Recently I have seen people with multiple accounts farming rating. They essentially plays all their accounts versus them on different computers and then use that to manipulate their rating. This is an important bug fix Lichess needs to solve because people play badly instead of resigning multiple times.
How have you "seen" them? How can you be sure they are doing that? And what would be their incentive to do so?
I think you are constructing a non-existing problem. Who would be so silly to make 2 accounts just to let them play against one another? If I want to practice without an opponent I can do that perfectly with one single account.
And if I had an account Sybotes2 that always wins against Sybotes1 such that the ratings are 2200 and 1300, how could I find opponents of my strength?
I think you are constructing a non-existing problem. Who would be so silly to make 2 accounts just to let them play against one another? If I want to practice without an opponent I can do that perfectly with one single account.
And if I had an account Sybotes2 that always wins against Sybotes1 such that the ratings are 2200 and 1300, how could I find opponents of my strength?
#2
That's a common behavior actually. People do it just for the sake of high ratings and be on the leaderboard for a few days or hours until someone notices, reports and they get banned altogether.
#1
I don't understand what's the correlation between boosters and those who don't resign but anyway it's not a bug that Lichess can fix, it's just a bad behavior some people do and you have to report them so that Lichess can ban them.
That's a common behavior actually. People do it just for the sake of high ratings and be on the leaderboard for a few days or hours until someone notices, reports and they get banned altogether.
#1
I don't understand what's the correlation between boosters and those who don't resign but anyway it's not a bug that Lichess can fix, it's just a bad behavior some people do and you have to report them so that Lichess can ban them.
#2 You underestimate the desire to achieve the unachievable. I want 3000 rating, but I'm not actually that good at chess, and will never achieve that. Hence, I create 10 other accounts, and achieve that wonderful 3000 rating.
That being said, it isn't a huge problem. Most boosting is just... boosting. People getting high ratings just to brag, and not actually hurting anyone else. Occasionally, someone tryhards enough to get onto the leaderboard, where they are hopefully banned, but most boosting is simply harmless ego boosting... who cares.
The REAL problem is the opposite of boosting: sandbagging. You will notice that the <1300 arenas are plagued by sandbaggers... higher rated players that make new accounts to get down to a low rating just to destroy every legitimate player for temporary euphoria. I even made a script to scan these tournaments for sandbaggers at one point for fun, with some success, since they were such a problem.
Anyways, if you catch people that are harming others, report I guess. If you catch boosters, they're also breaking the TOS, so I guess you can report if you want, though they aren't the biggest deal ever (they cause less damage on a whole).
That being said, it isn't a huge problem. Most boosting is just... boosting. People getting high ratings just to brag, and not actually hurting anyone else. Occasionally, someone tryhards enough to get onto the leaderboard, where they are hopefully banned, but most boosting is simply harmless ego boosting... who cares.
The REAL problem is the opposite of boosting: sandbagging. You will notice that the <1300 arenas are plagued by sandbaggers... higher rated players that make new accounts to get down to a low rating just to destroy every legitimate player for temporary euphoria. I even made a script to scan these tournaments for sandbaggers at one point for fun, with some success, since they were such a problem.
Anyways, if you catch people that are harming others, report I guess. If you catch boosters, they're also breaking the TOS, so I guess you can report if you want, though they aren't the biggest deal ever (they cause less damage on a whole).
@TCF_Namelecc said in #4:
> #2 You underestimate the desire to achieve the unachievable. I want 3000 rating, but I'm not actually that good at chess, and will never achieve that. Hence, I create 10 other accounts, and achieve that wonderful 3000 rating.
But that would be EXTREMELY boring, so I still don't see the use to do such a thing. Even if I make my rating 2400 this way, it will not become easier to beat you.
But still, wether people do that or not: how do you know? If I play Sybotes_The_First against SybotesThe_Second hours after hours: Whom does that affect? How wpould you even notice?
> #2 You underestimate the desire to achieve the unachievable. I want 3000 rating, but I'm not actually that good at chess, and will never achieve that. Hence, I create 10 other accounts, and achieve that wonderful 3000 rating.
