Activate / Deactivate Submissions

[McLeopold]

There is a new feature of the website that has just been implemented for all contestants.

The latest submission can now be in an activated or deactivated state. Deactivated bots will no longer be in the next game queue. These submissions may still be pulled in as an opponent for another game using the current matchup logic.

Submissions are automatically deactivated 3 days after their initial submission. This deactivate timer can be reset at any time. You may also voluntarily deactivate your latest submission if you choose. The profile page will display the latest submissions status just above the list of recent submissions and provide the ability to activate or deactivate.

The purpose of this change is to remove starter bots and abandoned accounts from the normal game rotation in a nice way. Starter bots will probably all be in a similar skill range, and only uploaded once. If no starter bot is ever chosen as a seed, then it is highly unlikely that the other starter bots would ever get pulled into any games. If any bot in the top 100 was deactivated, it is highly likely that it will continue to be pulled into games as most other players in the top 100 would be active and want to play that bot.

The 3 day timer may change later. We may also introduce some bias against picking deactivated bots at some point.

[BearOff]

It's really awaited improvement, thanks.
And thanks for opponents' ratings in last games on My Profile page - It's very convenient.

[Genomancer]

Awesome feature!

Is it possible to update the server statistics page (http://aichallenge.org/server_stats.php) to include the number of currently activated vs. non-activated bots?

I used to think about how long my bot would come up in the queue using the total user number, but now thats not possible. (And yes, I know we currently know how many bots are in front of us, but without knowing the total its hard to figure out when the next-next game will be).

[Parasprites]

Thanks! Hopefully this will lead to being able to play games more often.

[jlgrall]

Nice, thanks.

[analyst74]

Awesome feature!
Small suggestion: maybe sigma should be taken into account as well? i.e. older than 3 days and sigma < 2.0

Some bots may not get enough games within the 3-day period due to small pool of bots within similar skill range, or bots within similar range are mostly in-active for whatever reason.

[dimkadimon]

Great update, thank you!

[Tachikoma]

Great! The turn-around cycle got much faster!
This will surely contribute to the improvements of players' skill. Thanks.

[Parasprites]

Uh, I think the new matchmaking broke something, because I'm getting less games then ever. My current game rate is 310! This is ridiculous. Especially when you see a deactivated bot playing 10 games in under an hour.

[treeform]

Why cant we just not pull a dictated bot into any games? Its not like there is a shortage of bots, but there is shortage of CPU time, we should reward people who watch their bots and upload new versions?