where the public gains most. For example, one could force private teachers to publish at least one third or the lessons held. What do you think?

geno: I have to suggest some alternatives here, from two points of view.

Pragmatic: Perhaps the benefit of paying could be that you can see events live; if you don't pay, you can't see an event for 72 hours, for instance.

Idealistic: The reward to people who contribute should be the acclaim and thanks of the community. No one should be turned away. No one should be denied access to information; to do so would be a profound ethical breach. Any system that hides some of the information from non-paying customers -- any system that favors paying customers -- will become corrupted. This is the painfully-earned but seldom-remembered lesson of the whole of human history. The individual is the atomos of civilization. All must be treated equally.

Benjamin: And how concretely would you try to earn money for server&hardware, online teachers and tournament prizes to invite strong players?

geno: Just some ideas off the top of my head, maybe feasible, maybe not. I'll post more as I think of them. (Maybe we need a "Fundraising" sub-page for this kind of brainstorming, with an emphasis on inclusiveness and pragmatic independence from commercial interests, but that's kind of why I started this page.)

  • Delayed access to information like game records, but not too long a delay; no more than a month, but a week would be better. (I hate leaving people out of the excitement of live participation, though. No one wants to feel left out.)
  • I'm not opposed to the idea of advertising, as long as it's subtle, Google-style. Maybe require that ads be Go-related.
  • I like Brad's idea of the icons recognizing support. Web graphics you can put on your home page saying "UGS Supporter" and link to the UGS site. Maybe mutiple levels of these: a "9-dan contributor", perhaps? 8-)

Benjamin: By the way, on tygem (biggest korean server) you've got a small animated man as avartar when visiting the site. At the beginning, he's just dressed in rags, but you may buy trousers and stuff for him - funny idea isn't it?

Fwiffo: We could do something similar with the appearance of the Go board. When you start out, it looks like crooked lines scribbled on a piece of paper in pencil with coffee stains and coins and buttons for stones. They gradually upgrade to something nicer. Obviously, since the client is open source, people could defeat the sceme with a custom client, but that would be true of anything similar (like the avatar dressed in rags). Something you could do though - non-paying players maybe couldn't have avatars on the server. People who make small donations can have pictures, people who get a costlier membership get bigger/nicer pictures, other extra features, etc.

Benjamin: Hahaha, that's really a funny idea =) Although it's not at all applicable as people don't enjoy playing on a paper board with coffee stains... Well, this nicer-picture-stuff might work out. I hope we'll find even more ideas.

  • If you're collecting money, you need to file legal paperwork anyway. Why not go 501(c) at the same-time so that contributions would be tax-deductible?

Benjamin: Great idea, although I don't know how complicated it is to become a charity organisation or how it is called.

geno: IANAL, but give me a few days -- there's some kind of holiday coming up, so I'll have a few days off -- and I'll see if I can at least dig up a FAQ or two on non-profit incorporation and post the links here.

geno: Benjamin, I just looked at your page and realized you're from Germany. (I'm from the US.) Maybe someone who can intelligently address German non-profits should pick up this task.

  • PBS-style gifts for contributors. Non-contributors still get full access to the server and game databases, but contributors get a cool keychain or other trinket. (This is also free advertising for UGS in the less geeky areas of the world. Pens are perfect: they're cheap and ubiquitous.)
  • Make it ridiculously easy to contribute. There should be a contribute page with single-click links to PayPal? $5, PayPal? $10, VISA, et cetera, et cetera, ad nauseam.
  • Attach to an institution like MIT that might consider donating server power, to reduce costs. (Isn't there a pretty serious GNU Go community at MIT? The money needed to provide kickass servers would be a drop in the bucket to people like them, and they have a long history of supporting good causes.)
  • Remember that people don't really want money. They want happiness, prestige, a valued place in the social world, love, security. As long as we never forget that we're building a community -- including those who can't contribute -- we'll never have trouble finding those with greater means who can contribute.

BradJackson: I wouldn't see anything wrong with requiring entry fees for (some? all?) tournaments. Not only does that let you offer a prize, you can use the tournament fees to help support the site. Open Source doesn't mean free of charge, and servers cost money. Obviously donations are nice but they probably won't be enough to keep things going.

On the subject of money you might consider allowing donors of different levels to have some sort of icon by their username (or some other form of always on recognition). Not special privilages really, just recognition of their support.

Suggestions

My brief two cents: It should be aimed and advertised so players of all strengths can find opponents of the same strength. KGS is very good for this, as is DGS, so UGS must be the same. Quicksilvre


This is a copy of the living page "Ultimate Go Server/ Philosophy" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2004 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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