LiveOthello FAQ
OTHELLO BOARD
CHAT
ADMINISTRATION
CREDITS
OTHELLO BOARD
LiveOthello.com is a website that offers to Othello federations the possibility to broadcast live Othello games,
enabling Othello enthusiasts all around the world to follow the games within their browser.
This service is proposed completely free of charge by the World Othello Federation.
LiveOthello is NOT a game server where you can play Othello against opponents around the world. For this, I recommend playOk or vint.ee.
A Javascript-enabled and recent browser is required to broadcast and display the games.
No other piece of software is necessary. It should display correctly with most recent browers like Firefox, Chrome,
Safari and Internet Explorer (but at least IE 10).
If you experience some problems with your browser, I suggest you try another one.
There is yet no specific mobile site as the standard site displays mostly correctly (if not very user-friendly) on most smartphones.
On the left side of the window, you will find the list of all available tournaments, the selected one (by default the most recent one) being highlighted in red.
Just click on a tournament's name to select it.
On the right side, one or two games can be displayed (each in a cell), depending on the window size.
For each cell, a menu helps the viewer to choose a game to watch, the more recent ones being on top of the menu. At any time, the viewed game can be changed by clicking on the menu.
Each window enables you to watch up to two games from the same tournament, but you can open several windows and assign each one to a different tournament (or to the same tournament and watch more than two games).
The board shows the current board position. The arrows can be used to navigate back and forth through the game.
The board will automatically update new moves received by the server.
The first small checkbox on the lower left is used to enable/disable displaying the last move number on the board. The second checkbox shows legal moves.
If you click on the "diag" button, the transcript of the game will be display; click again on it and you will be brought back to the game.
Click on the button at the bottom of the window and an alert with the list of moves will be displayed; you will then be able to copy the list.
A timer indicates approximate remaining time for both colors. The timer is activated by the referee clicking on his computer, so it does not reflect exact clock time of the game.
The referee has the possibility to adjust the timers to reflect actual remaining time.
When a new game is created, a small clickable message will appear for 2 minutes at the top of a game cell to warn all current viewers.
A click on the message will open the new game in a new cell or will replace one of the viewed games by the new one.
The upper game menus are also updated to include the new game if the viewer is browsing the same tournament as the one in which the new game is created.
When a new game is created, a mail is sent to all registered emails in the LiveOthello database.
If you want to be notified when a new game is created so you can watch it online, please subscribe by entering your email in the form at the bottom of the left column.
You will receive a confirmation email with a link you have to click to confirm your email. Needless to say, your email will never be used to send anything else than liveothello annoucements.
CHAT
Nicknames normally appear in grey in the chat window. The nickname of the referee following the live game appears in green so all viewers know it's the real referee chating.
By default his nickname is "admin" but he can change it to anything else (and it will still appear in green). Some nicknames have been registered and protected by a password: they appear in black.
This means that you can be sure that only the real owner of a registered nickname can use it: if a nickname displays in black, all viewers can assume that the real owner is behind it.
And of course, he has no obligation to use it, he can always use a different non-registered login (which will appear in grey).
Just send me a mail with the desired login and password!
Yes, everything is kept in the chat database so that you can come afterwards and read comments about a game. The owner of this site keeps the possibility to erase any wrongful message or insults.
ADMINISTRATION
The access to the admin pages is protected by a password. Please ask "Emmanuel.Lazard(-AT-)katouche.fr" for it. It is freely available to anyone wanting to broadcast live games.
If you know someone willing to broadcast an othello game, there is no reason for not giving him the password. The admin section is password-protected just to prevent ill-intentioned access.
The grey panel is used to make annoucements to all viewers and to have them displayed on the main page.
The goal is to be able to inform all viewers of standings during a tournament or of any general information (when play shall resume, what happened...).
It may also be used outside a tournament to annouce a scheduled tournament that will be displayed on liveothello.
Only administrators can make an annoucement. You can use the form on the first admin page (where you are asked to choose a tournament).
In that case, your message will be preceded by 'General:'. You may also publish a message from the game-update page in which case the message will be preceded by the
name of the tournament.
Once in the admin section (by clicking the ADMIN link in the upper menu), you are prompted to choose a tournament: you can either choose an existing tournament to add a live game to it
or (by selecting "Other...") you can create a new tournament. If you want to practice with liveothello without creating a tournament, you can choose the link to the test tournament directly from the text.
After having selected a tournament, you may select an existing game you wish to resume updating or by choosing "Other..." you may create a new live game.
In this case, you are asked to fill in the form with the round number (SF, 3/4 and F are for one-game semi-finals, 3/4 playoff and finals; SF1, SF2 and SF3 are for best-of-3-games semi-finals;
likewise for 3/4-1, -2, -3 and F1, F2, F3) and the time limit per player (it will default to the one you've indicated when the tournament was created).
You must then indicate each player with the menu or create one or two new players by selecting "Other...".
If you make a mistake, an error message will appear and you will have to start all over.
If everything is ok, the board will show up, enabling you to update the game by clicking the moves on the board.
There is no way to correct any typing mistake directly from the website. The best thing to do is to drop me a note (by mail or in the chat if I'm listening) and I will correct the spelling in the database
as soon as possible.
If you are looking at the game sideways, the 'rotate' button on the lower right corner will rotate your displayed position to match what you see; press it before the start of the game!
You may give more precise information about the clock by pressing the "update timers" button: you will then be able to indicate time left for both players.
If you make a mistake while clicking the moves, just click on the 'back' arrow to go back one move and play the correct move.
Yes of course, by using exactly the same website. I hope it works with every smartphone but there is no way for me to test the website.
Please fell free to contact me if it doesn't display correctly on your phone.
If you are entering a game after the tournament, it can be easier to paste a list of moves copied from an Othello program: it can be done with the upper right form on the admin page for a game.
Unfortunately, there is currently no way to show a flipping error on the board. I suggest you stop broadcasting and write a message in the chat window by clicking on the "misflip" button.
Be careful that any changes on the board will reflect on all viewers' pages: do not use the board to try alternate line with the players after the end of the game!
CREDITS
Broadcast of live Othello games was initially a idea developed by Tintin Eng and Henry Aspenryd.
The current website is developed and maintained for the World Othello Federation by Emmanuel Lazard with big help from Stéphane Nicolet, Henry Aspenryd, Marc Tastet ans other testers.
The board was created by the hamlite website.
Last but not least, Othello is a wonderful game and a registered trademark of Anjar Co. and Megahouse.
Many thanks to them for their continued support of the Othello world.
Use it! Use it as many times as you want. Tell your federation to use it so that the whole world can follow your games.
You may want to thank me by giving me some money (it seems it's a common way of thanking people, even though I've never asked for anything)
but I've realized there is an amazing number of people on earth who desperately need money to survive, much more than I do. If you really appreciate liveothello
and would like to thank me for the uncountable number of hours I've spent developing this site, please consider giving a small amount of money to your local charity organization.
