I Think I Got Someone Banned on Fox

Two days ago I created an account on the Fox Go Server. I had been wanting to do this for quite some time since apparently every serious go player has a Fox account. A number of my AYD friends are now playing on Fox and I need to be able to follow them there. As a Mac user, however, I needed to jump through a few hoops to be able to do this.

I eventually decided to install Parallels Desktop in order to be able to run the Fox Go Server. Crossover was not working for me. I am very happy with the way Parallels worked out because I did not want to play around with the command line which was another option. It was just easier to install a virtual machine to accomplish the task of playing on Fox.

I was lucky to be able to obtain the user name buzzsaw on Fox. I have the name buzzsaw on every go server I use now: KGS, OGS, Pandanet, and Fox.

I’ve played four games so far. I lost the first two and I won the second two. Those last two games were played as no komi games against 3k players. I am 5k.

This blog post is about the excitement involved in my most recent game.

Here is the board position when the excitement started. My opponent was typing things into the chat which I could not read. I informed him that I could not speak Chinese whereupon he accused me of being a dog.

I had just finished watching a live stream by Go Magic where I learned that Chinese refer to AI programs as dogs, so I suspected I was being accused of using AI, or even of being AI, which was actually quite exciting and complementary.

The full chat is included below in a series of screen captures. I did these captures so I could report his unsportsmanlike behavior. I also wanted to figure out how to keep him from playing with me again. I don’t need that kind of drama. I wanted to block this guy.

A friend of mine who had helped me learn how to use Fox suggested that I report this user. I noticed that there was an Admin button. I clicked it but did not see that it resulted in anything. However, an Admin must have looked at the conversation and banned him because his account had disappeared.

That saved my friend and me the trouble of posting these screen captures to Reddit. It also saved me the trouble of blocking him. 

It is worth noting that he sent me a game request immediately after the game was over. So he did want revenge. It would really be funny if he happened to be the same 3k I had beaten the day before.

I decided to create this blog post in order to document this exciting event. It is always a good day when you are accused of being an AI program by an angry Fox Player who is two stones stronger than you.