FIBS Board backgammon forum

EDIT: I already found the answer elsewhere. It seems that retaliation is indeed a strong deterrent in these cases.


First, I am sorry if this has been asked before, but I couldn't find a detailed explanation of repbot's algorithm for reputation calculation.

Yesterday, I started a match with a player of high (around 45000) reputation. Unexpectedly, he dropped me as soon as I was a strong favourite to win. (I can't completely rule out that wasn't an accident, but even if I eventually resume the following argument will still hold for future similar cases).

After waiting for a while and seeing he won't reconnect, I decided to complain about him. But, I thought, what happens if he complains back?

I'm a beginner, and had 30 reputation and around 300 experience. He had around 45000 reputation and 8000 exp.
I figured that there's a possibility my complaint would chip off some points of his reputation, but his retaliation complaint would put me in the negatives, probably impairing my ability to find someone to play with. I shouted for help, and I was told to look here.

So, can someone please tell me if my reasoning is correct? should I have complained?
Overnight, my reputation went up in the 1000s (don't really know why). In this new situation, should I complain?

Thanks in advance.

when you vouch for or complain against another player using RepBot your experience value, in this case 300 for you, is used to increase or decrease the other players reputation .. since your opponent has Exp=8000, you're correct to infer that you lose if mutual complaints are made .. if that were the case you'd be hit with a -8000 hickey

while it's not common for players with good reps to retaliate for no good reason, anything can and does happen in fibsland .. if it hasn't it will 

there is another feature of RepBot you may find helpful here .. at the command window type:

      Tell RepBot Alerts On

then whenever anyone with whom you have a saved match logs in or is logged in when you do, RepBot will give you an alert notifying you they are logged in

also, you might try leaving the other player a message .. from the command line type

       message PlayerName we have a saved match .. hope we can finish it soon

or something to that effect .. btw, the message command is one of the few case sensitive for player names .. most are not

also, you can use Tell RepBot list asdrubale to see who has vouched or complained on you .. you can use another players name to see their complete list, as well

GL in completing the match 


Like bumper cars in amusement parks, our direction is often determined through collisions.
-Yahia Lababidi, writer (b. 1973)

Good explanation, 60ish!     I might add, 10,000 is the maximum any player can hurt or help you.  That is why you may see in shouts, "let's 10k someone!".  That happens when several high experience players gang up on someone, usually a dropper, but not always the case.  

Also, if you are worried about retaliation, or if a player eventually resumes a match, the complaint can be withdrawn easily by using the command, "withdraw playername".  "Help" will show you all the commands.

socksey



"Those who never risk themselves, never fully become themselves. -Alexandria Saperstein

Thanks for the replies. Afer the player ignored my invitation to resume, I decided to complain; but only because whining about this earned me the 10k you were talking about (I misread, it was 10k and not 1k). I figured I should be able to sustain a return blow.

However, the most common remark that was given to me is that it's unlikely that high-rep players would drop, or as you're saying, that they would retaliate. Probably this is almost always true. But, if there's a loophole that can be exploited, you can be reassured that someone will try to exploit it.

I checked, and the player in question has LOTS of both vouches AND complaints. I think this is suspect, but I might be totally wrong, I don't know how often this happens.

Among the vouches, but not among the complainers, I saw a few names of people I know are fibs aficionados. I don't really care enough to extensively compare the experience of vouchers and complainers, but - without asserting that this particular player is in fact such a sophisticate dropper - I think that one can use the reputation got by behaving well with a few selected players to bash lots of low-exp players.

This, if we didn't consider the number of saved games that repbot reports. So after all I don't think this is a big deal; with this technique one would get a "free drop" every once in a while.

Sorry for all the fuss, It's not like I got so upset about being dropped; but for some reason I'm very interested in all kinds of system loopholes.

Play in the League, there is no drop at all 

True, Tomawaky!  Also, there are very rare drops in the tournaments.     Here's the tournament page for finding them and the times.    http://fibsleagammon.free.fr/tournament.htm


socksey




Be yourself! Everyone else is already taken. - Oscar Wilde

Quote from: Tomawaky on January 31, 2008, 05:54:36 AM
Play in the League, there is no drop at all 

The way I'm going in this session, it's starting to look like a good alternative 

Asdrubale this is golfpro. It seems our signal was dropped when we were tied in a 3-3 match. I don't remember the exact circumstances but I would like to finish the saved game at your convenience. I,ve been looking for you on the board but I keep missing you.



Thanks