...and disabling(!) challenges with a rating difference greater than 500 points is certainly a substantial change. I am not excited about it, because sometimes I am playing rather unusual time controls like bullet with 15 seconds + 4 sec/move. Now I have to wait longer to get opponents. In the past I usually had set the lower threshold roughly 700 points below my own rating. This issue might be even more relevant with variants like Fischer Random Chess.
Thanks in advance for an explanation and keep up the great work!
Wait, what actually happened?
@oberschlumpf Exactly! I didn't think of this point, but some variants will become virtually unplayable for strong players! All in all, I tried to make the post about this problem, but the developer responded that I can leave the site if I don't like it (without actually referring to my arguments) and later the discussion aggravated to the point where someone suggested me to commit suicide, when it was rightly closed by the moderators. I wish you greater success with it.
@Cedur216 : Okay, let me illustrate this: my blitz rating is 550 points above yours. Therefore I am not able to create a challenge, which you can see and vice versa. Yesterday I was able to create a challenge, which all players rated above for instance 1500 could accept.
@Otienimous : You dramatized the topic, didn't you?
@oberschlumpf Indeed, I was afraid that without dramatizing the topic nobody will take care to notice my post. By the way, check
lichess.org/forum/lichess-feedback/-500-or-how-to-destroy-the-greatest-chess-platform-with-one-unthoughtful-decision and notice the mental level of some answers I got.
But if I pick from the lobby, I can still choose games from people with rating >500 lower than mine?
@Cedur216 No, you cannot, because they aren't able to create a challenge which you could see. Our freedom of choice of opponent was restricted much more than you seem to think.
... except I just saw a challenge from someone with 600?, but guess provisional ratings don't count?
Maybe they don't, I have no way to check it.
EDIT: indeed, now I noticed that I can see challenges from people even below 1000, regardless whether provisional or not. Maybe it's a bug or maybe the developers quietly backed out from the change, how could I know. It is sad that we get no information what is happening on the site, that there are no community consultations before important updates.
Maybe it's just that
-> you can't see challenges from people with rating far higher than yours
-> but you still can see challenges from people with rating far lower than yours
