opponent rating

Playing people 400 points higher than yourself may occasionally be interesting, but you will get destroyed in almost every game. I don't see how this is helpful.

I know with the rating spread you always get a variety, but yeah, it would get discouraging to lose all the time. At the same time, losing a lot would probably be good for me, would help with the anxiety about winning that I think it's in the way of better play

Generally you want to play people one rating class above you (200 points). But that applies to OTB play, and online is different.

well, that's what I did... it worked for me. Or maybe because I just improved due to other reasons.