ive been trying to score a ranked game to figure out my rank....
because i just started playing, i wouldnt be suprised if i was the very bottom of the barrel.
is a ranked game something i would have to pay for?

Easiest way is to look at the "Play Go" menu at the top and click on automatch.

http://i.imgur.com/sLQFn.png
http://i.imgur.com/pvQIy.png
http://i.imgur.com/4HUPI.png

_________________
We don't know who we are; we don't know where we are.
Each of us woke up one moment and here we were in the darkness.
We're nameless things with no memory; no knowledge of what went before,
No understanding of what is now, no knowledge of what will be.

The continuation: http://i.imgur.com/FR8mA.jpg

...and no, you don't have to pay for it.

_________________
Patience, grasshopper.

I'm not complaining as I find it quite easy to go from [?] to solid rank, but I know a lot of people new to the server find the task a little difficult and I also had trouble with it for the first few months so I'm just poking small fun .

I recommend using automatch. I did that when I was a beginner and I had no problem finding games.



If the ranked game checkbox isn't enabled you need to register first. Guests can play no ranked games.

It may take a few minutes to find a game, but usually it's quite quick.
The first game might take a bit longer since many players have disabled playing with unranked people.

_________________
Sanity is for the weak.

Also, maybe play a ranked robot once or twice. Once you have a rank of your own, even if it is just from playing robots, you'll probably find it easier to get rank games with other people.

...and in front of the names on the players list, you see "R" for someone who wants to play a ranked game, and "F" for the free game..

_________________
Yunzi makes the world go round, the world go round...

Why are there so few ranked bots in the SDK range? Those are really useful to quickly get a decent rank. I heard something about the KGS administration dislikes having several (ranked) instances of the same type of bot playing.
I think there is clearly a high demand for such bots since for the few that there are the games are gone withing a few seconds.

_________________
Sanity is for the weak.

Not sure about that. If that is a policy, then it's the first that I've heard of it. I just assumed that the problem was that there weren't enough people who wanted to leave their computer on all the time, playing go.

lol so true, until you use the rankbot at least

_________________
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is.

I just asked on the computer go channel. And it seems like there is an unofficial policy that at least gnugo bots won't be approved(for having a rank), because there are too many of them already. They want to see original bots.

Personally I disagree with that notion. I think that more ranked bots in rooms like "The Ranking Room" would be helpful. Even if they're boring old gnugo. If one fears the influence of bots on the ranking system/rank inflation for bot abusers once could limit the number of ranked games a human may play against a bot, instead of limiting the number of ranked bots.

_________________
Sanity is for the weak.

I would assume this would cause the bots' ranks to be deflated, and so it would be rather hard to game the system effectively.

_________________
1k KGS

I don't see how. If anything, it should increase the bots ranks because you can't learn their weaknesses and play them repeatedly to push up your rank.

_________________
Occupy Babel!

This post gave me a belly laugh, because this was exactly my experience! Thanks for putting that together. love the use of the rage faces

There was a time when there were dozens and dozens of GNU clones running around with ratings (not necessarily a bad thing as long as they don't clog up the EGR, but it got to a point where it felt like every room with 5 or more people had bots called RoomXYZBot001-003....). It ended up being a fad and I think the point wms made was spot on (people got tired of leaving their computers running the bots).

What ended up being an issue though (curiously) was not as much rank cheaters but an artificial rank bubble...you see a side effect of people starting up ranked bots because they it is popular means they also pick the bot that's popular...and in...2007 I think it was? That bot switched from GNUGo to Mogo. This meant that suddenly you had a step change where a whole fleet of bots suddenly went from 7k to 4k. For the bots themselves this isn't much of an issue, they play lots of games so their ranks adjusted pretty quickly. The big chunk of the population that had been playing them in ranks games for the prior 6 months however got a big boost because all their wins against a 7k used to establish a rank were now wins against a 4k. Of course due to the nature of the kgs system it all more or less sorted itself out within 6 months, but it still caused a bit of a stir right when it happened...

Just another reason why it was decided to favor original bots over common clones...