Yahoo's rating system really sucks
I used to play go there. Go has a rating system that has been in use for hundreds of years. It works really well. You win several games in a row at the proper handicap for your rank, you get promoted one rank.
Instead, Yahoo assigns a four digit numeric rating like chess. And they change it after every game. Worst of all, they don't take the handicap into account. If you lose a game because your opponent didn't give you the right number of handicap stones, you shouldn't be penalized. In fact, the schmuck should be blackballed for being dishonorable. The stupid software doesn't even bother calculating the handicap, it just lets the two of you argue over it. Some of the newer players who never played in a go club don't even know their real rank so they try to guess the handicap based on the Yahoo number, which I'd say has a standard deviation of 100 points. The strong players sandbag and don't give anybody a handicap so they always win and Yahoo keeps promoting them.
Yahoo understands the rules of go but they are totally ignorant of the 4,000 years of culture that come with it. It's about teaching, patience, the stronger helping the weaker to get stronger. Competition is strictly for tournaments.
If the rest of the Yahoo game rooms are as bad as go, screw 'em.
I play on Kiseido.com now.
