I appreciate that people clever-er than me put in much effort to make OGS what it is, including the rating system - which I’m certain is very technical behind the scenes. I also suspect that many people have a tendency to blame the rating system for their inability to progress. I’m not doing that - my problem is lapses of focus at critical moves.
I also realize this thread is primarily regarding dan levels, but I don’t want to start a new thread. All of that said, I just want to post screenshots of some of some of my recent opponents. The trend seems to show for several mid-SDK, a downward trend beginning mid-2024 or 2025.
Perhaps it’s cherry picking, and of course there can be many reasons. If I could, I’d query in bulk. Take say 100 not-new-mid-to-weak-SDK account ranks as they were about 3rd quarter 2024, calculate the average rank at that time then repeat for the same accounts present day. I’d expect that the average rank would at least stay constant rather than decline.