Red thumbs in Arena: player comfort vs. room for manipulation?

[Nils Nils]

The option to offer and accept a draw is another odd feature that doesn’t make sense in a Mountain Goats game, especially in Arena mode, where the scoring always produces a winner.
It’s not common, but it gets abused too: when two friends are paired against each other, they can agree to a draw so they don’t damage each other’s rating.

[Jellby]

Abandoning is not a draw. A draw (tie) affects elo and statistics, an abandonment doesn't.

[Nils Nils]

Abandoning is not a draw. A draw (tie) affects elo and statistics, an abandonment doesn't.

Yes, you’re right, I worded that imprecisely. What I described earlier as a draw is actually recorded at the end of the game as “Table abandoned”, but the essence is the same: it can still be manipulated exactly the way I described.

[groverapid5079]

The tension is real: red thumbs exist so players can avoid people they do not want to meet, while Arena rankings assume everyone can face everyone. One design that respects both is to keep the block for chat and casual tables but ignore it for Arena pairings, while letting a player report abuse directly from a ranked game. Another is to cap the number of active red thumbs a player can hold, which limits the strategic use without removing protection from people who genuinely need it.