Regarding loss of points in games

Hello

I am a beginner that just tried my first rated game, a 10 min rapid that I lost due to time.

Started on 400 but lost 201 points from just that 1 match.

I am guessing that massive point loss is only for the first rated game? Otherwise 1 more loss and I would be at 0 points. Please help clarify this, made me scare to try again.

The large rating swings will just be early on. You'll probably still have some large swings for a few games, but once the site thinks it knows what your rating is, it will settle down. If a player just got on and the starting rating was way off their actual rating, it could be annoying to have to have a bunch of easy wins or overwhelming losses just to get to the correct rating, so you tend to make larger jumps until you have enough games to stabilize. 

Yeah the algorithm makes larger adjustments in your first few games. It might take a couple of games to settle down. After its settled, points won or lost depends on the difference between the players ratings.

Thanks for the explanation