Why you should report cheaters

@mdinnerspace

Assumptions are prerequisites for every theory, so I think it's not wrong if I ask something on the forum based on my assumption.
In "Questions & Answers" sections I see only this lichess.org/qa/258/all-about-cheating-questions-and-answers article about cheating and your term "shadow-banned" is not found there, so it is unclear for me what does shadow-ban mean. I made my assumption based on this youtube video www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YwzY5ZJhGU where from 1:54 the author says that "he will be banned for some days or at least for a few hours" (translated from Russian).
Although Q&A have some general explanation about cheat detection methods, I was interested in a bit more in details...
Just left with the hope that detection team really does the great job and wish them good luck with happy new year.

@streetfirer
Abusers do not have their accounts deleted by staff at lichess. They are "shadow-banned". Their account remains open. Computer assisted players are flagged. (They do not see the flag) and are paired only with other cheaters, nobody the wiser. Chat abusers continue to chat (among themselves.) It's an effective policy. Eventually, I suppose they catch on and create a new account. Lichess seems to have a better handle than other sites regarding new accounts, as no priority is given to membership totals and advertising $.
Watch the video by thibault, the founder, who explains "shadow-banning."

There seems to be some confusion over the term "Banned". Lichess uses it to say a players privileges are restricted. They are not "banned" from the site, as in their account is deleted by staff. Don't know specific details except for what is observed. . Most likely for severe abuse though, this course is taken, but staff is not about to openly discuss measures taken.

@streetfirer As far as I heard, play quality is not the only metrics that lichess analyzes, move timing is also important, for example. The details of cheat detection methods are in general not discussed by the staff on the public as this would make cheating easier. However, lichess is open source, so you're free to look into the github repo and figure out all cheat detection methods if you wish :D

> your term "shadow-banned" is not found there, so it is unclear for me what does shadow-ban mean.
This is a wide-known term, the meaning of which can be found by simple googling. Why should they explain that?

> As I know lichess only bans them for a short period of time which is absolutely unacceptable.
This is plain wrong: cheaters' bans are permanent and multiaccounts of cheaters, if found, are also banned forever. In the video the guy shows that he has no connection to lichess and "that will last approximately a day or at least a few hours" (which clearly shows he is not even sure, so he probably is not a good source in this question). He may think that the loss of connection is the only cheating consequence, but this is wrong, even if he's right about that one-day period of connection-loss.

If you're worry there are cheaters that are not banned, it is only because their behaviour is undistinguishable of a normal player for all the lichess moderators and anti-cheat system (and that at least guarantees that it doesn't make visible difference if you play this player or an honest one).

Sometimes I just wonder...

Yesterday I played against a guy, relatively new (a couple of days), 18/18 wins most of them flawless games, anonymous. Rating way over 2200.

Reported and banned soon.

Asked myself why no-one had reported him so far. Or lichess should install an auto-check in such blatant cases.

Lichess has the the best coherent and consistent anti-cheating system regarding the „front-end“:

You play game afterwards everyone can see and analyze the games. No hide and seek. Comparing all the data including rating, registration date and so on one can simply „report“. Measures are taken very quickly if required.

Playing on other sites: you play a game, struggle for a full analysis, you don’t see a „history“ of your opponent, reporting is a pain with little data.

Unfortunately there are many inexperienced users who have no clue what is cheating, how to spot and report, mistrusting everyone including the lichess staff...