Concise description:
Anytime a ? player is in a game, he loses and gains no points regardless of the outcome. Once he has a rank, all is as usual. In the case of a multiplayer game, all other players still gain and lose points as normal. The noob is basically in "practice mode". I'm still trying to work out how this would work in team games. Any suggestions in that regard would be appreciated. Also any criticisms regarding opportunities for abuse, etc. are welcomed.
This will improve the following aspects of the site:
This will eliminate the spurious complaints about farming of new recruits. New recruits will not be targets for farming, as they won't net players the 3 points or whatever. Players will not be falsely accused of farming because ? players join their games, over which they have no control.
Since no one seems to think that "farming" is taking place once the noob has 5 completed games, this will allow noobs to join and deadbeat their 4 initial games and never come back, without someone screaming "farmer". If the noob actually does stay, people can rape and pillage them for points all they want once they have their 5 games under their belt.
