Misunderstandings

At times you might feel that you have a problem with someone on IGS, and the proper way to handle this is: please discuss it with that person. It may also be useful to ask other IGSers to help arbitrate your dispute -- outsiders can often shrivel any problems back to their proper proportions.

Always a good idea, when at a loss or in case of any problems, is to ask someone more experienced. IGS in particular has lots of "old hands" who most often are all too happy to give advise or otherwise help.

As a last resort, you may notify the IGS administrators of your problem, but this is truly only as a last resort. The IGS team is busy working on making IGS the best go playing facility possible and do not deserve to be bothered by petty issues. Also, since their workload, they don't necessarily even get around to answer their e-mail, of which they receive LOTS.

However, always when you have problems with interacting with people, please remember that the problems are not those of the people you ask for help, and that it is up to you to make sure that a solution is found and put into effect. Particularily, shouting around is no solution at all, it is just likely to give you the label of a shouter, and lots of players will disregard whatever you shout, and perhaps you altogether, henceforward. Also, many players have the shouts turned off and will never hear you shouting.

____________________________________________________________

Language and Culture

At your local go club, everyone probably speaks a common language. On IGS, there is no such guarantee. Although many people speak English, it is not a good idea to assume that everyone does. People also come from very different backgrounds, even from different sides of the globe we call the world, so do not assume that your humour is self-evident or that your idiom is understood. It is especially wrong to think along the lines "I come from X. In X everyone does Y. So Z should understand when I do Y."

And please keep in mind that this is also a thing you should take an attitude of patience towards. If somebody does not "get it", perhaps you being this somebody, it does not mean the end of the world.

flamewars in rec.games.go have been witnessed as a result. (As to what I'd do in such a case? I'd simply ask for an adjournment, since it seems impossible to continue the game, and play someone else.)

Continue to "official complaint".

Return