Hooray! Soon there will happen several updates on Codeforces affecting rating and colors. The second Revolution of Colors and Titles is coming!
You will soon find out a new rating with public formula, new color bounds and even something more...
New bounds will fix the rating inflation of last year, it will return exclusivity of high rating and titles. Don't worry if you end up with lower color; it's a new reason for you to move forward!
While discussing the ongoing change we faced an issue about how to apply new colors with two possible solutions.
First solution: forward without looking back.
When applying new bounds we will update colors everywhere according to a new schema. For example, somebody can possibly lose not only the read color, but he may also regain a new challenge "to become red" since he lost time when he was red before on his rating history. For the first time it doesn't seem as a good solution, but if you think deeper, there is nothing bad in it. Ratings will be whole without cases like "you were read before the revolution, that doesn't count!". In old ranklists there will be no mess within colors of modern contestants (from upsolving or virtual contests) and historical contestants. Irregular visitors of Codeforces won't be confused of the fact that somebody is red in the standings but shouldn't have been red before according to his rating.
We did like this before it worked not bad, if we have changed the color history back then, it would have added mess and confusing.
Second solution: keeping history.
When adding new bounds we will keep old ranklists, posts and comments "as is". This won't break comments like "Congratulations with a red color!" (not sure if they are that valuable) Such solution will keep your achievement "to become red" unlocked, i. e. this part of your biography remains still confirmed by your rating history.
We may even make a rating graph become cut on two parts with a vertical line at the moment of a revolution. The old colors will remain to the left of it, and the new colors will be placed to the right of it. Although this may lead to a confusing of newcomers unprofessionals and rare Codeforces visitors.
Overall
As you see, both solutions have their pros and cons. I don't even know what is better among this two possibilities. That's why I want you to vote for the better choice. If one of the solutions surely wins, we'll use it. Otherwise I'll do as I think it is best.
Please vote only after carefully reading both options. First two comments below correspond to the solutions. Negative voices won't be considered at all, positive will have weights 1-2-4-8-16-32 according to your color (grey-green-blue-purple-orange-red). The vote is secret, results will be available on October, 1st in the evening.
UPD: The voting is finished. We congratulate the first option with a confident victory: 6394 points vs 2320 points! The comments for voting have been removed not to affect comment votings statistics. You may expect changes in colors and ranks in the nearest future!
