Codechef rating system

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I feel the codechef rating system has to change. Here are the reasons.

  1. Not performing well in a single contest will lead a very steep fall in the rating. As the long contests run for around 2 weeks, people often postpone things and end up not solving the problems. This will not be an issue for short contests
  2. The present rating system updates ratings based on rankings in contests participated . This is not fair, espeically when it comes to people who dont try trivial solutions for challenge problem. In OCT13 trivial solutions for challenge problem got 0.143 points. The coder with 5.143 points is ranked 406 and the ones with 5.0 are ranked around 550. This is gives a significant advantage for the ones who try out trivial solutions. So the contest points should be considered rather than contest rank to update the ratings.

Because of issue #1 people often create fake accounts where they try problems in one account and upload solutions from the 2nd account only if they feel confident enough. This insecurity also leads to coders taking help from friends and sometimes directty using code found on ideone.

Are there any alternative ways to update ratings which address my concerns?
[feel free to suggest edits]

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I like the rating system and I can’t agree with any of your reasons to change it:

  1. To enter a contest you need to have at least one submission and I believe most users know this. This is only a surprise to new users but most users with at least 2 or 3 months in codechef know how contests work. As for the very steep fall, well, it happens to almost everyone, the higher your ranking is, the better you’re expected to perform in order to improve, if your rank does not improve much it usually means a certain limit has been reached and more work needs to be done. I believe this motivates users to keep learning, after all we’re not just competing against other people, we’re competing with ourselves to try and overcome our own limitations.
  2. C’mon, if you haven’t tried the “trivial solution” you can’t expect to always have rankings close to those who have tried because even though they have a small advantage over you it’s still an advantage. If you want to keep up or surpass them you’ll have to try it and perhaps improve it. It’s a COMPETITION. And how should the contest points be considered rather than contest rank? It’s unfair: If you are placed in the top ten or the four hundreds, it depends on how well you have performed against others because once again it’s a COMPETITION.

There will always be people who will want to have an unfair advantage over everyone else, changing the rating system because of them it’s just stupid. If someone’s insecure it’s because they don’t trust their own coding skills, it’s like taking credit for someone else’s work.

I don’t agree that the rating system should be changed. If you still think it should be, give better reasons, don’t base your issues on cheaters, they’re already causing enough problems.

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