pedastrian57's blog

Is it right?
By pedastrian57, history, 3 years ago, In English

Is it right to quit a contest after seeing the problemset and feeling that you can not solve them?

Or is it necessary for the platforms to introduce some kind of system such that only the contestants who are participating can view the problems?

Recently Atcoder has implemented Rated/Unrated participation.

I don't know what the reason may be, but I feel those who are participating unrated can do that with virtual participation also. It is like playing friendly matches in the middle of a World Cup.

What do you think?

  • Vote: I like it
  • +52
  • Vote: I do not like it

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +33 Vote: I do not like it

People don't send alt teams to the world cup in order to not lose rating.

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
    ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +19 Vote: I do not like it

    Yes, you are right
    But alt are involving their ratings in the contest too.
    You might argue an 1800 sending his 1400 alt in a contest will affect the rating
    But we cant change it I feel. To stop alts only 1 way to do is some ID verification for registration and I feel it would take long time for CP platforms to use ID verification.
    And we should try whatever is possible to make it fair.

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +11 Vote: I do not like it

Is it right to quit a contest after seeing the problemset and feeling that you can not solve them?

What is right and what is wrong is ultimately subjective. I feel like it is wrong, and therefore I do not do that myself. At the same time, CodeForces have no official policy on this matter and I don't feel like I have the right to evaluate other people's actions. You are your own judge here.

I don't know what the reason may be

I feel like you may be interested in reading the series of blog posts by maroonrk, starting here. There are plenty of different opinions and arguments there

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +15 Vote: I do not like it

I fully support the AtCoder change. AtCoder scoring system is intended to encourage and reward people who can solve difficult problems. However, it also enables people to "exploit" using the no show strategy. Regarding your issue with unrated participants, if you don't allow them to joining as unrated, they would just skip the round anyway. Hence, there is no harm in allowing unrated participation. The reason we don't have friendly matches in the middle of World Cup is because it takes extra effort to organize a football match. In this case, it doesn't cost organizers anything once the feature is implemented and deployed.

I don't think there is necessarily a need to define who's right and who's wrong here. People are free to do anything as long as it's not against the rules (similar to how Petr called the no show strategy unsportsmanlike here yet it is still not wrong).

I always view rating as a way to reflect my contest performances and my skill to some extent; which is why I think the more I participate, the more accurate it is. If I only join when I feel the problems suit my style, my rating would only be meaningful on a specific set of contests instead. On the other side, some people might just want to solve problems they enjoy and don't care much about rating.

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