Why do some member start with a different initial rating?

I've seen a couple of examples of new members with initial ratings of 800, 1000 and even 1800. Here are some accounts:

http://www.chess.com/members/view/dschappell (800)

http://www.chess.com/members/view/ashnijames (800)

http://www.chess.com/members/view/ViktoriaAlekseevna18 (1000)

http://www.chess.com/members/view/scooon (1000)

http://www.chess.com/members/view/wassgoingon1414(1800)

http://www.chess.com/members/view/okokok11 (1800)

But some new members have "normal" accounts:

http://www.chess.com/members/view/sdewitt11

Pheebe also started with 800...

i have noticed that too...and i have no idea"why".....thats so strange !

Good observation and good question too. ☝

Maybe they are trying out some V3 features but I think a staff would be in a better position to answer that. 

And oh.... I thank God I got here before now 

Thank you all. But staff seems to be rarely on this forum.

If a user joins the site through either the Android or iOS apps, they are now able to self-report their rating initially (through selecting one of 5 "skill brackets"). It's something we're planning on adding for all new users in the future.

Hope that helps!

Ok, tschüs, I'm closing this account. Will come back as NewMSC157 through Android. 

Your rating will always even out to your actual playing strength, and a higher rating with zero games played isn't really a rating at all :D

Indeed. It was more of a joke than anything else. Wouldn't trade my 15000+ forum "points" for anything. Even for an unreachable 1800 bullet, haha. :)

Thank you. I knew complaining about staff would do the job.  

As far I know, one can't tell unrated games from rated (with no paid membership)... so.. is 2000 an option as well? 

Sigh.

Why not sell rating points while you are at it?

Or give a 100p bonus in a category of choice when someone buys a membership? (just to make it less obvious that you are really selling rating points).

I mean the standard rating boost given to some and now giving anyone  a self-selected initial rating, makes the ratings quite pointless anyway.

Often players who come new to this site have some kind of established rating elsewhere.  These established ratings could be used as a guideline as to where to start somebody. 

To start somebody with established ratings of 2000 or 2200 or 2500 at 1200 is ludicrous and one reason I have not played much on this site [except for exhibitions].

I think only titled players should be allowed to choose their initial rating.

Nobody should be allowed to choose their initial rating. There should be rules and regulations which make sense on what your initial rating is.

Great.  So now a new member with a self proclaimed skill level of 1800 walks away from a game after 4 moves and my already inflated rating rises another 13 points?  Oh yeah, that makes a lot of sense...And yes I did uncheck the "win on time" box, but then forgot to "save settings". Sometimes I hate this site...

Just follow Nakamura's opening (KIA?), and premove the first dozen moves.

Ponz111: I mean titled players should start with a 2000 or so rating with established rules about where would a certain type of master start.

If I had to guess that initial rating will probably not be used in the actual rating calculations. Or they will have a separate calculation for that player's intial check which does utilize the self reported rating, run that, then use the resulting rating to modify the opponent's rating.That is really the only thing that makes sense.

They're saying believe in magic. You muggle.