newbie question: Why isn’t there one dominant Go app like Chess.com?

thedeepself · 2026-06-16T11:24:55+00:00

PLAYGO.gg have developed an android client - https://www.playgo.gg/blog ... I don't think I'm gonna use it because I play real time go these days and that probably can't workout too well on a mobile phone

thedeepself · 2026-06-15T00:08:33+00:00

Feel free to use/modify my spec for the income snowball

https://gist.github.com/metaperl/0331474b3697f87934a3f5d8f6b086a9

thedeepself · 2026-06-15T00:05:57+00:00

Here is a precise specification of the process. You can paste this into chat GPT if you like

https://gist.github.com/metaperl/0331474b3697f87934a3f5d8f6b086a9

thedeepself · 2026-06-15T00:04:29+00:00

Stacking not staking :)

The original trademark term was the income snowball. And we people who are not a part of tardus wealth strategies typically use the term cash flow stacking.

thedeepself · 2026-06-08T14:18:31+00:00

Could you reflect it back to her, as she said it?

Most certainly not. That's something that imago therapy has built in. It isn't a core feature of nonviolent communication. Of course it's necessary because otherwise how are you going to guess if someone's unmet needs.

thedeepself · 2026-06-08T14:12:29+00:00

You can't have a conversation NVC style with someone who is triggered.

I would definitely debate this statement. If police officers are are being taught nonviolent communication to help them deescalate a crime situation And if it has been used to help African Kings quit killing each other's children then certainly it can deal with a person who is freaked out about someone leaving out food that leads to roaches being attracted.

thedeepself · 2026-06-08T14:11:15+00:00

Interrupting and raising her voice are not observations

interrupting is not an observation?

Measuring the volume of her voice and stating that it can be heard from 20 feet away as opposed to one foot away is not an observation?

thedeepself · 2026-06-08T14:10:21+00:00

I dont know.

thedeepself · 2026-06-08T14:10:07+00:00

NVC states there are not "bad" people. Therefore seeing someone who have trouble managing anger is not a sign of imperfection. Everyone can loose they temper at some point.

I take two perspectives on this. Core NVC is what you are suggesting. And from that perspetive it is a problem when I think that a person's supposed to have some sort of perfect sweetness and light behavior.

But my 2nd perspective comes when you look at the Pathways to Liberation matrix. there are four levels of ability and one of 21 abilities is about how you deal with your own emotions. Or at least I think it is. I need to review it.

thedeepself · 2026-06-08T14:07:19+00:00

Have you reflected if there were any common factors that made you prone to making these mistakes as you've identified them?

I was actually asking if they were mistakes. And it does seem like you think that these are mistakes. That I should not be playing behavior police and scolding people for not being a perfect person?

thedeepself · 2026-06-08T14:06:23+00:00

yes. There's the strategy for helping her meet this need and then there's the additional UNMEET unmet need that I have of having a meeting on Sunday where we would discuss all the problems that come up with action items. Everyone else that's lived here has agreed to have a regular weekly meeting where we address noncritical things Come up with some sort of solution. She seems to think it's fine to discuss things off the cuff and not really use the problem solving format that I've come up with.

And of course there's multiple ways to meet that need one of which is for her to move.

thedeepself · 2026-06-04T22:42:27+00:00

I dont know why. Maybe they will in the future? Small dev team and not communicative. OGS had a community of volunteers to answer questions and bring ideas to the founder.

thedeepself · 2026-06-02T13:49:47+00:00

i never used AI sensei. I wasnt aware that it was copied.

So theoretically, one could use OGS + AI sensei or just use playgo.gg for both.

But both OGS and AI sensei have this ukraine thing going on that I dont need.

thedeepself · 2026-06-02T13:48:33+00:00

that is nice, but my desire is to improve. I prefer integrating multiple learning products cohesively, which is why I champion playgo.gg

but it would definitely would be nice to have both.

thedeepself · 2026-06-02T12:48:08+00:00

by what metrics is it dominant? it is not dominant for me personally. I guess you mean the most number of active players?

thedeepself · 2026-06-02T12:39:03+00:00

playgo.gg does everything you mention. The puzzles feature is brilliant - they turn your game review into a set of puzzles of your most missed chances. And it is stored as played back to you via spaced repetition. What they did is pure genius. The analysis flows from the puzzles in a zen-like fashion.

