@pemo that was a "fun" read. i'd also like to play some devil's advocate but i don't feel like getting engaged in arguments..
just to not leave without saying anything though..
there seem to be some differences on how lichess and FICS (
freechess.org) calculate RD changes, and the threshold for a non-reliable rating on FICS is 80 RD (as opposed to 110 RD on lichess).
why is that?
i also feel that FICS RD increases and decreases in a more.. uh.. accurate (?) reasonable (?) manner, at least as far as inactivity time is factored into rd. i'll use myself as an example..
i have not played a rated chess960 game here in lichess in literally over one year, yet my RD is still not even 70 (!!) and just playing a game against some random 1200 would put me back on the active players list.
on fics, getting inactive for like 6 months does put me as, well, an inactive player (high RD). my standard RD is well over 150 for what isn't even a full year of inactivity since it was below 80.
that's not very fair, obviously. a number of players here were notorious for sitting on their top 10 rating and only playing a random loser every week or something, so that their rating would be counted as active and show up on the leaderboards.
would anyone like to elaborate?