Obfuscate new user's rating

>> This would lessen the ladder anxiety.

I always wondered why people look for outside solutions to (non?-)issues they could try to solve themselves...

Anxiety over... chess rating, really ?!???

@Doofenshmirtz
That problem is easily resolved by adding a tooltip over a person's obfuscated rating saying that it will reveal itself after they've played a few games. Or could even be phrased as, "Play more to obtain a rating." This isn't the first time a game has done this, so I don't see this being an issue if it's conveyed to the player.

@Pashut
As @BishoptoC4 stated, an anchor has been set. Losing rating below 1500 makes it seem like you're less then average. I'm sure this isn't something a lot of you grizzled veterans don't have to worry about because you've been playing a lot already. But just take a second to step into the shoes of a novice entering the scary world of ranked chess for the first time.

I think this proposed change would be a nice and easy win for helping new players jump into rated mode.

#1 In keeping with my other comment today, I favor a user preference (or userstyle) to hide all player ratings.

github.com/ornicar/lila/discussions/7976

@GamerKingFaiz -- Fyi, we "grizzled veterans" have also started as a novice a while back. (Some of us actually not so long ago.) Then, instead of dwelling on our "anxieties", we played some games, and then some more games. And, what do you know? Poof! Our rating stabilized and changed from provisional to real/permanent. Just like magic...

How about you try the same? It might actually work for you as well... ;)

All, let us please consider that this is not a strange request even if you may not identify with the reason.
The 'normal' systems like FIDE and national bonds often also do not give (or at least show) a rating for new players.

As such, making the rating less obvious to the point where a player would not see it unless they went looking for it would not be too hard. Perhaps for the first 5-9 games.

Unfortunately, as (unlike in the 'normal' systems) most players here will not get the explanation from the people around them, I expect this will lead to much confusion for players who don't see their rating, and don't see any reward for winning.

So in short: I think it is not a bad idea, but probably the added confusion means the proposed 'cure' is likely worse than the 'disease' in this case.

Thank you for not dismissing my idea right away @Testrider!

I believe the simple solution would be to show a message like, "Play more games to determine your rating."

@Doofenshmirtz and @Pashut
Here is a popular thread from /r/Chess where lots of people concede to having ladder anxiety.
www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/l506jr/the_false_correlation_between_chess_and/

@GamerKingFaiz -- Many ideas nowadays are conceded and even supported by many people... That doesn't make them good. Some, unfortunately, can proudly be categorized by a single word: #snowflakes