Hi folks, I started today to use the “Hide ranks and ratings”-option, to see how it influences the game perception and quality, both in the sense of skill and enjoyment.
Do you use this feature? and if yes why? What is your experience with it?
I am very competitive and would never be able to use this feature unless I felt I was gaining some form of benefit from it.
I am willing to play weaker players but my brain needs to know that they are weaker. Because its possible to still improve playing weaker players providing the right adjustments to how you plan to play the game.
So I try to take away something no matter what and I feel the unknown would prevent me from taking anything away from it.
Some people might benefit from it though I can see how they might benefit from it. My competitive mind just wouldn’t allow it :-).
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As a player I would have it on all the time.
As a moderator, regrettably, it sometimes obscures critical data for timely responses. So I normally don’t use it, although I would like to.
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I do not use this functionality.
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I can only see benefits and no downsides.
I probably wont ever use it. 
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Yes, I love this feature. I feel much more comfortable to play my own game when I don’t know know my opponent’s rank.
I’m not sure that it’s actually affected results at all or made me “stronger” but I feel it has improved the playing experience for me.
There are some previous discussions if interested, e.g.
I think it helps that I mainly play tournaments as a way to get games. Choosing a ladder opponent is a bit annoying with ranks hidden and the play screen reveals ranks for custom game offers.
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I do use this feature because knowing my opponent’s rank has an effect on the way I think about the game which I don’t really like. When I know I’m playing a weaker player it makes me search less hard for clever responses to my moves because I think they aren’t likely to find them, and when I know I’m playing a stronger player it makes me more likely to submit to their moves without checking if they really work. I have a better experience when I don’t know because that allows me to just play my own game without being tempted to take shortcuts based on “metagaming” considerations.
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This is possibly a downside. I take longer to resign against much stronger players!
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Yup… 
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Play and mod on different devices? /Browsers?
I use it and I’m very happy with it.
I was used to check my rank after each game. This was bad habit, I was focusing on my rank gains and losses, I was stupidly relaxed when playing weaker and submissive when playing stronger. That sometimes brought me to lose against weaker because of superficiality and against stronger even when I had opportunities because of their mistakes.
So I decided to forget about my rank and just try to find the best move I can.
I removed lots of thinking that wasn’t actually inherent with my games. I’m very happy with this.
On the ladder I don’t like to challenge much stronger players, so I use a second browser just for that. Since I usually challenge only players that are slightly stronger than me, knowing their rank isn’t an issue.
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I have the ranks hidden. It actually helps me to play better moves if i assume that my opponent is as strong as i am.
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I find it intriguing to evaluate opponent’s strength based on his moves.
Sometimes it actually takes a while before I realise I screwed up and resign.
But usually I find myself thinking “is this really a slack move or is it me that don’t understand?” 
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I find it intriguing to evaluate opponent’s strength based on his moves.
Perhaps it’s time to get the Guess Rank Game going again?
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