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Comment by tptacek | Hacker News Reader

online-go.com

OGS is definitely the best server in the West. Deserves all patronage it gets and more. I wish the AGA was more supportive of it rather than KGS.

KGS is still pretty great.

OGS might be more accessible to new players with one click sign in and a better web app, but I think KGS has a higher population of true dan+ strength players, and has a stronger "culture" around community reviews and studying.

It used to be even better, but there are less total people playing on KGS than the previous peak.

I found the culture on OGS, particularly wrt moderation, to be pretty great (as a newcomer, and I exclusively play 9x9).

I've read about KGS but I've never figured out how to engage with it. (I know it to be the OG, srs bzns venue, though).

For KGS you had to bring your own client, like cgoban, if memory serves. They have a web client now, but the Java client was what I played on for while.

> I've read about KGS but I've never figured out how to engage with it.

Just download CGoban, here is the website:

https://www.gokgs.com/

Most of us started who are still active on the server have been playing there 20+ years at this point. E.g. I myself (and many others) started playing after reading this article:

https://tromp.github.io/gostory.html

> I wish the AGA was more supportive of it rather than KGS.

Out of curiosity, why do you like OGS more? I find the UX of KGS to be way more intuitive.

I find everything about OGS superior to KGS except for the quantity of strong players. In particular, its active development, community involvement, and modern tooling all make it more appealing. KGS is very closed source, running ancient software on ancient hardware, very static, very DIY and individual. It's about the game of go and little else. That is admirable in some regards, but not suitable for a growing niche community that is Western go.

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