Actually no… Glicko doesn’t NEED it, Glicko RECOMMENDS it. And the statistics when setting it up (as we are told) has more accuracy when it starts at 1500.
But I personally doubt that accounts for more than one percentage point and is probably not worth the initiation by fire.
That being said, I really like GreenasJade’s suggestion, but I have one question: when should the ? go away? When uncertainty drops? To what level? What if they don’t play often and so uncertainty doesn’t drop quickly? Like, if someone is a 20k? and they drop out for a month and come back a 13k in actual strength and are still 20k? What then?
I know this is even further removed from reality, but that indicates a move in the right direction. To my question I would suggest a time limit on the ? rank or a certain amount of rating drift away from the alleged rank. (As in if a 25k? raises in rating a certain amount (even after dropping) they will lose the ? rank)