Typically you host a game with whatever time settings you want, and to find a game you can either look at the game list or put yourself in an automatch queue (a "seek") with a filter (similar to KGS's "medium", "fast", "blitz" checkboxes, but you can specify any range of ratings and time controls you want instead of just a few predetermined ones.)

You can also look at the settings on other people's seeks and choose to match one of them if you want, if nobody is matching yours.

My position is that rated games are like tournament games.

In a real tournament, you wouldn't insist to the tournament director that you want to play your matches using your own playing rules ("New Zealand rules rock") or time rules ("Come on, Fischer is the way to go").

So, I would prefer for the server creator (tournament director) to decide what a rated game should look like, and we should all get used to that standard. Then we're participating on a level playing field. Anything else should be a free game.

Actually, if you want to be really bold, do away with custom time settings altogether. Provide a reasonable set of defaults, perhaps 10 or so, and leave it at that. Much less clutter, much less confusion on what all that "10 + 5/5" stuff means. Just have descriptive names (fast, medium, hyperblitz, etc).

I like the principle, but custom time settings for free games are really useful. I'm sure many organisations use KGS to run their tournaments, and a key reason to use KGS is because of its flexible rule/time configuration.

"Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others."
- Groucho Marx (1890-1977)

In a word, why? What is the point for the users of ratings? What is the evidence that one or another timing system or rule set significantly alters the results/ratings? WMS did some analysis a few years ago that showed the KGS ratings performed well at predicting winners across the full range of times until you dropped down to around seven seconds per move (unfortunately the page describing this that used to be on his HP is gone). If that is the case, it is irrelevant what time limits are used - all the playing fields are level. So doesn't then reduce to personal preference?

_________________
Dave Sigaty
"Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and rememberer and the remembered..."
- Marcus Aurelius; Meditations, VIII 21

As long as people always use the same times, the rating system works fine. As soon as you begin to force people to begin to use different times for different things, the rating system starts to stop working