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Originally posted by Dragon Firelegitimate players can make up stuff about their life just as easily as anonymous trolls. for example, I really have big doubts about the things arrakis used to claim. I have no particular reason to doubt his name or chess past, but contrary to his claims he seemed to know next to nothing about computers, programming, engine detection and writing. I think he mostly made it up as he went on, knowing nobody could really check the facts.
Perhaps players who have legitimate OTB ratings and have proven this should have a field on their profile indicating a genuine player with their proven rating. This should be easy to implement
and legitimate players can succumb to cheating just as easily as anybody else, so a verified rating would not mean much (consider seadevil), and the only way to be sure would be checking their games here. which of course is totally unaffected by whether they have a verified national rating/name or not.
so, in the end, I think we're stuck with evaluating the character of users by their actions here. and making gut decisions on whether to trust their words or not. - and just like in real life, there are no guarantees.