About Mahjong Tilework
Mahjong Tilework is a guide to playing mahjong: the rules in plain words, with original drawings of every tile. The pages are written by Ali, who plays, and Matt Harrington, who owns and runs the site and is responsible for everything published here. Both names appear on every guide, and you can reach either of us through the contact page.
Ali and Matt also run Red Threes, a guide to canasta and Hand and Foot, written and checked the same way.
It is a small site by design. We would rather publish a few pages we can stand behind than a great many assembled from whatever the internet already says.
How we check the rules
Mahjong has no single rulebook. It is played several different ways, the published sources often disagree, and some of what is written online is copied from elsewhere without checking. So we work like this:
- Two independent sources for every rule. A rule goes on a page only when at least two published sources that do not copy each other agree on it. Sources count by publisher: all of one writer's pages are one source, however many of them there are.
- A written record for every page. Before a page is drafted we build a fact list for it, with each rule and the sources that support it. The page is then written from that list and checked back against it. The lists live in the site's repository, not on the site, but they are the reason a page can be trusted.
- Disagreements are stated, not smoothed over. Where the sources differ, the page says so and tells you to settle it at your table. Hong Kong scoring in particular is a local agreement, and no single table of values is the definitive one.
- Nothing unchecked is stated as fact. If a claim rests on a single source, we either leave it out or name the source it came from, so you can see it is one voice rather than a settled rule. We never print it as though it were checked.
- Every page lists its sources so you can go and read them yourself.
What we will not publish
- The National Mah Jongg League's card. American hands are published by the League each year and are its property. We explain how the card works and how to read a line on it, using an invented example, and we point you to the League to buy the real thing.
- Disputed values stated as settled. Where our sources differ, the page names who says what, and there is no list of faan values anywhere on this site: each hand page gives that hand's value and says where the sources differ.
- Experience we have not had. We have not tested the mahjong sets we describe, and the buying guide says so on its face: everything there about a particular set comes from the maker's published specifications, with the date we read them.
The drawings
Every tile on the site is drawn for Mahjong Tilework, including the 6 Bam that gets painted step by step through the guide. Nothing is traced from a set maker's artwork or photographs.
How the site pays for itself
The site is free to read and carries display advertising. Nobody pays us to cover anything, no manufacturer sees a page before it is published, and there are no affiliate links on the site at present. If that changes, links that earn money will be marked as such.
Corrections
If you spot a mistake, or your group plays a rule we have not covered, please get in touch. Corrections are welcome and we would rather hear about an error than leave it standing.
Independence
Mahjong Tilework is not affiliated with the National Mah Jongg League, with the American Mah Jongg Association, or with any of the other sources we cite.