They do have some kind of rating adjustment thing...Not sure the purpose of it. Its not drastic or anything. My guess is its to adjust for 'local ratings'.
I've seen my rating jump by a few points when I've been inactive.
For example, I play a weekly event. I usually lose there. The strength of the average player is pretty astounding. Then I go to a casual tournament on a weekend, and guys rated 200 points higher than me seem very weak.
So, my guess is the uscf tries to balance out stuff for local ratings like that. In my case, its all in the same city, but different player bases.
No idea if what
Does anyone know if the USCF chess ratings decreased over the years? I've heard that in the 90s, USCF changed their rating system that effectively lowered everyone's rating by 100 or so points. Is this true and was there another time where USCF dramatically changed their rating system?