Please, dear OGS, switch to mathematical rounding of kyus and dans. Commonly accepted in mathematics and science method of rounding is rounding 0,1,2,3 and 4 down and 5,6,7,8,9 up. 5 digits here and 5 digits there.
So, for instance 13.5 is rounded to 14, whereas 13.4 is rounded to 13. Whereas at OGS, for instance, 13.1 is rounded to 14 -_-
I can get that you, as programmers, probably prefer floor and ceiling functions, but not mathematical rounding makes it harder to figure out how strong is my opponent. Plus it’s a bit frustrating that I can have, for instance, 13.1 kyu and still be labelled as 14 kyu -_-
I can also understand that you don’t want 0.4 kyu to be rounded up as 1 dan, but from mathematical/methodological point of view it’s correct.
But traditional ranks don’t have fractions. If you want intensely modern accuracy, then opt for your 4 digit glickonomic rating. Why have the former masquerade as the latter?
Because putting a more precise number into friendly buckets is a concept humans discovered millenia ago and reflects our ability as a species for complex thought.
I like the way it currently is. Changing rank feels more like “passing a threshold” than “closest average”
One change i would make is I would prefer it to be directional, so that once your rank changes it’s slightly harder to change again.
Basically, gaining a rank should be a ceiling function, but losing a rank should be a floor, so that you aren’t constantly changing rank if you are hovering around the *.9 *.1 range
Edit: maybe that’s not clear enough. What I mean is if an 8k climbs from 8.1 up to 7.9 they should promote to 8k, but falling back down to 8.1 shouldn’t immediately drop them back to 9k, that should be reserved until they fall to 9.1k then they can be dropped to 8k.
It’s probably way more confusing, but I think people would like ranks to feel a bit more weightier, and since they’re only cosmetic overlays for the rating anyway, it should be fine.
Edit again because I’m an idiot and numbers are hard lol
Why not, but the poll in the thread linked above wasn’t kind to the current system, so this doesn’t seem that popular!
And you seem a bit confused yourself by this sytem (or am I?), as going from 8.9 to 9.1 on OGS does not mean “promoting to 9k”, it means “demoting to 10k”.
I would say, for you as a 14k, nobody within 9 ranks of you will have their strength significantly effected by rounding. I’m 7k OGS on average, but calling me 5k or 9k would not be wildly wrong. Kyu players just aren’t that consistent. Your games are much more likely to be decided by play style or blunders than by a rounding decision in the ranking.
Maybe what you really need is that feature in settings that hides all ranks completely, so you can play freely without worrying if player is 11k or 17k.
Yeah but I agree with Uberdude that people like traditional ranks, and it feels good to have it.
I wouldn’t want to hide my rank, but I can understand the point that we shouldn’t bother with decimals since it doesn’t matter. If « 7k » doesn’t mean much, surely « 7.4 » means even less.
If we do use decimals, I also tend to agree that OGS’ current system is somewhat confusing.
Yeah I tend to agree. I like what … hmm, I think panda net… does it, where it’s just ranks with strong and weak sides, and promotion / demotion is slightly weighted… i think sticking that system (or something like it) on top of our glicko ratings would be slightly better than the ranks we currently have
The very first time I met with my rank OTB was playing a 14k after months of trying to find an opponent. 1 game only (and later going to a go place in Paris.)
People should relax on their decimals.
A real rank is not about decimals, it’s about if you assume it well with some stability among various levels around you. Unless you are fighting to be the top continental player at the top of the ladder maybe.
Its probably better to always have integer kyu/dan rank everywhere and instead of decimals clearly show in profile how many glicko points left until next rank.
