From: Larry Kaufman <lkaufman <at> WIZARD <dot> NET>
Date: 2 dec 1999
Subject: Re: Yahoo!

At 08:59 PM 12/1/99 -0800, you wrote:
>Manabu
>
>> As of 12/02, the number of www.shogidojo.com members exceeds 8000 players
>> which doubles yahoo's chess players. And the monthly protted trend graph
>> of member increase showed at www.shogidojo.com/etc/data/members.htm leads
>> me to believe that the member exceeds 10000 players very shortly.
>> In consideration
>> of the difference between shogi population and chess population,
>> the number
>> of www.shogidojo.com members is quite big. This suggests the
>> www.shogidojo.com
>> really hits online shogi players in Japan.
>
>There's no question about it; that represents quite a success.  But that is
>within Japan.  My point was aimed not so much at providing a service to
>Japan, where there are many shogi players and, if a person wants to play,
>many opportunities to learn.  It is more to encourage the growth of the game
>outside Japan and to provide a way of bringing more players into the game
>and making it more fun for those who want to play more.
>
>The Shogidojo site does not appear to me to be navigable in English.

     What are you talking about?  Everything you need is in English on
ShogiDojo, and already many westerners are playing there.  It is free for
those outside Japan, though I'm told it's not free within Japan.  It offers
instant ratings and other features.  This in no way is to criticize your
idea, which is intended to appeal to people who would be unlikely ever to
hear of ShogiDojo.  But please don't knock the one great site we currently
have.

 Plus,
>it's members are already converts to the game and, presumably, are mostly
>from a country where the opportunities to play are ample. What I was
>suggesting was to provide a new way into the game for an international
>audience and to locate it on a site with a fantastic traffic in people from
>all countries, nearly all of whom speak English, nearly all of whom have a
>demonstrated interest and nearly all of whom have never been exposed to
>Shogi.  Given that the number of active non-Japanese shogi players numbers
>in the hundreds world-wide, perhaps the low thousands, this is nothing to
>sneeze at.
>
>There is no rush.  Such opportunities will only increase in number.  But it
>may be opportunity to publicize the game on a comparatively large scale.
>Free.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>>
>> I think it may be a good idea that the server is to be licensed so that
>> a servermaster in a country or an area can set up a replica server with
>> the same function but in a local language or English.
>>
>> Manabu Terao
>>
>>
>>
>> Get your FREE, private e-mail account at http://mailcity.lycos.ne.jp
>>
>