Posts:
46
Registered:
Feb 1, 2002
From:
Little Elm
Age:
32 Home page
Ratings Fraud
Posted:
Feb 24, 2004, 3:25 PM
Look, I'm not the kind of guy to get on a bandwagon and start accusing people of this or that bad thing. However, I am getting quite tired of the way people seem to think it is funny or okay to engage in ratings fraud. By thsi, I mean specifically making new IDs to intentionally game the ratings system to have a higher rating under teh provisional system. Online at this site, the only thing we have to help us understand our opponents and show our progress is our rating. I fully understand that some people do not care what their rating is and that si absolutely fine. I do not denigrate these people. I do however, have strong words for people who make new IDs with the sole intent of playign tricks on players, disguising your ability to get games with lower skille dplayers and thereby raise yoru own rating artifically, or any other unethical and completely wrong notion you may get in your head to justify making new IDs. I will admit that I have made extra IDs. I do not think that practice in and of itself is wrong. I have made my regular name, my speed name, and an experimental play ID. I also have another ID for anonymity that is known to a few players. I only play people with that ID who know me and then we only play unrated.
Why is it important to maintani the ratings system and not try to use the ratings system to play practical jokes on each other, or worse to game the system? Because if the system is not held int eh highest regard, the system means nothing. Granted the system has its flaws now but that is no reason to destroy what value there is in it. I'm sure that top ranked players woudl be upset to find that their ratings meant nothing and I'm sure that lower ranked players woudl fidn it qiute difficult to find players that wouldn't just womp them in the first 5 moves. Tournaments being played here woudl becoem bizarre since withotu a ratings system to seed everyone, some new person woudl be paired with dmitriking ro richardiii. Hwo fair is that?
Somethgin must be done within the community to stop this sort fo childish and dangerous behavior. I understadn some people may not worry abtou tehir ratings too much but for thos eof us who do, please respect the system and stop making extra IDs so that we can trust the system to be at least more accurate than a random number.
etcetera. Does this make any sense? Who is ranked where? It's completely meaningless. Well, it makes no sense here at DSG either. Yet here at DSG we have exactly that.
If you don't care about ratings--hey, great. Not everyone does. But if you don't care about ratings, then playing RATED games with MULTIPLE ID's should be unnecessary. If, on the other hand, you do care about the ratings, you should realize the importance of maintaining the integrity of the ratings system. Creating a new ID that has a rating that is not representative on one's ability affects EVERY PERSON who plays a rated game against that ID, and then EVERYONE who plays ALL OF THOSE PEOPLE are affected.
An experimental ID should not pose a problem as long as the games played with it are UNRATED. Similarly, as Greg mentioned, some of the high profile players who are well known (Like Greg, for instance) might want to play personal friends without being bothered by anyone, so he might create an anonymous ID. OF course, as Greg mentioned, these games should be played unrated.
Speed IDs are another matter. It is legitimateto want to have a separat rating for speed than for normal. I know I do not want to risk hurting my hard earned rating in a SPEED game where anything can happen, so I have a separate speed ID, "speedmitri."
with this SPEED ID I play ONLY speed, and I do not play speed with my normal ID. This way, no ratings are improperly affected. ALso, it is readily apparent and known that "Dmitriking" and "speedmitri" are the same ID, because they both contain "Dmitri" in it.
Some people, I have noticed, do not bother maintaining the distinction between their speed name and regular name. Why bother having a separate ID then? Muddling the two together has an effect on the ratings that it should not have. And, if the speed nickname is NOT obviously related to a known regular name, a noe in the profile would be a nice way to avoid inadvetantly deceiving opponents.
If I do not accept a game invite right away, it means I will once I have fewer games in progress.
Posts:
542
Registered:
May 9, 2002
From:
Northeast USA
Re: Ratings Fraud
Posted:
Feb 26, 2004, 5:39 PM
I used to be extremely neutral and indifferent on this subject. This is no longer the case. The privilage of playing at DSG is contingent on following some rules. To briefly summarize:
1) Do not mistreat other players.
2) Do not intentionally subvert or hack the system.
Committing either of these behaviors is grounds for immediate and permanent banishment.
Committing ratings fraud breaks both of these rules. Do not do it. Ever.
