FTR, for anyone arriving new to this thread, the consensus from the previous forum discussion (this same thread) is in the OP (edited after discussion).
- Don’t show numbers by default. Instead, show a “?” for “more info”.
- If users click on the “?”, show a broad rank range. The specific starting rank is not particularly relevant to new users and is subject to change. The deviation is still high enough the rank will change quickly in the first few games.
The ranges were / consensus was:
- Beginner: (don’t show a range, but 25k+–12k)
- Intermediate: 16k–1k
- Advanced: 4k–9d+
These ranges are/were intentionally overlapping and broad.
In the interface design phase, we decided to break “Beginner” up into “Basic” and “New to Go”. So I think the right ranges are:
- New to Go (don’t show a range, but 25k+)
- Basic: 25k–12k
- Intermediate: 16k–1k
- Advanced: 4k–9d+
My opinions:
- Strong opinion: do NOT show a specific rank, but instead a range. The initial rank itself is subject to change as we see the effect on the rating system. The range is the intent/goal. The starting rating/deviation is an implementation detail.
- Strong opinion: do NOT have any visible range for the weakest level (“New to Go”). New players shouldn’t fuss about some weird thing they don’t understand.
- Weak opinion: for intermediate/advanced, either have a “?” (forum consensus), or just show the ranges straight up. Either solution is better than not showing ranges.
- There was some disagreement during interface design, and I was fine leaving the “?” off to start off and see what happened, but I think this will result in “reddit-as-documentation”. This is a problem, because “reddit” will document the starting rank (not relevant), but we would prefer players choose by the intended rank ranges.
- No opinion: whether to have a range available for basic. Probably many players at this level won’t actually know the ranking system or where they sit in it. But maybe many do.