So, I know that this has been brought up numerous times but I feel like I have to rant on two points. First let me give some background...

 I am not very good at chess but really enjoy the site. I am not a sore loser and have lost many matches to people that are a few hundred points below me as I was outplayed. What bothers me about the tournament formats is all the timeouts, vacations and people that drag out hopelessly lost games. This happens in every tournament I have entered. I have no delusions that I am going to win each tournament I enter but I always give my best and it bothers me when people just enter and don't bother making a move. At least try OR WITHDRAW. Genuine emergencies are different but no one is going to convince me that every time out I have experienced is due to an actual crisis.

 The second thing that is driving me nuts and can be easily fixed is "unrated" players entering tournaments they have no business being in. As I stated, I am not very good and that is the reason I enter tournaments around my rating. It is not real fun to get demolished by an unrated player that is playing WAY below his/her rating. I was in a 1000-1200 tournament and got destroyed by a person well out of my league. It is demoralizing and if you look at the lower ranked tournaments there is always a number of "unrated" enteries. My personal opinion is that you should have to play (complete) a minium amount of games prior to entering any tournament. It is just not fun for us beginners!

I completely agree that unrated players can enter open tournaments. They absolutely fall into that category. In my experience I find that a number of the unrated opponents I face are at least 1-2 brackets below where they should be. To me it seems simple that if you play say 10 games against a variety of opponents it will give a fairly accurate rating.

Or enter an Open tournament and by the end of that you will have starting point at least.

I can't help feeling that the title oversold the content.

More ranting please or I won't play.

Yeah, it's a pretty short rant.

By dragging out hopelessly lost games do you mean using all the available time, days and days and days on end?

Or do you mean simply continuing to play and making their opponent finish the checkmate in hopes of a blunder or stalemate?

I have to admit that I'm sometimes guilty of the second, but it's not out of spite.  

Everything else, amen to that.

In almost all of the "official" chess.com tiered tourneys I've played in (I'm in my 10th now, always in the 1601-1800 tier), there has been a clear sandbagger who wipes out the rest of our group and often finishes with a rating that would have registered him at least one, and sometimes 2 tiers higher if he had entered the tournament with that rating.

I now enter those tournaments fully expecting that to happen and that I won't progress beyond the first round (I never have yet).  But that still gets me several good games against the rest of the people in each group who really are close to me in ability.

Actually, I thought the length was fine; it just wasn't for me.

Perhaps if the OP tries a different subject next time...

Disappointment in the current rant is only eased by thoughts of the next.

We rant connoisseurs have a difficult and lonely furrow to plough.

Derailing a rant makes me sad

Guess I'll have to go back to hanging out at Hyde Park...

 Rants are what makes the world a better place. My apologies if it was too long to hold some peoples attention.

You didn't drop points for length, I just didn't sense the bulging eyes or foaming mouth.

Profane, broken and capitalized English would have conferred gravitas.

Something to think about.

 Agreed Prawn, I just find that there is a fine line between Profane, Broken and Capitalzed english and a deleted comment. As for the bulging eyes and foaming mouth..... I can assure you they were there. Just not a suitable picture for our fine folks here at chess.com :)

No, no, no.  This was more of a Dennis Miller type of rant.  You know, getting pet peeves off the chest even while still giving off the appearance of intelligence and literacy.

A rant doesn't have to be "y do u f!cking ppl haz to play stooppid?"

Pardon me if this is already in place (I've never played in a tournament yet), but can Chess.com offer tournies so that players whom are rated play in rated tournie and unrated in unrated tournie?

I still prefer these kind...

(Of course, I also preferred Dana Carvey's Dennis Miller.)

And here's how you do it on the job: