If I could understand how the Humble rank was supposed to work, one could just imagine being able to declare some equivalent of Humble rank for new players, with their ratings still being the default glicko ones.
That is for pairing purposes they appear as the rank they declare, at least until their provisional rank goes away, but the ratings calculations will be still be the normal glicko ones.
I guess one is still in the territory of people being able to sandbag as far as pairings are concerned for a few games.
Did YakaGo or his friend request a rating reset to 30 kyu? Because that would be a reasonable thing to ask for (even if the answer is OGS doesn’t allow that anymore). If every beginner with a too high initial rank asked for that maybe we wouldn’t think the current system reduces the requests for rating resets!
I think a beginner just need to tell he’s a beginner. There are more interesting things to live for him as to study how a ranking system works and how to correct its bias. Not to mention it’s not that confortable to show critics when you just arrive.
I’m sorry to say this, but I don’t think that OGS offers such a great experience to beginners.
Some things are much better than elsewhere, such as no client installation, a modern look & feel, availability of many beginner opponents and very friendly and helpful mods.
But some other things are less optimal for beginners, such as the challenge to find suitable opponents, and the sometimes obscure procedures of finishing and scoring games, where explanations are difficult to find (so people keep asking in the OGS forums or on reddit).
I think proper information would already do a lot here.
The current system could perhaps be further improved, but it’s not that bad and I doubt this is enough for most beginners to give up if they understand what is going on. The worst is being crushed and not even knowing why this is happening, how to get out of it, whether you did something wrong etc.
I’d favor some kind of automatic (skippable) OGS po-up tutorial for new accounts, which would explain basic features. This would also explain how temporary ranks work, and that if you’re a true beginner you will likely lose your first games but that’s alright, it’s normal and you will quickly be set at your level.
Hello welcome to OGS!
If you are a beginner be aware that if you want fair ranked games you will have to wait for a while and accept to be paired with crushing opponents.
If you dislike it, find yourself your opponents for unranked games.
This is because we have a very efficient ranking system that we like and that you will enjoy later.
I don’t think that go offers such a great experience to beginners. It’s quite hard to figure out without someone introducing it to you. Unlike other games where you just need to take the king or eat everything.
I want a pop-up for Fox as well: “Welcome to Fox, if you are a beginner be aware that our kyu ranks are filled with high dan players and our low dan ranks are filled with double digit kyu players. So, you will have to get past 3-4d til you can expect fair games. Til then, you might be crushed or you might get super-easy opponents, who knows. If you dislike it… erm, do we even have an unranked culture? Try making a new account at each rank and see which one fits you maybe?”