please rollback the rating range change!

@Qualm I know that your post was meant as humorous, but you seem to have totally missed the point. The recent changes to Lichess narrowed our scope of choice when creating games in the lobby. What you propose would narrow it even more, while I insist that it should be widened back.

@Samir87 It is so cute that you worry about my energy and time management, it could be better indeed. Although I treat these discussions also as a chance to develop my English language abilities. Anyway, what does it have to do with the topic?...

#AbC

This change simply restricts the FREEDOM to choose our opponent's rating for no apparent reason. This was one of the things that made me practically quit playing to chess.com. Very unpleasant surprise to see it in lichess.
I thought that lichess meant innovation, versatility, freedom after all...
Very sad...

1. As usual people are only thinking about this from their POV. Without even considering why some folks would want this. I for one want this change. It's better to have the rating range move along with your rating rather than manually setting it again and again. Requesting for a rollback would be disadvantageous for people such as myself.

2. I get the points of the pro rollback.

3. What you guys should propose instead is a radio button relative | absolute. If you tick absolute, you can set the min and max manually. If you tick relative it's +- relative to one's rating.

4. Also good to request infinity at the end of the sliders instead of 500.

@GnocchiPup I see that you can perceive a new solution as a bit more convenient, but you have to agree that it is grossly outweighed by its drawbacks. A radio button relative | absolute would be undeniably great!

Infinity at the end of the sliders is not enough, because it still wouldn't allow you to play selectively stronger or weaker players. And I genuinely believe that if there are people who want to learn from stronger players and there are people who want to practise beating weaker players consistently, they should be allowed to match each other. "After all, we are consenting adults". Only a profoundly sovietized person could argue that less choice is good for us.

#AbC

I still would like a rational explanation for the reason to limiting CASUAL games. Rated games I might understand but this doesnt make sense for casual games. Casual games have no effect on ratings. Unless that's about to change for a reason I've yet to see explained.

I havent say anything when Lichess decide to upload they trophy design into some ugly cups, but why would they have theneed to arrange it as others websites? it was working so well for years.

Further to my other post, here are the games I played yesterday:

2098 vs 2125 - lichess.org/17BnMxz2ZxWk

2105 vs 2119 - lichess.org/JmQQMiwp65hB

2099 vs 2101 - lichess.org/kHFeGckinZJl

2105 vs 2136 - lichess.org/Dis5aipvFyQE

2100 vs 2139 (I mouse slipped in this game and made an utterly stupid move!) - lichess.org/HXRPCbU1zfS3

2095 vs 2146 - lichess.org/vOr5aIOL9pqo

2101 vs 2205 - lichess.org/J45nKBlo1mXd

2109 vs 2133 (this is quite an interesting game BTW, where I played a very rare line that I've been working on as a novelty, and my opponent sacked their queen unsoundly, but got positional compensation) - lichess.org/oLSC98bZg800

2115 vs 2151 - lichess.org/jM33W2WiG6mw

Here are the statistics from these games, plus the others that I posted previously in this thread:

Games played - 19
Average rating difference - 44.68
Games played with over 100 rating difference - 2 (10.5%)
Games played with over 150 rating difference - 0 (0%)

So I just wanted to demonstrate that you will not be matched with higher rated players any more (or, for that matter, much significantly lower rated players). Possibly it might happen once in a blue moon. But for the overwhelming majority of the time, you will solely play people in your own rating range, and you have no choice in the matter whatsoever, even in a casual game.

I accept that lichess have made their decision, this will be my last post on the subject, but I think it diminishes the amazing service that they have delivered. And they have singularly failed to explain why this has happened, or engage with any of the people who have questioned or criticised it. Instead, members of the community have been left to defend it, and theorise on why it may have been implemented, and why less freedom and less choice is a good thing.

I still hold lichess and its founders in very high esteem. I just don't understand this decision, which isn't that surprising as no-one has even attempted to explain it to me!

@wub1234 Please, don't make it your last post on the subject. On the contrary, the topic has to be repeated again and again, letting new users (or these rarely visiting forums) know how great a place Lichess once was, until it got devastated in an authoritarian manner. At the very least, if you don't feel inclined to continue these useful statistics, use my #AbC in the texts you post on other topics, just as a reminder. By the way, I looked at the thread you made on Reddit and now I feel sorry for you. That's a deeply toxic community, indeed.

#AbC

Wub1234's last post on this topic opens my eyes to the unintentional consequences of the ratings range change. It prevents the NEW rating limit on players to take effect since by evening out the rating change the players will not be able to see anyone even 500 points higher or lower than their own rating. The 500 point difference in rating will have no difference in allowing others to see anyone higher or lower than their rating even in this NEW system because it causes the algorithm to "smooth out" the rating difference of the players in that range. This means no diversity in the ratings of the challengers are possible anymore. The NEW ratings slider has absolutely no effect on the challenges you're supposed to see even in this new arrangement.

Seriously, this change makes me sick. I want to be able to challenge myself by ensuring I play someone 200+ points higher than my grade. Now i can no longer play these people as i am just getting paired with people of my own grade. Terrible TERRIBLE design change!! If this is to prevent 'sandbagging' as someone else mentioned... this doesn't prevent that. I can always manipulate my grade if i put my mind to it, either losing games or playing hundreds of weaker players. Please change this back! I come here to test my chess against STRONGER opposition, this change basically means i can no longer get paired with anyone over my grade.