playBunny: Yep, most of the very high ratings are impossible without cheating given the ounce of luck in the game. That 3000 rating for example.

Perhaps we need to set up a team of "agents" to root out the cheats. :)

grenv: Perhaps we need to set up a team of "agents" to root out the cheats. :)

One of the players is someone who I pointed out to Fencer a long while ago. Filip took action against him but he's back to his games and now seems to be part of a team or interacting with them. Paully has done some cheat busting but has stopped playing and thus stopped detecting.

I think the most effective way to hinder these people is not to allow new accounts to go to 2600 on the first win. If players start at some lower value and work their way upwards through good play then there's no way for new accounts to be so easily misused.

playBunny:  Given the luck factor, how does one "cheat" at the game? 

Artful Dodger: using multi-nics and "playing" yourself, is the most common, I suppose.

rod03801:  ahhhh, hadn't thought of that.   But you'd need a ton of nics to accomplish a high rating.  (just guessing as I really have no idea)

Artful Dodger: Given the luck factor, how does one "cheat" at the game?

Actually I wasn't quite accurate. One of the cheats isn't a rating cheat per se, he's just a player who uses a backgammon engine for his moves. Plays most of his games in private so he can't be checked. (One reason why I think that private moves shouldn't be an option)

The others, as Rod says, are true rating manipulators. There's a pattern of starting new players and winning to get the exorbitant starting rating that the BK formula awards. These then lose to other accounts. There are also mid-range accounts which play and win against other mid-range players to pump up their rating before losing to a top-rated player to boost them, then going back to leech off some more mid-rangers.

playBunny: If all these happen then why the site owner does not do something to clear his site from all these morons?

He isn't aware about this or he is but he just hasn't enough proof for taking action?

Constellation36: Well, he has fixed some of these situations in the past. But yes, he wants significant proof when doing this.

Constellation36: If all these happen then why the site owner does not do something to clear his site from all these morons?


Without changing the rating system, and thus eliminating a core resource of the cheats, it does need someone to do the detective work. Fencer doesn't have the time to do that himself but he will act on a case by case basis if he's given evidence.

playBunny:
Yes as i see the rating system is a tragedy indeed. Among others it highly overestimates the starting games to establish an ELO.
If you have accidentally or not some good starting results, in the starting 4-6 games e.g then you get very high ratings that are hard to decrease too much and indicate your real ELO.
On the other hand if a good player has a bad start he has to suffer and wait many games in order to take his real place.

Also the way Chess variants' and Backgammon variants' ratings are handled should definitely not be the same as they are.

Some more problems are that this site unfortunately is full of players who try to be smart not to say smarta***
They take advantage of some games that favor one side and play always with that side and getting placed at the first places of the ratings.
E.g Horde Chess, Maharajah Chess and some others as i've seen. I wonder what's the meaning and the purpose of doing this? This ain't no fun!

And what about this Maharajah Chess game? This game is so one-sided that black wins hands down. What's the purpose of still having it? Even if white had 2 Maharajahs black would have a forced win again.

Some things are hard to understand to this site.