I admit it. I need to get into a 12-step program. TTA is officially open for business. 

Playing TT is kind of like going to the casino and playing the slots. When you're on the way down you figure "just one more win". But along comes another problem with a rating of 2500! Hey TT! I'm dieing here! You've just kicked my ass down to 700 and you serve me a 2500 rated problem that only 5% have solved?

The only way to beat your addiction is to admit you are sick. Talk to others. You too can beat this terrible affliction! 

Okay, I'm confused. I was used to loosing tons of points even after solving the problem. Now it seems that the variability has changed so that now you don't loose or gain as many points as before. That means that someone who has recently lost a lot of points under the old algorithm is going to have a very difficult time getting his points  back. maybe it's time to re-set the history.

Didn't re-set my history. It takes a lot longer to climb out of a hole now. I guess at least it isn't as easy to fall into one now. Still seems a lot easier to loose points than win points.

So I reset my history now I've restarted at 1200. The first problem I played (which was pretty easy was rated 1222. I beat it and I went up 94 points! I'm not sure what's going on.

 Before my reset I was playing tough problems and IF I won quickly I MIGHT go up 10 or 12 points. If I lost on the first move I would go down 15 points for sure. 

TT is addictive no doubt about it. The thing that continues to irk me is the fact that you loose points even if you figure out the problem but take too long. The other bone of contention that I think needs to be rectified by whoever manages the TT: only serve up problems that are within a certain range of the players own rating. It seems that when I make a steep decent i.e. get a ton of problems wrong, it;s because the problems are too tough for some one as bad at chess as I am. Of course I'm not going to be able to figure out a 5 move problem if I can't even see an immediate threat of being forked by a knight!