RATING DROPPING STEADILY

[garp_02]

Can anyone tell me why my Fibs Rating is dropping steadily since Thursday, without having played?

Thanks,

Garp

[socksey]

Hmmmmmmm...........I also thought my rating dropped a few points more than it should have in the past couple of days, but since I did not record same, I was not certain.    

Maybe Patti can give us a clue.   

socksey



Gerry Ford is so dumb that he can't fart and chew gum at the same time." - former U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson.

[garp_02]

Ty for reply Socks - Mine is very obvious - the ratings graph shows a slide of around 12 points from Thursday to today???

[Patti]

15 points, I believe.

garp, on December 10 the bot droppers' script ran.  You had an unfinished game with GammonBot_XIII, dated November 24.  That game was removed, and you were docked 15 points.

socksey, you were not affected by this.

In the future, the best way to get an answer to something like this would be to contact me directly.  I don't regularly read FIBSBoard, so unless someone points the discussion out to me I almost certainly won't see your question.

[garp_02]

Well that explains that, thanks.

[dorbel]

Is it possible for the results of this sort of exercise to be published in some way? It would have a powerful deterrent effect. It might also be nice to know in advance the day on which this script will run, as of course one might quite legitimately have a bot saved match or two. Thanks.

[ah_clem]

Reading between the lines, it appears that there's a generous amount of time to resume the match.  In this case, the match was on Nov 24th and the points weren't deducted until Dec 10th.  So while it's legit to have a saved match with a bot, it's not legit to let it hang out there for weeks on end.

I'd be curious to know more about the various droppers scripts.  Is there a manual or something available? 

[Patti]

The bot droppers script only harvests games that are more than a couple of weeks old.  I don't publish the results or the schedule, and don't really want to document the processes too carefully lest people start hacking their way around them.

[Tom]

Also the GammonBot's wait 10-30 seconds after the last match for a resume before allowing a new match.

tom

[garp_02]

May I just say that I tend to play bots when pushed for time and I think I may not be able to finish a match with a 'human'.

Sometimes it's hard to get the particular bot available to resume.

Garp

[garp_02]

May I say that this has happened to me again, twice, recently.

The first time on, or around, 26th Feb, where I assume that due to having a saved game bith Gammonbot II, I was dropped the points.  I would assume that that saved game was then wiped from the records.

Due to the almost impossible task of resuming a game with the bots, I resolved not to bother playing with them again, and I haven't.

Can someone in the know please explain, then, why I have been deducted another 15 points or so around the 8th March?

I struggle (and believe me it is a struggle) to improve my rating and it is disheartening to increase by 20 or so, only to have it whipped away for some unexplained reason.

Garp

[Tom]

I think the only person who can tell you why your rating dropped on a specific day is Patti.

I have never found myself able to RAISE my rating by playing the GammonBots

tom

[adrian]

May I just say that I tend to play bots when pushed for time and I think I may not be able to finish a match with a 'human'.

Dear Garp,

Your permanent and best suited solution is www.gnubg.org. Stop interacting with humans, they bring only pain and bitterness to your life. Bots are honest, they only do what they are programmed to do.

Try a bot, which can be tailored (by yourself) for your needs, just follow the link above.

I am faithfull you can do it,

A.L.

[garp_02]

TY Tom and Adrian - I shall pursue ms Patti.

As for the human v Bots thing - I have Gnu but find it tediously boring as it never responds to my abusive remarks.  and it's tediously good. 

Cheers

[diane]

garp, do you have a little 'disconnection' problem? causing, maybe the odd saved game with a bot....

If you do, then Patti is gonna tell you that you lost the rating because of that.  A bot script runs, and if you have a saved match, or several with bots, a chunk of your rating will be taken away.

It is to discourage those who artificially raise their rating by dropping bots.  If you have saved matches with bots, particularly gammonbots, that is your fault, because they will always accept a resume invitation, and make time between matches specifically to do that.

[diane]

Now, why did I bother with that - you have already been told this - by Patti. I would stop wasting time bothering her and scratching your head over your rating, and spend that time finishing matches with bots...

[garp_02]

Thanks Diane   

I accept that having unfinished games with gammonbot will reult in a deduction.  As I tried to explain previously, after the first deduction I had no further saved games with bots, yet my rating was dropped again.