Rating inflation ... is it? How can we stop it?

it does seem ratings are on a gentle global increase.
am i imagining things?
if it is happening, then why Why? WHY ???
how could we stop it?

Originally posted by flexmore
it does seem ratings are on a gentle global increase.
am i imagining things?

Only someone with access to the database could say for sure whether there is actual ratings inflation. The questions:

1) For players who are "active" (defined in any convenient way, but anyone who's moved in past 100 days is fine), what is the average rating?

2) Same statistic, but this time report average rating for all players with the *potential* to be active? (is there a way to get off the list except for being banned?)

If either of there is over 1200 then we know there is *some* ratings inflation.

Now we'd have to watch this statistic over time, and see if it grows. If so, is it linear, or is it tending to level off?

My feeling is that only statistic #1 really matters, as very few potentially active members will in fact become active. I am also guessing that any inflation indicated in statistic #1 will be relatively small, and relatively stable.

It sure would be interesting to know - does anyone have direct access to this kind of information, or is this a Russ-only type query?

--r

Originally posted by flexmore
it does seem ratings are on a gentle global increase.
am i imagining things?
if it is happening, then why Why? WHY ???
how could we stop it?

You can contribute to stop the rating inflation resigning some of your games😉

Now I feel lower than the scales on a snakes underbelly.

My rating has gone down the whole month, and I am told that ratings are generally on the increase.

Pass me the cyanide please.

It is likely that whenever somebody leaves the site, they will resign all their current games (or they will timeout). Thus as people leave, plus-points are allocated to those still on-site, whioe minus-points go to the loosing person, who then promptly vanishes from the database. This will cause a gradual increase in ratings over time.
However, I suspect that the increase in the number of players with ratings 1800+ over the last year or so is not based on this effect.

I would expect peoples ratings to increase the more they play. If the membership increases then as the recently joined improve then a ratings increase will follow. It's no bad thing and is good for the site.

It means that good players are joining and average players are improving.................Someone talk to the education secretary!!

🙂

I agree with GM Bater. Ratings should steadily go up as players improve. My rating started between 1200-1300 for a long time before taking a leap.

Besides, if someone has a 'false' rating it WILL go down eventually as they get their smackdown from better players.

Can you smeeelllllllll what the ROCK, is cookin? Cheaters are a bunch of Jabrones anyway.

Flexmore and toe have a point.

The rate of inflation will increase with time too.

At the moment I don't think it's a problem at an average rating of active players still below 1300 but it will become a problem eventually.

Originally posted by flexmore
it does seem ratings are on a gentle global increase.
am i imagining things?
if it is happening, then why Why? WHY ???
how could we stop it?

Yes, my rating jumped. I don't know about anybody else but mine jumped because I was on spring break for 2 weeks and had more time to think about my moves and get online. Went back to teaching and I slowed down but, now, it's the weekend...

🙂

Also, if you look at my rating graph, most of my wins have been from people lower than me. The only person I've played above 2000 is IronMan31. Lost both games but did better than I thought 🙂

-CS

I dunno... my rating has been stuck at 1662 for about a week on account of not having finished any games. I was RANKED 412th at the beginning of that period... now I'm RANKED 401st. So the inflation obviously isn't impacting everyone if it in fact exists.

i am guessing the incoming new people to rhp need to be assigned the correct rating to stop inflation.

maybe 1200 is too high ... thousands of them will simply get timed out in a few games and only add points to the pool.
an extra bonus for lowering their beginning rating: they feel good about themselves as they build their points up 🙂

Doing that would in the long run lower the average rating, if by the time another 150K players have joined the site, this would still in all likelihood be over 1100 (an quite possibly over 1200).

It doesn't really address the point causing the inflation, which if all ranking changes keep the points tally the same, that players are more likely to leave with a ranking below the starting point. Making this point lower might make a bit of difference as it starts (i.e. one win against an average player could compensate for a defeat against several newer players), but as time goes on this effect would be less.




The only ways I could think of to stop inflation would be to make sure the average rating of those leaving is 1,200, or to factor into the calulated ratings a lost 'point' (or part therefof) upon a result (i.e. one player gains 19 points, the other loses 20). Neither good practical suggestions, we can't tie people to computers until they pair off, and the latter would be almost impossible to calculate correctly, probably variable anyway.

The only solution I can come up with is a yearly adjustment.

Everyones rating would go down by a fixed amount

ie --> new rating = old rating - average active rhper rating + 1200

This would solve the inflation problem.

It will never be implemented because it will be so impopular 🙂

Do you players think there is there some way to tell your current ranking (i.e. "You rank 21234 of 76981 active members."😉? If not, it seems like it wouldn't take a major program change to have this feature. I bet it can even be expanded to do your own tracking of any combination of players and banks of players.

knowwhatimean?

Originally posted by ravenswood
Do you players think there is there some way to tell your current ranking (i.e. "You rank 21234 of 76981 active members."😉? If not, it seems like it wouldn't take a major program change to have this feature. I bet it can even be expanded to do your own tracking of any combination of players and banks of players.

knowwhatimean?

I find it hard to belive you haven't clicked on Player Tables in the eight months you have been here 😉