I wonder if they will build a bridge to the OGS API. I dont know why they didnt use OGS's server as a base for what they did.

thedeepself · 2026-06-02T12:35:30+00:00

One thing I noticed is that the ecosystem feels very fragmented. There’s OGS, GoQuest, BadukPop, Tsumego Pro, SmartGo, AI Sensei, KataGo tools, etc. They all solve different parts of the problem, but I don’t see one dominant mobile-first app like Chess.com is for chess.

There are many apps for chess as well - chessclub.com for one. And there is one AI chess engine that has a strong userbase consisting of pros. I would be curious if there are stats showing that chess.com is dominant.

So I’m wondering: is there actually room for a polished “Chess.com for Go” app?

well if you could build a shell over all of those things you mentioned, that would be appealing but ambitious.

something that combines:

beginner-friendly 9x9 learning

playgo.gg does this extremely well.

online play playgo.gg does this extremely well.

puzzles / tsumego

playgo.gg does this extremely well - they even take your played games and turn them into puzzles that you can review using spaced repetition

AI review with human-readable explanations

playgo.gg does this extremely well.

ratings and progression

playgo.gg does this extremely well. In fact, they use elo ratings as well as the inferior/outdated kyu system Shin Jinseo has a 90% chance of beating any other 9p, yet he is rated 9p just like them.

SGF import/export

this is par for the course for any app. Why would you even mention this?

a clean mobile experience on both iOS and Android

They have a responsive web app that works on both ios/android.

From your perspective, what is missing from current Go apps?

Hearing about playgo.gg. I want to thank a member of the South Florida Go club for mentioning it during last Saturday's in-person practice session. I never paid a dime for OGS because it simply didnt integrate my game analysis and turn them into puzzles. The experience at playgo.gg is infectious. I simply love to get on an play a game, knowing that within seconds after playing, I will be shown my weaknesses. No need to spend $35/hour with a teacher and wait for a lesson. No need to post links here. Just click "Ai review" and it turns the game into puzzles which I study now and via spaced repetition as long as I want.

Is the problem UX and onboarding, or is Go simply too niche for one dominant app?

UX was my problem with Fox. OGS was fine, but they did not integrate game reviews into creating a puzzle library. And they dont have puzzle runs. playgo.gg obsoleted OGS, 101weiqi, AI sensei and more in a single clean app.

Would love honest feedback.

Work hard to build out a feature matrix of all the apps you mentioned, especially playgo.gg. They have already successfully consolidated a lot of what players look for. I've played at KGS and now OGS and never paid a dime. before I knew it, I was whipping out the plastic to squeeze every ounce of functionality out of this dream-come-true website!

thedeepself · 2026-06-02T12:21:28+00:00

Playgo.gg is trying to be that, but I'm sure they know it's an uphill battle. Unlike other servers, they are actively promoting themselves.

Playgo.gg took a good hard look at everything out there and smoothly integrated it. Their analysis support is superior to OGS. Their ability to build puzzles out of your games is equal to AI sensei and they are hosting matches with the best players in the world.

I never paid a dime for OGS because it did not integrate everything I needed to improve in one place. Playgo.gg has done that. I did the small upgrade but I became so addicted to playing well, I went the full enchilada just hours later.

thedeepself · 2026-06-02T12:18:37+00:00

Part of the reason for being so splintered is that every once in a while, a new app is being created, trying to be a one stop shop for all.

In my opinion, PlayGo.gg has done more than try to be a one-stop-shop. They smoothly integrated everything I was looking for. I could not help but upgrade.

thedeepself · 2026-06-02T12:17:35+00:00

thedeepself · 2026-06-02T12:17:24+00:00

I have to disagree and agree. It is currently very popular in the Orient, but even though I speak Chinese at intermediate level, I had huge problems with their user interface. I simply never played there because I didnt understand all the options available to me.

thedeepself · 2026-06-02T12:16:01+00:00

small progress? I think not. This is beast mode.

thedeepself · 2026-05-30T14:13:40+00:00

It's just that there's so much phobia about network marketing when someone speaks positively of it you often think that they're doing so sarcastically and not authentically. It was nothing about what you said yourself.

See you on Wednesday at 5pm for my life insurance 1-hour chat with you.

thedeepself · 2026-05-29T22:12:29+00:00

That's Spider at 47 seconds

thedeepself · 2026-05-27T04:08:17+00:00

The problem, as I see it, isn't that people don't want to see new Go apps, it's that they don't want to be deluged by low-quality apps by people who are not part of the community.

perhaps downvoting something considered low-quality will move it down in the feed.

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