Inspired by shalev's recent commentaries, I built a site:

www.hexmaster.net

which is a site for commenting 13x13 hex games, similar to Alan Hensel's great site Twixt Commentator, http://twixt-commentator.dyndns.org/, and which uses a similar system of commentary. Many of you are already familiar with that site, but I've put up a commented game as an example of how to comment. The clickable moves in the comments can be made by writing something like 1.e4 2.e5 3.f6 etc, and by default every move that is entered is considered a variation of the last branch written. You can use the \| symbol to reset and have the next move you type be a variation directly from the game.

Thanks also to trmph, from which the board and stones images are adapted with photoshop.

I haven't implemented password reset or profile editing, so for now try to save your password and be careful to enter your lg name right, but I can fix these manually if necessary, if you message me. Your email is optional and will only be used for password reset once that is implemented.

Please enjoy and message me about any bugs!

Wow, awesome!

Link www.hexmaster.net

Nice!

I tried to comment a game, but nothing happens, except the URL changes:

http://www.hexmaster.net/?comment[body]=1.c2+Looking+at+mohex%E2%80%99s+previous+games%2C+I+noticed+that+it+seems+to+play+opening+moves+that+are+a+bit+too+strong%2C+and+it+also+seems+to+not+swap+enough.+This+made+me+think+it+probably+won%E2%80%99t+swap+b2+or+c2%2C+in+which+case+I+prefer+having+the+c2+stone+%28it%E2%80%99s+strictly+stronger%2C+although+in+practice+only+by+a+bit%29.&comment[game_id]=4&submit=Comment#/games/1607975

Is there some special thing to do (except to log in) to save the comments?

Oh no! thanks for checking it out and trying to comment, and thanks for the bug report! What browser are you using? I was able to reproduce the bug in Firefox, and I tracked down an issue that might cause this problem in older versions of IE. It seems to be working in Chrome, Safari, and lE 11 for me. I'm trying to fix it for firefox now.

I was able to fix this so that it is working for me on firefox, and still working on chrome, ie, and safari. Hope this fixes the problem and thanks again for the report!

Yes it was fiferox… Thanks for correcting!

Is it possible to insert branches right now (I don't get a link for it)?

Inserting a branch is working for me on all browsers, the way it works might be a little confusing though. If you click moves
on the board that are different from the game, a branch showing the moves you click is put into the right column of the
moves table. Then you click the Insert Branch button next to the comments to put those moves that are in that column into
the text field. The button is disabled until you have a branch on the board to insert though.

I think another way to get a branch is to type the alternate moves in the comment…

As a layout remark, would it be possible to have the comments on the right of the diagram to make it simpler to follow through the comments viewing the board at the same time?

You are right about the layout, I was afraid the window would be too wide this way, but it is the lesser of two evils since it is much easier to use with the comments on the side, and it should still be readable even on a smaller laptop, so I have changed it.

Also, thanks for posting shalev's commentary on the mohex game, I have made some slight revisions like changing the trmph links to clickable variations, and it is very readable now that the comments are on the side.

Nice website, I appreciate that the comments are on the right side now.

I would like to be able to use the next button to go through branches, instead of just the main line, but I can understand if it's hard to implement, especially when there are multiple branches from a move.

You may find it a complete waste of time, since it's not a big thing, and z could probably have made it with considerably less effort, but I created a “replacement for the hexboard”:http://i.imgur.com/nR96cKm.png, because I found the border a bit ugly.
I left out the outermost border because I might have difficulties in making it round like in the original, and I find that it looks nice without it too.
The hexagons are exactly at the same positions as in the original.
I made it with SVG, so I can easily change the colors, and less easily the sizes of the margins etc.

It is the first image I ever uploaded, so please share it with your friends to make it viral!

Also, I added two comments to your game review against firehand.
(My submission for the _longest post of the month_ challenge)

Your board is a big improvement, thank you! I have added it to the site. I am completely new at photoshop, so my results were not so good but your board
looks great with the stones. Also thanks for the comments on the game!

I want to add the navigation within a branch, for instance if you click a move in a comment, it should put the whole branch in the navigator, and you should be
able to move through it pressing left and right keys or the arrows. There's no real barrier to doing this but it makes things more complicated since I have
to keep track of an extra thing in the navigation, so it might take some time before I implement it.

Thanks for editing and the change of layout, fantastic!

The arrows key don't work for me in firefox.
Do you know any reason it does not show anything in Safari on IOS tablets?

I haven't implemented arrow keys yet, it's something I want to add when I add navigation within a branch though, sorry for the confusion. My iphone gives me a very generic javascript error so I will have to get a better debugging setup before I can fix it. It would be nice if it works on tablets, but I don't have one so I can't test it very well.

Thanks for your work. Have a free virtual pizza.

This is amazing. The hex community has been really lucky, getting a bunch of nice new tools. Two humble suggestions of improvements:
1) Add a feature to perma-link to a particular move of a particular commentary.
2) Add a feature to mark the last placed stone. Sometimes jumping around in a commentary gets a little messy.

Also – Nice nickname, Nate, “bundle gerbes” don't get mentioned enough in non-mathematical contexts.