But that would be EXTREMELY boring, so I still don't see the use to do such a thing. Even if I make my rating 2400 this way, it will not become easier to beat you.
But still, wether people do that or not: how do you know? If I play Sybotes_The_First against SybotesThe_Second hours after hours: Whom does that affect? How wpould you even notice?
@Sybotes said in #5:
> But that would be EXTREMELY boring, so I still don't see the use to do such a thing. Even if I make my rating 2400 this way, it will not become easier to beat you.
>
> But still, wether people do that or not: how do you know? If I play Sybotes_The_First against SybotesThe_Second hours after hours: Whom does that affect? How wpould you even notice?
I am not arguing for the validity of boosting as a "hobby" or action. It is pointless, indeed! A waste of time, no improvement, just for silly internet points. However, people do it.
And as I said earlier, boosting is mostly harmless: I agree with you. It's only when it makes its way to the leaderboards that it has effects on others. I do see sandbagging (the opposite of boosting), however, to be a far larger problem.
> But that would be EXTREMELY boring, so I still don't see the use to do such a thing. Even if I make my rating 2400 this way, it will not become easier to beat you.
>
> But still, wether people do that or not: how do you know? If I play Sybotes_The_First against SybotesThe_Second hours after hours: Whom does that affect? How wpould you even notice?
I am not arguing for the validity of boosting as a "hobby" or action. It is pointless, indeed! A waste of time, no improvement, just for silly internet points. However, people do it.
And as I said earlier, boosting is mostly harmless: I agree with you. It's only when it makes its way to the leaderboards that it has effects on others. I do see sandbagging (the opposite of boosting), however, to be a far larger problem.
@TCF_Namelecc said in #4:
> That being said, it isn't a huge problem. Most boosting is just... boosting. People getting high ratings just to brag, and not actually hurting anyone else. Occasionally, someone tryhards enough to get onto the leaderboard, where they are hopefully banned, but most boosting is simply harmless ego boosting... who cares.
Note that you also have to have a low RD to make it onto the leaderboard, which means that boosting/sandbagging players they leave a massive evidence trail behind and can be automatically detected before reaching the leaderboard.
So the next question becomes exactly what Sybotes asked: if these people aren't on the leaderboard, how do you find them anyway?
> That being said, it isn't a huge problem. Most boosting is just... boosting. People getting high ratings just to brag, and not actually hurting anyone else. Occasionally, someone tryhards enough to get onto the leaderboard, where they are hopefully banned, but most boosting is simply harmless ego boosting... who cares.
Note that you also have to have a low RD to make it onto the leaderboard, which means that boosting/sandbagging players they leave a massive evidence trail behind and can be automatically detected before reaching the leaderboard.
So the next question becomes exactly what Sybotes asked: if these people aren't on the leaderboard, how do you find them anyway?
You find them as soon as they start playing against someone legit who is not part of their fake alt accounts. You find them if this legit someone cares enough to understand how he beat a 2500 so easily or how a 1100 beat him so easily.
If he does he can go to their profile and, since all games are public, see that this guy has played 30 games against the same person and they won/lost all of them, and guess what, all the games featured the same openings or tactics.
I could give tenths of examples of how to catch boosters/sandbaggers but in reality most of the times people are dumb enough to create 10 accounts with the same name and have all the 10 accounts play each other and be banned in no time.
If he does he can go to their profile and, since all games are public, see that this guy has played 30 games against the same person and they won/lost all of them, and guess what, all the games featured the same openings or tactics.
I could give tenths of examples of how to catch boosters/sandbaggers but in reality most of the times people are dumb enough to create 10 accounts with the same name and have all the 10 accounts play each other and be banned in no time.
I once reported a player who told me in the chat that in reallity he is like 2100, but he lets his girlfriend play with this profile to get lower rating. I reported the chat and he didnt get banned. And Im sure he didnt make up the story, because he played way too good for 1800 player.
I don't think it is fair, I think that lichess should make a new rule which violates people using this form of rating manipulation
This topic has been archived and can no longer be replied to.