Forgive me if this has been asked before. I just won a game and my rating went from 1580 to 1579. Why would it not increase? The player was 14k. I’m 11k. I won by 4.5 points.
Yes, already asked.
Okay, I’m not a mathematician or statistician and the Glicko formulas are over my head. But I read that the beginning of the calculation it uses the last 15 games as part of the calculation. Why on earth would that matter? If I work hard to improve and beat a player, I have my last 15 games hanging around my neck still affecting my rating - so much so that I can win and my rating goes down?
Did I also understand that it polls the “current” rank of those last 15 opponents and that figures in too? So if someone quits the site (or dies) and their rank plummets, that this would affect my rating because they were one of my last 15 opponents?
The rating system tries to estimate your strength as good as possible. If you improve you will win against stronger opponents frequently and your rank rises.
A single game may matter for you, but it doesn’t mean that you have improved over all. Looking at 15 games gives a reasonable estimation of your improvement.
At least the rating system is not a reward system, it’s a strength estimation system.
Their rank will not drop that much. If a player times out in multiple correspondence games in succession, only the first game is rated.
Thanks for clarifying Flovo. Much appreciated. And the opposite of thank you to Smurgh for your pointless, unhelpful snark.
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I’m glad you aren’t taking personally the fact that I’m pointing out someone opens a thread with the same question about once a month. Shows strength of character.
How is that not directed at me personally?
smurph is a bit of a dick to everyone, that’s quote unquote “his sense of humour” so no, this type of response isn’t specifically directed at you alone, since he would post the same thing on anyone’s comment.
to clarify a little more, if you notice your total rating goes down after a win, it’s not that you weren’t rewarded for that win, you were. It’s that the system noticed that you received too much of a reward after a previous win (or not enough of a reduction after a loss).
eg.
win a awards 20 points
win b (after win a) awards 9 points, but recalculating win a reveals it too should have been 9 points and the initial 20 was inaccurate.
new total after win a and b is +18 but to you it looks like you’ve lost 2 points
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I see. Thank you BHydden, that makes more sense.
I guess he missed the part where I apologize at the beginning for being repetitive. People like that are exactly why I don’t spend much time here. Tedious blowhards. I tried (albeit quickly) to scan through the recent posts for my question and didn’t see anything. I figured I’m not the first person to ask this, but I do have a lot of people ask me this same question. I can’t explain it. I figured someone would be polite and help me out. Thanks again for being clear (Flovo as well).
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If my word is worth anything, this forum is actually one of the least toxic places I’ve found online. I but heads with smurph (and maybe a couple others) from time to time. And I’m not claiming to be perfect either. But over all, this forum is overwhelmingly helpful and understanding, so I sincerely hope you haven’t been put off. 
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FYI, in the top right corner, the magnifying glass is how you access the search function for the forum.
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Thank you again BHydden. You have redeemed this place 
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It’s interesting to see that you would follow up a humorous interjection with outrage at first and a personal attack second. You also claim you didn’t visit these forums much because of people like you - who only come here to complain about something instead of offering help to others every now and then, especially considering how long you’ve been a member of this site.
Now of course you wouldn’t know how people here tick, because you don’t take the time to get to know anyone.
The fact that you didn’t even need to search for a similar topic but simply could’ve looked at the previous thread you created about this same topic is very telling.
But it’s okay. You’re dust in the wind, cowboy, and I’ll be here, helping others long after you’ve been blown away.
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Let’s end it here 
I think the original question was sufficiently answered (PM me if it wasn’t)
Also added it to the FAQ so if any of you is more native then me and enjoys correcting texts have a look 