Zero points / no rating change

[chesseric]

Hi,

I didn't find anything about this in FAQ or in forum...
But now and then both I and the problem gets no rating change. I haven't seen any pattern in when this happens. Is it a bug or what?

[cyanfish]

I think this problem is related to network latency.

Here's what Richard said in a similar topic a while ago:

Hi Tayac,

Probably the server detected a time difference between how long your computer said you took to solve the problem and how much time actually expired between serving you the problem and the notification of problem completion arriving at the server.  This check is there to prevent users changing their clocks (a method of cheating used on CTS).  Unfortunately if the network is a bit slow during problem solving (sometimes network packets can be dropped which take a while to resend) then these time differences can occur without the user doing anything wrong (I'm sure you're not doing anything wrong!).  In these situations the server decides it can't be sure of the validity of the clock so decides not to record the solution.  I realize this can be a bit annoying, but I do need some method of detecting unusual clock drift to make sure blitz "average seconds" is valid. Unfortunately this procedure is being used on both blitz AND standard problems which is a bit silly, I should only be making these checks on blitz.

Regards,
Richard.

[newlook]

The first attempt of a particular problem in Blitz mode and the first attempt in Standard mode do not cause any rating change for the person. That's because the problem's initial rating is arbitrary. As the number of attempts goes up, the percent of rating points added/subtracted from the person's score increases by 20%.

Attempt   % of Glicko formula rating change
1                0
2               20
3               40
4               60
5               80
6              100

[drahacikfm]

Actually, the first attempt at a problem gives 20% rating changes to the user rather than 0% (and regular Glicko rating changes for the problem).

The reason for chesseric seeing no rating change for himself and the problem is the network timing issue described by Richard in the quote.

[chesseric]

These were problems with many attempts already...

If the server keeps the timing, why not just use the server's timing if the clocks differ? Wouldn't that be better? The servers timing can't be that far off anyway?

I assume it's on the todo list to remove this feature for standard mode?

[richard]

Hi Chesseric,

Yes this is the problem that cyanfish refers to.  At the moment I'm leaning towards this being an issue of a solution which causes more problems than it solves.  Currently I have no evidence of clock tampering occurring , but lots of people who suffer network lag and therefore get problems disregarded because of the clock tampering code incorrectly kicking in.  I probably can't turn it off altogether, but I'll start to use the server's estimate where the clock has drifted more than the trigger amount instead of ignoring the problem (this does mean that in these situations you'll get marked for a longer period of time but this seems like it will be less annoying than your attempt being ignored altogether).

Regards,
Richard.

[chesseric]

Yes, and using server clock would automatically eliminate the problem altogether for standard mode, since the timing isn't used then (?).

[richard]

I've marked this as something to be done before the next UI update so hopefully this ongoing complaint can be put to bed completely soon.

Richard.

[oded ross]

Any news?
I just had that on a standard problem which took me 14 minutes to solve and no-one got correct before me (#48016). Extremely frustrating.

[richard]

Hi Oded,

14 Minutes, Ouch.  Fixing this is still scheduled for the next UI update which will hopefully be in the next 2-3 weeks (there may also be a problem set update before then [nothing major, just some more problems]).

Richard.

[richard]

For those that have been bitten by this problem, I've just uploaded a fix that should resolve this.  When there is a time drift now, the server side time is taken rather than the problem attempt being ignored.

Regards,
Richard.