Greetings from Portugal + opinion

Hello everyone! My name is Ricardo and i'm a shogi player from Portugal.

I´m happy to see this new shogi forum coming up. As for the forum's presentation text i have a few remarks.

I think you might be right as for the two groups in which shogi world is divided. Altough i wouldn't really call it "divided". But there's certainly a feeling of: different discussions held separetly by two different groups.

Also there's no support of better/senior players towards weaker players/begginers.
And in this forum i already saw somewhere a small Takodori's review at some moves of a member's game.

For anyone who thought that another forum wasn't needed, here is the proof that it was what was missing! Just check with your own eyes the activity of this first 2/3 days.
There was already a Shogi forum, but the problem is that anyone who arrive to that forum saw no activity, and so, why even bother to post there anything?

I also agree with hirohiigo about Shogi-L. It sure looks formal and rather intellectual.

Also there's something that was on my mind some time ago.
Does anyone browse the old archives of Shogi-L from 1990? i read them very regulary, and wonder why there was so many interesting and regular posts, and now, that almost everyone has internet connection, there's only a few post now and then? and most of them are only to announce tournaments.

Resuming, this initiative was exactly what was missing for a more dynamic shogi community! Congratulations!!

I hope it continues with this activity for long years. And altough i'm not a experienced player i will try my best to give some contribute to it and post my doubts whenever i need!

Regards

Welcome to the 81 Square Universe, Ricardo.

Thank you very much for your kind words! They mean a lot.

Does anyone browse the old archives of Shogi-L from 1990? i read them
very regulary, and wonder why there was so many interesting and regular
posts, and now, that almost everyone has internet connection, there's
only a few post now and then? and most of them are only to announce
tournaments.

If I had to wager a guess, I would say that it's because the discussion format (mailing list) is very outdated. It's not a very attractive place for discussing every day things anymore when there exist discussion groups like message boards. As I pointed out on Shogi-L, there is no categorization: This leads to people becoming overwhelmed. Unless someone has spent some time at Shogi-L, it might be hard for them to figure out what is and what isn't appropriate to post on there. (It took me nearly 4 months of browsing before I felt comfortable posting there.) Whether this is intended or not, this is the feeling Shogi-L conveys.

Because of that, the people who post now are people who have been posting there for quite a while, with a very limited amount of new contributors, and when the same group of people discusses the same subject for months on end, they lose things to talk about.