You want the green section of the graph in OP
See my previous comment:
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I imagine the pairing solution is something like having a humble rank floor at 25 or whatever but show real rank down to 25k.
This way players in the range 35-25 could be paired with anyone from 35 to floor+9 but would be able to see if their opponent is 33k or 25k while also being able to their own progress.
It strikes me that new players often think (and really want to believe) that they are actually 25k if that’s what they are labelled as so the reality that they are maybe 10 ranks lower is tough to accept.
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How does this graph show me how many of those accounts have played a minimum of 5 games and have been active within the last two to three weeks?
I understand the slaughtering aspect, but Flovo feared nobody would ever improve if new players didn’t have a chance to see someone playing the game correctly. Slaughter or not, they would learn. 35k vs 35k would learn at a much slower pace. Part of the birthright of becoming a Go player is the steep “learning” curve. And by learning I of course mean “crushed beyond recognition” 
I think what new players desire most is to confirm when they are making any shred of progress. The process of learning is difficult and can be emotionally grueling. So having a little confirmation that it is hard but still yielding results, is a big positive.
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Green represents established players, deviation < 100 (according to the legend in the top right of each image)
Since deviation is based on number of games played as well as how recently, it is going to be a fairly good indication that they’ve probably played 5 games in the last few weeks.
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And acceptance of being crushed is a key skill you can use throughout your go playing years…
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That part of your message flew completely over my head previously. Could you explain what exactly Deviation < 100 quantifies?
But this graph represents a data pool taken over a six month period. I’m curious about the last two weeks only (which the graph doesn’t gauge at all). Also, I can only see bar length in the graph, for the 50K to 25K range. I know the total value of all green bars equals 14,097 players, but not what portion of that is the player range that I’m interested in.
Agreed. The only thing that gave me hope to cling to was the line in the rank chart creeping ever so slowly toward the 25k mark. Would have been nice to have a number to attach to that. Sure there’s the rating, but that didn’t mean anything to me at the time.
Edit: I’m still not sure that rating means anything to me 
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Look everyone!! A unicorn 
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huh? I care about my rank, but not the actual rating because I don’t really understand it
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Has anyone played on a server that has 35k? If so, how was it as a beginner?
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We used to go down to 30k, what I discovered while analyzing those games is the rank wasn’t acting as a good indicator for who was going to win, and wasn’t going to be a good device to pick handicaps with, so that’s why we started having 25k be the lowest we’d go. We do need a way up show progression though, and maybe we should still show the ranks just not do anything with handicaps for beginner games.
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Would could steal a page from pandanet IGS and have below true 25k “BC - Beginner Class” that sort of functions as 26kyu but actually has everyone under 25?
Yep maybe so, still though it’d be nice to see some progression within BC
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If they still fall in the 25k match making group, the rank has to be shown as this to avoid confusion.
25k BC1 maybe? Many characters through.
Or simply BC1 if they fall in a new 26k group.
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Yes of course, that would be a great improvement… just spit-balling ideas 
but I think being able to monitor progression is best regardless of how we handle match making and handicaps
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That’s why I proposed BC being equivalent to 26 kyu, so they all have their own special rank for MM rather than being lumped with legit 25k (though maybe the difference is marginal? it just made more sense to me to separate them a little)
snap 
Edit: why the 1 though? do you expect there to be multiple BC classes?
I wasn’t concerned with the admin side of things, nor handicaps, as they aren’t even a useful tool (reverse komi is better for evening the game).
I wanted to know from the users side what it was like dealing with 35k.
We want to show progression, don’t we?
If all Beginner Classes are just treated as 1 for matchmaking, we still can append a number to show progression.
So yes, there will be multiple (virtual) classes.
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I see, good call.
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Just thought about it, and I wanted to ask:
Are the repercussions for beginners constantly falling in rank, below the “starting at 25k rank” worse than having them sit at 25k without seeing progress?
Would the new starting rank have to be 35k if it was implemented?
Would users prefer to see fast progress from 35k to 25k rather than the exceptionally slow march from 25k to 20k?
Edit: As a teacher, I would prefer to see the “below 25k ranks” so that I know if they know about liberties (actually read a tutorial or two) and whatnot at a glance. As a player, I suspect that seeing fast progression would help me feel better about playing the game, as opposed to being stagnant. It could change what it means to “be 25k” though, as 25k might actually mean you can actually ‘‘play’’ the game, but don’t know any of the theory or whatever. Would be interesting I guess.
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