Rating

What's the lowest rating possible.

No, it isn't.

Then how come I don't ever see tactics puzzles rated say, 50? I have it set untimed, and it can give puzzles with ratings anywhere it wants.

I mean FIDE or USCF.

I've been told the floor is 100 -- USCF wont let the rating drop below that.

To get a FIDE rating in the first place you have to beat FIDE rated players.  In the past you had to be rated 2200 to even enter into international ratings, so even the worst FIDE rated players today aren't much below 2000 -- although I suppose it's theoretically possible to get a FIDE rating, and then purposely lose all your games... if they didn't kick you out for being crazy I'd assume you'd hit a similar built in rating floor.

That probably was true at one time, but people on Yahoo Answers state various FIDE ratings from 1400 on. Even lower.

I think FIDE ratings start now at 1600. At one time it was 2200, lowered to 2000, etc until now I believe the lowest is 1600.

Really?  What's their FIDE ID number?  I've seen some Yahoo! answers before and there seems to be about only 2-3 actual chess people who know what they're talking about.  I find it hard to believe, but I guess it could be true, I've just never seen it.

People on Yahoo Answers state FIDE ratings even lower than 1400.

Wow, I guess it ain't what it used to be... the lowest I've seen was in 1800s, it's kind of hard to believe it goes down to 1600... did they do that for nations with no national federation to give people a chance to play or what?  Or to collect more dues or something?  Just seems weird.

If you're talking about this: http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100217220624AAo66R8 that's not quite what they're saying.

First time I've ever seen that one. 

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5094

FIDE "The rating floor has been decreased from 1400 to 1200."

Well, this Yahoo! answer says the FIDE handbook requires a performance rating of over 1400 (as well as other minimums).  It's hard to take Yahoo! answers at face value, especially considering the asker (the one who admits not knowing in the first p lace) is able to choose which answer was best.

Also you have these instances where the Yahoo! answer you saw claimed ratings below 1400 and the one I dug up claims that's impossible.

 Read TadDudes post, Mr. Orange H.

Second source  http://www.fide.com/component/content/article/1-fide-news/4059-changes-to-title-and-rating-regulations-effective-from-july-1st-2009

FIDE "The rating floor will be 1200 from 1.7.2009. " Not the US date format.

The date is 2009 07 01.

 Thanks.

Yes I saw it  very good.

 I do agree about Yahoo though. People often do pick some of the dumbest answers for "best answer."