I've noticed that some players try to group their losses together and resign before a win - so they can win more points and get rid of their losses before the upgrade.  I guess it's everyone's right to do what they want but for some reason it irks me and I end up trying to drop my rating as much as possible before they get their win.  Does anyone else do this?  

Huh,  I am sleep deprived.  But, I am not sure I would understand this one otherwise. 

So you are mad because people are making you drop your rating before you lose to them? 

I'm not mad and it's nothing to do with my rating, but I do get a little evil when I notice that someone is intentionally dropping a lot of points right before they will get the points from our game. I end up wanting to make it so they gain as few points as possible - if I can.  

Why would someone drop a bunch of points if they were winning their game with you?  I would think I would want to gain a bunch of points. 

 Have you been hanging out with lily? ;D

I used to do this as well back when I played rated games.  It's not obnoxious, merely good strategy.

 Agreed, I do this a lot of the time.

The idea behind it is that if they resign games they are going to lose before winning games they are going to win, their rating will go up more than if they won first.  It's simple logic to see why it would go up.

I say good for you for noticing, but they're certainly not cheating and in a way they've done a good job figuring out a strategy. How much difference does it make to ratings, though, in the big picture? I'm honestly curious. I wouldn't imagine that it would end up making a huge difference...maybe someone can show us a scenario.

Good strategy, I dunno, if your strategy is to "fix" up your rating to 1543 instead of 1535, I think you missunderstand the purpose of the rating.

If I have several games in which I am losing, once I realize and accept mentally the game is lost I will often also resign several other games that are truly lost efforts.  This way I take the "psychological hit" all at once in an effort to "regroup" mentally.

I do this especially if I am about to start a new tournament or an event upon which I am putting more emphasis, but it has nothing at all to do with ratings.

Slogging on in tough games is mentally taxing.

I know what you're saying . . . they try to increase the number of points they gain in one win by resigning say, two lost games before winning. I'd be OK with that if it did not harm the person they were playing against. To clarify: If I am losing to someone with a rating of 1250 and they resign four of their games, dropping their rating to 1150 and THEN win against me, it would annoy me. I'd lose more points because they want to gain more. That's simply selfish.

In my opinion, games should be finished in a natural order, resignations only taking into account what a logical time to resign would be. That's not always the case, though. That said, I would never try to spite them by dropping my rating - rather, I would try to resign before they have a chance to maximize the points they gain. Intentionally dropping my rating would only hurt me more.

But in the end, I don't really care about rating. It's just a number - I'm here to have fun and do my best.

That's just plain weird.  Your rating isn't a reward system, where you gain and lose "points".  Your rating is a mathematical approximation of your Chess strength, and whatever your true rating is, the number that is assigned to it on Chess.com is just an estimate of what is really inside your head.  If you just play your best, then that number will be accurate no matter what you do.

If you really feel like you should be getting rewarded, then go play for money. 

Deliberitly resigning/winning games in such a way as to maximize your rating is laughable. Seriously...you have the same win-loss-draw record but you do it in a way that makes you a 1599 rather than a 1535? Hahaha, wow does that somehow make you feel like a better chess player, I mean is your self esteem that tied into your chess rating. If I'm in a lost game I resign, If I can win, I win (though I could see Oprah's pyschological hit reasoning).

What does saving 30 points on your rating prove, and to who???

erikido.  I think you've perhaps been hanging out with lily...because you don't seem to understand the most obvious thing.  Get with the program, buddy.

turkey.  I pretty much agree with how you do it.  I would feel weird holding up a position and waiting 10 hours later to resign when I could group several of them together right before a win to maximize points.  I feel like the player against me has earned points for the most approximate rating I am at...for people to manipulate it seems pathetic.  

  Exactly!  I can't figure out why I feel the need to hinder them from their effort, though.  heh.  

richie and oprah.  I do the same.  That's something else altogether.  I've even resigned just because I've had too many games and someone is a pawn up.  AND I've resigned losing positions just so I could make my rating go down immediately before someone is going to win our game (only if I catch them at this activity).   hehe.

 I did say I finally figured out.  At any rate, I don't think it would really effect their rating that much anyway.  If they win their rating goes up and then it will go down after they lose.  If they lose a bunch of games their rating goes down a good amount and then goes up a fair amount after the game.

I would bet it had little if any effect on rating.

harmi...um...ok.

I am not a strong player.  I would love to have the rating of a strong player.  Heck, I'd settle for that of a decent club level player.  But I cannot reckon why someone would jigger the system simply to create a confected rating.