81-Square Universe Launched!

hirohiigo (on Shogi-L) wrote:This forum was created by Regicide from PlayOK, and I am the co-administrator. Right now you're probably thinking, "Why do we need another shogi discussion group?" And before you ask that, I'll tell you.

The international shogi world at the present is very decentralized. There's no sense of unity. I think right now the internet shogi world can be categorized into two groups: Stronger players and weaker players. The stronger players focus on Shogi Club 24 while the weaker players focus on PlayOK, and there is a large gap between them. In addition to this gap, there is no real place for people from both groups to come together and discuss shogi.

At the moment, there are English shogi discussion groups: Shogi
Prospect and Shogi-L. I'll cover the pros and cons for both.

As for Shogi Prospect, it appears to be a good place to discuss international goings on in the Shogi World. There are many people from many different countries on that forum. This seems like it would be a good thing for the Shogi World. Unfortunately, it's not. There seems to be a dire lack of posts on Shogi Prospect. Checking as I type this message, most forums on Shogi Prospect have their last post from before this month, and many of them from before this year. This is disheartening to a prospective forumgoer. An inactive forum always leads to deserters in a forum. Speaking from experience, I made a post introducing myself on July 29, and have yet to receive so much as a "Welcome." This does not bode well for a message board.

As for Shogi-L, this is a great discussion group. I've become more in touch with the Shogi World thanks to Shogi-L, but at the same time I still don't think it is ideal for centralized shogi discussion. There is no sense of organization (except by date), and, whether it's intended or not, Shogi-L has a rather "intellectual" atmosphere; that is, it feels as though there is a certain standard one must meet before posting here; it is rather formal. This will definitely put off potential users of Shogi-L.

And this is why The 81 Square Universe was made. This forum aims to be a place where people from both groups, Stronger and Weaker, can come together to discuss shogi. It has a more casual atmosphere than Shogi-L and also features categories for discussion, for easy reference.