So many "Fake" newbies in the contest

Revision en5, by hxu10, 2022-01-13 08:58:38

The codeforces round #765 is over, among the top 10 rated users, 5 are newbies, 2 are specialist. Ranking are as below. rankings

If you click on these newbie users, like the 3rd place @Alan_boyfriend, you can see the user previously take part in round 764 and rank 1st. The 8th place, @Asaoix, participated in round 763 and get 6th. And so on....

These newbies, I called, are fake newbies. Because they are not newbie level, they are far more than that. Some of the newbie users are even red level, they have low rating only because they are new users and only take a few contest, and the rating cannot accurately measure their level.

Besides, you will not get your performance rating in the contest, if you get rank 1, your new rating will not be rank 1 rating, you new rank will based on your previous rating and this contest performance. If you have 1400 rating, and your performance is 2600 in a contest, you will get probably one third of the difference, say 1800. But if you are 2600 level, 1800 can still not measure your real ability. In general, you need to take at least 4 contests to have your rating consistent with your ability.

Why I mention this ? I am not making complaints. It's a good thing, since codeforces has been expanding from time to time, more and more talented programmers are joining in codeforces platform. They have already achieved well in other platforms, and codeforces should welcome them. The only thing I care is the rating calculation.

In each contest, you get rating based on how many users you defeat, and how many users defeat you, and what their ratings are. If you defeat a user that have high rating, your rating will increase, and if you are defeated by a low rating user, your rating will drop. The detailed rating calculation are listed here

Therefore, if you are defeated by these fake newbies, the rating system will say: "Hey, you are so suck. You are defeated by these newbies, your rating will not be good." Which is not true. You cannot make them unrated, it's unfair to them. And here is my suggestion, like div3 does:

Make a pool of trusted users for all contests(not only div3). Every rated users who participate more than 3 or 4 contests will be marked as trusted users. Everyone's rating will only be determined by these trusted users, and every users within the rating range will be rated whether it is trusted or not.

Another reason that so many fake newbies is that they are the alternative account of some high level user. It is discouraged, but it is very difficult to discover. Since many users, they have multiple accounts, and only use one account in the contest. By expanding the "trusted users" idea, they will have no influence to the low level users.

History

 
 
 
 
Revisions
 
 
  Rev. Lang. By When Δ Comment
en5 English hxu10 2022-01-13 08:58:38 15 Tiny change: ' and rank number one. The 4th place, ' -> ' and rank 1st. The 8th place, '
en4 English hxu10 2022-01-13 03:36:28 85
en3 English hxu10 2022-01-13 00:22:16 99
en2 English hxu10 2022-01-13 00:07:20 4
en1 English hxu10 2022-01-13 00:02:04 2862 Initial revision (published)