HexWiki is back

Scrampy and I have a new HexWiki running at http://hexwiki.amecy.com .  It is running based on a backup of the old HexWiki's database from two years ago.

Let me know if something isn't working right.  The user accounts are still on there, but you might have to do a password reset before you can log in.

Tommah is the real hero here.  Without his newly developed code to render the old diagrams properly, as well as a newly developed, easy to use diagram editor, we wouldn't be where we are today.

There is a lot if information that has been shared amongst some very intelligent people in these forums on many aspects of Hex. Please take a look through the wiki, as there is a lot of great content there that would benefit from:

1 - explanatory diagrams2 - updating to current thought (especially around openings, swap guidelines, etc.) 3 - clarification on whether some thought applies only to 10 can 10

I am a weak beginner,  so though I am putting my efforts into bringing old content from the Internet Archive online, reaching out to former content creators to ask if they will agree to make what they had created available on the wiki, etc.,  I can't do some of the more important work of correcting,  clarifying and writing new content.

I hope that we can use the new site as a means for bringing this great game to more people.

Thank you both for the hard work! The new board editor is particularly useful.

Great job! And it seems working very right Tommah: thank you very much guys!

Thank you both very much! Hope, that it will develop and grow. I will find time to edit it, but I'm not so good in Hex :)

Thank you both! I will be happy to contribute! If there are any unobvious rules according to adding new stuff to HexWiki please inform me here :) Actually I have already added a new subject under the page of Strategy. It is called "Josekis" and is about corner-play.

I think the theory of "corner-play" is an innovation. Me and lazyplayer have found a lot during last couple of years. I posted just my interpretation of our findings, but I hope lazyplayer would share my perspective... Anyway, everybody can feel free to edit :)

Thanks, Arek!  We don't really have any rules yet; if we do set rules, we will post them prominently.

(Well, we do have the rules about copyright, which you can see on the edit pages.  That's all for now.)

Thanks for bringing the wiki back!

Spambots have discovered the wiki, so I had to disable automatic account creation.  Instead, now when you fill out the form to receive an account, you must wait for me to approve you.  Please let me know if you have trouble making an account.

Well, the new HexWiki has been up for a year so far, and it seems to be running smoothly.  It receives a few edits now and then.  Feel free to contribute your own material.

I am *very* appreciative of the wiki. Thank you!

I discovered today that HexWiki was not sending out emails.  I believe the problem started this month or last month, when Mailgun changed their requirements about validating accounts.  I have reconfigured things, and emailing should work now.  If you recently tried to sign up for an account and received an error, please try again now.

Congratulations on the anniversary!

I've made some more contribution by adding:

http://hexwiki.amecy.com/index.php/Peeps

http://hexwiki.amecy.com/index.php/Forcing_moves

http://hexwiki.amecy.com/index.php/Tenuki

and editing my old article

http://hexwiki.amecy.com/index.php/Josekis

Sorry, I've just found that a better term for a peep is "nozoki" to be consistent with japanese terminology I borrow from Go.

http://hexwiki.amecy.com/index.php/Nozoki

http://hexwiki.amecy.com/index.php/Forcing_moves

http://hexwiki.amecy.com/index.php/Tenuki

http://hexwiki.amecy.com/index.php/Josekis

Arek, B6 is red win in the last diagram, no? :D

I am open to hear suggestions for how to mark colour of the edges.

In my examples, there is a notice:

In all following examples red edges are vertical ones and blue edges are horizontal ones.

There should be no need to add notices like that to clarify; code on the wiki's server that renders the board should color the edges.   I am available to do coding if the people maintaining the wiki are swamped--just let me know.

Tom, i would love to have the board edges colored... perhaps it's just because i'm used to it...

@Tom Ace: You're welcome to help with the coding.  The site runs on stock MediaWiki.  The board is drawn by a plugin that I wrote, because we didn't get the old board code from the owner of the old site.  When I have time, I'll put my custom code in a GitHub repository and I can give you access.

I think one of the introductory pages states that Red is the vertical player in every diagram.

is "vertical player" the one who's edges are vertical or horizontal?

The one trying to connect vertically.

@Arek: I meant "vertical player" in the sense that Dvd says.  However, I will add a note to the wiki, as I now see how that might be confusing.

I'm working on code for the wiki to render diagrams with colored edges (thanks to Tommah for being open to letting me help).  I'm rendering boards with SVG which is supported in pretty much all browsers nowadays -- but I'm looking to test as much as possible before going live.  I have a sample hex board in SVG at http://minortriad.com/hex96.html which anyone can look at.  If it doesn't render well, please let me know -- thanks!

Tom, looks perfect in my browser (Firefox, Linux).

I like that edges are colored but minimally, and i also like the high contrast of colors (red, blue, white).

Great job!

Looks good!

Yes, Tom Ace did a good job with that.  I am going to add his code to HexWiki soon, probably sometime this week.

Tom Ace's new board code is on the site!  It looks very nice.  Please let us know if you spot any problems.

Tom, thanks for your efforts!

