As we all know,
contest announcements usually include a top-5 ranking after the contests are over.
But let's face it, 90% of the time the top scorers are either smurf or newly created accounts.
I understand it is virtually impossible to circumvent such actions, but I think we can at least exclude the newly created accounts.
Otherwise, I would rather see no rankings for Div.2 at all, since none of them are actually "Newcomers" who improved themselves to get decent results.
I agree with you :)
"exclude the newly created accounts", does that really makes sense? What about actual new users? They don't deserve a mention just because they participated for the first time?
List of top-5 newcomers along with their actual rankings in brackets?
From my perspective, the Div 2 ranking should be used to credit the less-skilled (the "real" Div.2'ers) who have performed exceptionally well during the contest.
Those new users reaching top-5 are not "real" Div.2 people. They should be classified as Div.1 right upon their registration (but of course, the system cannot automatically tell).
In my opinion, the first contest sort of acts as a placement round and thus can be excluded.
More importantly, this would be pretty effective against the trolls. Generally speaking, one can only be placed top-5 once, then one would be in Div.1. Yes, they can still troll by throwing at their first contest, but that move to a certain degree compensated the fact that they took top spots pushing the rest of us Div.2'ers downwards.
I also agree with you!
Then these "new users" will appear in top-5 participating twice. E. g., they may lose the first round (in order to become not Candidate Master but Expert or Specialist) and win the second one accomplishing their goal