Selecting opponent rating

When I create a game I can no more select the margin of my opponent rating (it is fixed at -500 and +500). How can I solve it?
Thank you.

@Finalista said in #1:
> When I create a game I can no more select the margin of my opponent rating (it is fixed at -500 and +500). How can I solve it?
> Thank you.
it was changed so that provisional players (? next to rating) cant select it. the solution is to play rated.

Thank you!

@Akarsh_2010 said in #2:
> it was changed so that provisional players (? next to rating) cant select it. the solution is to play rated.
So lichess wants to force players to play more rated games? I don't think this will work (at least not for me).
For a free open platform this also feels strange.

@peppie23 said in #4:
> So lichess wants to force players to play more rated games? I don't think this will work (at least not for me).
> For a free open platform this also feels strange.
Nobody is forcing you to play rated games

@peppie23 said in #4:
> So lichess wants to force players to play more rated games? I don't think this will work (at least not for me).
> For a free open platform this also feels strange.

theres probably some sort of rating manipulation that can be done with that. also -lichess is still free. they dont make money off of you playing games

@Autofill said in #5:
> Nobody is forcing you to play rated games
If I want to keep using some features of the platform then I have to. So at least I am pushed and I don't like that. I am not alone looking at this thread and other similar threads.

@persoest said in #6:
> theres probably some sort of rating manipulation that can be done with that.
Then why provisional rated players can still accept and send challenges? That is much more dangerous for rating manipulations. Besides the usage of Glicko 2 minimizes the impact of getting different ratings based on choice of opponents. So I don't see it as valid reason to forbid provisional players selecting rated players based on a range.

@persoest said in #6:
> theres probably some sort of rating manipulation that can be done with that.
It is also applicable for casual unrated games so for which no rating calculation is done at all. Also for those games you can't select a range if your rating is provisional. It is probably some extra work to make a distinction between rated/ unrated but it should be minimal and close to 0 impact on the performance of the platform.

@persoest said in #6:
> also -lichess is still free. they dont make money off of you playing games
It is not because something is free that one doesn't have specific goals. I guess Lichess wants as much games to be played as possible here. A rating is a very important tool to attract new players. However if too many people start to avoid playing those new players by choosing a range or worse unrated then it becomes a problem for the future. So in that sense it is necessary to push players to play rated games.