Initial rating decided by prompt response

[ferraijv]

Right now, the starting rating is too high for new chess players. Starting these players at 1000+ discourages them and makes them much more likely to churn.

I have invited new chess players to start using Lichess only for them to lose their first ~30 games, become discouraged, and stop using the app after a week. These players' ratings would probably stabilize around ~400 which means hours of play and dozens of losses before getting to a point where they have a decent chance at actually winning.

I propose, upon initial signup, we ask a question like "How would you describe your chess experience?" We have a set of possible answers that map to an initial rating.

Thoughts?

[TBestLittleHelper]

First, if you teaching a class or similar, you should be aware of https://lichess.org/class , the starting rating there is lower :

lila/modules/rating/src/main/Glicko.scala

Line 86 in 7e19e0f

val defaultManaged = Glicko(1100d, 400d, defaultVolatility)

These players' ratings would probably stabilize around ~400

The minimum rating is 600 on lichess. So 1500 with a high rating deviation, does work (Even through it's not perfect)
In general, this isn't really a new issue/topic, see for example this past commit : 892500f and I am sure there are lot's of related issues too. Seeing as stuff like speedruns are a thing (not allowed on lichess), letting players select their own starting rating probably does have some disadvantages too.