71.98.76.228: Ideas for rules for the ladder (2006-05-02 23:35) [#1481]

While I'm not exactly sure what all you want to do with the ladder a couple ideas for rules:

-When a lower person beats a higher person, the lower person moves above the higher person and then everyone else drops a rank instead of switching them. The idea behind this is that the higher person has presumably proven and established their position, so his or her relationship to the people below shouldn't be affected. It also gives a closer analogue to a ladder, with the lower person climbing up. There is an additional side effect of promoting activity in the ladder because if you aren't active you will naturally drop when people below you beat people above you, this would eliminate the need to keep dates on the page for activity.

-Another idea for the ladder is to assign each person an arrow (either up or down) if you win a game, your arrow is up, if you lose a game your arrow is down. You cannot challenge people above you if you have a down arrow (note that the top and bottom people in the ladder don't have arrows). This gives people more of a reason to play a game against someone below them in the ladder. As it stands the stronger player has nothing to gain from accepting a lower person's challenge.

Just a couple thoughts...