Please add a filter to a game search: avoid players with ? rating, or at least with 1500? rating.
Two reasons:
1. Since new "?" player could be a CM/NM or even IM and you would prefer not to play such strong players AND to lose rating points.
2. Since quite often new account belongs to someone who uses chess engine (until it's noticed) and you would prefer not to be a victim of a "fresh engine abuser".
Thank you very much for consideration.
I'll play devil's advocate here.
Those people have to start somewhere. Most of the time, people with provisional ratings are just new to the site and to be honest, I'm sure some of them get discouraged when people are constantly aborting games because they fear the worst. It's also the case that most people who use an engine make it past their provisional stage before they are banned, not for lack of detection, but because they want to be sure there is enough data to make a concrete decision. Being 1500? rated isn't really a sign. Being 1500? and then winning multiple games in a row with machine-like precision and other indicators is. Anyone 'might' be cheating. Sure, it's a waste of time, but you'll get your rating points back. As for your point about playing titled players who haven't submitted their verification yet, I just don't see this being common enough to be an issue. There aren't that many of them in the big picture. That goes for exceptionally strong non-titled players as well. Look at the rating distributions on Lichess. In FIDE, less than 5% of players have a title. Online, I'd say it's probably less than 1%. You won't lose many rating points if you have an established rating. Furthermore, why does it feel bad to lose to a stronger player? It's a learning experience if anything. We study the games of top level players to try and pinpoint weaknesses in our own play. What better way to test these than firsthand experience? It's not like they're purposefully deceiving you. They are just forced to start at 1500. Some other sites let stronger players start at higher ratings. I'd imagine Lichess doesn't do this because they aren't a commercial service, so they can't feasibly pay people to sit around and flag people who make accounts to boost despite the algorithm eventually catching up to them.
@LiterallyStockfish your thoughts sound quite reasonable to me, I didn't think it from the new player perspective - if most players will block "1500?" then how this project will develop.
I also like to add that you really shouldn't too much stock into ratings. It's only purpose is to help with getting a fair game in matchmaking. It doesn't mean you are a good or bad player. The funny thing about losing rank points is the next matchup should be easier and if you really belong on that rung of the ladder then you shouldn't have any problems returning to your original rank.
Totally agree with that statement
@CzarSquid