I've been reading some of this: http://hexwiki.amecy.com/index.php/Niall_vs_Daniel_Sepczuk_-_Dec_2011

First of all, thank Niall for posting this commentary.

Second, suggestion for Tom, why not make "tip" box appears when mouse is over a cell, showing that cell coordinates.

Third, big problem, we need something great to display trees of variations...

Let me say this. While coordinates are needed, they're a last resort thing.

Without visualization, most of us (including me) are completely lost.

Another idea, we also need a label for each image, so that the text can refer to specific images.

I had to switch blue and red in all my images and comments in the Nozoki page, but now hopefully it makes sense ;)

http://hexwiki.amecy.com/index.php/Nozoki

Arek, I like the page on Nozoki, but... why not call it "peep"? We need names we can remember! :)

Also actually someone has already written a system for storing commented games with variations!

http://www.hexmaster.net/

This should definitely be integrated into Hexwiki...

Lazyplayer,  I think english is good for talking but terrible for heuristic. "Peep" is both noun and verb, it has other undesirable meanings and moreover it sounds stupid ;)

Nozoki is coherent with other terms we borrow from Go and I suspect that we will borrow more in future.

Well, my point was that, in general, I prefer English terms.

I've also had few ideas on how to improve look of hexwiki.

Have this as the *icon* of the website: http://hexwiki.amecy.com/images/hexwiki.png

And have (a copy of) this: http://www.trmph.com/img/hexboard11.png instead of http://hexwiki.amecy.com/index.php/File:Hexposition02.jpg in the home page!

Indeed when I've time I'll write something on why the board as we usually see it is the best representation... :)

Or we could have this in home page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hex_(board_game)#/media/File:Hex-board-11x11-(2).jpg

Yes it's not a realistic game, nor is it a beautiful virtual wooden board, but it "explains" the rules of the game in just one image! :D

I'm with lazyplayer on this one.

Frankly - and this may upset Go players - the whole Nozoki, Tunaki, Tsunami, ... terms sound completely gibberish to me.

I see no reason - and that's my personal opinion - to borrow Go/Japanese terms for Hex when we talk in English.

I absolutely agree with Lazy and Yper: English should be the preferred language for Hex terms.

"Peep" is commonly used in Go despite the common use of Japanese terms, and it seems reasonable to use it in Hex as well.

Another thing we've to settle is what to do with the strategy guides there in hexwiki.

Either we keep them as they are, according to original author, or we freely modify them. But we've to decide.

For example I think i've already modified years ago the Basic strategy page to include an interesting point:

http://hexwiki.amecy.com/index.php/Basic_(strategy_guide)#Blocking_moves

Yet this was not in the original guide, so... if i create a new strategy guide, i take it back and transfer this to mine?

What do we do?

The thing is, each of us think about hex in different way, even if we usually reach same conclusions (at least for the tractable positions). So it makes sense to have different strategy guides for different authors/teams. But on the other hand, we also need to "share" content and terminology as much as possible, to avoid duplication of efforts.

Ehehe, now i remember the story of that piece I've added there. i did so because i was tired that everyone was playing the "classic block" vs me on IGG. So i decided to go there and downplay "classic block" and promote different way of thinking that emphasizes more the whole board.

So in summary, i freely admit that my addition there doesn't fit at all with the rest. Yet the same content has to go somewhere.

Maybe we should do like them: http://senseis.xmp.net/?PagesForBeginners

If we adopt something like this, then no strategy guides by this guy or that guy, but something in the same style as wikipedia.

I've had a good look at the HexWiki. This is an amazing document, and thanks to all who had a hand in it. After many years of resisting, I've finally signed up for some games of Hex because of it.

The point of using a foreign language for names is to avoid ambiguity and it works.

As soon as somebody comes up with english terms for all: nozoki, tenuki, joseki... terms that are absolutely unambiguous!... then I agree we should use english.

It takes some bravery to invent names and try to impose them! :)

Kerry, you're welcome, but i've to warn you that the advices on hexwiki could be much better.

Here are my advices for you:

1) start with small boards (11x11 before 13x13)

2) always play black D5 or symmetrical equivalents one or two times per game regardless of anything else!

Advice 2 however stupid it may seem is what you actually need to have decent start of the game.

Well, thanks to Arek, we've a minimal introduction to this topic in hexwiki too: http://hexwiki.amecy.com/index.php/Joseki#5th_line_josekis

Using the terminology there, what you really need is Joseki C1, C2, C3, C4, D, E, F1, F2

You would benefit with some familiarity with these too: http://hexwiki.amecy.com/index.php/Joseki#4th_line_josekis A1, A2, B, C, D

These, combined with the obvious idea of playing near the center, should give you the basics of how to play.

Hexwiki guides instead tend to have a different point of view, they discuss how to locally fight stones with stones, instead of how to set up the initial positions. It's not a bad point of view but you can't use it from the start. It's like trying to explain chess with reference only to checkmates. Naturally checkmates are important but you don't see checkmates until the very end.