There should be a former insei or washed-up pro in rural China or S Korea, who is just not quite good enough to make it in his home country, but who would be monstrously strong by L19 standards. His living expenses would seem paltry compared to ours, and a 50 USD monthly retainer would seem like a small windfall to him. If we can find such a person, everybody wins.

While that may very well be true, and I don't mind having a (semi-)pro around for commenting the games etc, even at 50USD/month your extra money will only last for four months, if I understood correctly. What will happen after that?

I think L19 needs to get professional help. We could use a pro, especially in the game analysis forum.

In threads like this ( http://lifein19x19.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=5454 ) and this ( http://lifein19x19.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=5277 ) players with ratings of 3D and higher are still disagreeing or uncertain.

One of the things that attracts players to L19 is the presence of stronger players who can offer advice. But we have topped out around 5D/6D. If you are 3D+, you have no certainty that anyone here can answer your questions.

I'd like to jump-start this process, and get a pro who shows up regularly. The 6Ds and 7Ds would have an incentive to hang around, which would increase the number of low dans, which would increase...etc...

There should be a former insei or washed-up pro in rural China or S Korea, who is just not quite good enough to make it in his home country, but who would be monstrously strong by L19 standards. His living expenses would seem paltry compared to ours, and a 50 USD monthly retainer would seem like a small windfall to him. If we can find such a person, everybody wins.

Of course, there's no guarantee you wouldn't find two pros and an ex-insei, all of whom would _still_ disagree with each other on a number of points, and the level of disagreement would be that bit further over our heads

Fwiw, whatever plan you adopt, count me in as someone who would contribute a bit, but missed the window.

Me too!

One possible issue with the suggestion of finding pros and pro-aspirants is the language barrier - if they are fluent enough in English I doubt such retainers would be attractive (but I suspect that even if they aren't fluent the money would not be attractive - especially given the time that may be needed).

As a forum I think L19 is doing quite well, and I think saving the money/beer and pizza for the admins would be good Another possibility might be to use part of the money to buy, say, KGS plus subscriptions as prizes for some L19 tournaments.