Heres the scenerio.

A PDGA member stops playing for a year or so (or playing nonsanctioned tournaments), in the mean time each update of the ratings takes off his lowest rated round raising his/her rating artificially above what his rating should actually reflect.

I've seen many people do this altho not intentionally. Maybe there should be some sort of claus that unless you played a sanctioned round during the period between updates your rating will not be updated/adjusted using the elemination of your lowest round rating.

Any thoughts?

A player's rating doesn't get changed/updated when they are not a member even if they have played new sanctioned events during that time as a non-member.

I have no problems with people artificially boosting their ratings. I do have a problem if they were artificially making them stagnant. If a player doesn't play a rated round, his rating doesn't change. I'm not sure your scenario actually happens.

I'll check with Roger and see if a player's rating history is retained and flagged as to whether they were a member or not when those rounds were played. Consider a scenario where a player has maybe 4 rounds in 2005 as a member. Then, they don't join in 2006 but play 4 rounds in sanctioned events as a non-member. They then join again in 2007 and have played 2 rounds before the next ratings update. Does their rating include the 2006 rounds or not? That's what I'll find out. I think they will be included as long as the TD entered their PDGA number in those 2006 events even if a non-member.

Mike Randolph would be a good case to study... I think 2004-2005 specifically.

Chuck - Your rating IS updated when you play sanctioned events as a non-member. It is very simple to keep track of it as well. You just go to another player's "Ratings History" page and then replace his PDGA number in the URL with your own (inactive) number. It'll bring up your ratings history page.

I've seen locals who haven't played in a long time pay the $5.00, but also give their number. I enter the number into the system with the TD Report and it gets added to their player profile even though they aren't current so that when the ratings update they can use the method above and see what their new rating is.

I've also toyed around with it and their rating, despite inactivity, does contribute to the overall ratings on the unofficial ratings when I upload.