To be clear, it's just the frontend for now. Frontend as in the client-side stuff and the backend stuff required to directly support it. The core backend code that manages the games and what-not is not currently available, though it looks like that might happen eventually.[1]

All that said, I'm glad to see this happen!

[1] https://forums.online-go.com/t/the-online-go-com-user-interf...

OGS (online-go.com) is great. I am impressed that it hasn't taken over KGS by now, which is to my knowledge the largest western server.

I have tried Pandanet IGS, KGS, Tygem, WBaduk and even obscure ones such as Fly or Die and Go Chat (Facebook messenger bot).

I think OGS offers by far the most frictionless way to start and a more modern UI. It even offers really nice features such as the ability to draw on a board during a review.

I just wish it had a plugin for something like BW Go (Android). A decent offline client with manual sync, exploration, perhaps conditional moves. There is a plugin for Dragon Go Server and it's so much better than dealing with mobile browsers.

Do all of these servers not implement a standard protocol? I've had similar frustration with OGS on mobile, and at one point I toyed with the idea of learning iOS by building a Go client that worked with all of these servers.

No.

KGS keeps my interest because of automatch. Getting a game is fire and forget.

I also believe people on KGS play more conventional go, which I enjoy more.

OGS is also fire and forget. If you create a game "room" it will be filled in a matter of seconds, even if you put up some crazy game conditions.

automatch is definitely on the near-time shortlist of features we'll be implementing.

That's awesome to hear

Absolutely amazing webiste. Incredibly well done, has a great community, and Ive had tons of fun playing on it.

If you want to play go - I highly recommend it!

One of the developers of OGS here! We're pretty excited to make this happen and continue development of the site and hopefully bring Go (the game) to a larger audience.

It's strange that the Go community calls all the online Go servers letter-GS (GS stands for "Go Server").

"online-go.com", for example, has never called itself OGS (and that's rather a stupid name).

IGS (Internet Go Server) calls itself "Pandanet", which is a better name, but the community insists on IGS.

KGS is probably the one to blame on this strange state of things, because it's official name is "KGS Go Server", a mutually recursive acronym.

I actually really like it. It's a fun aspect of the ecosystem. It's also not explicitly explained anywhere - you just sort of have to figure it out.

I occasionally go to a Go meetup in NYC and hear this a lot:

"Do you play online?"

"Yeah, KGS."

That was born as the Kiseido Go Server. They kept the name when Kiseido's sponsorship ended but changed the meaning.

Why oh why did someone name a programming language "Go"?

For some reason when I read the headline I thought I was going (sic) to see the Go Game coded in the Go Language.

But this is JS.

This seems to be a frontend ui for a go (the board game) site for those looking for golang or somthing else.