Nick Grey wrote:
I cannot see any mention of number of games on URS or which ones but can on fide website.
The website doesn't show it, you have to download one of the files. I have been using the .csv one and checking it in a spreadsheet.
On the face of it, the spurious ratings in the December list seem to have vanished.
I don't think anyone is submitting results directly to URS, which means they are piggybacking on FIDE's submission rules. FIDE's rules are that events are submitted in full or not at all, which will cause anomalies if they ignore this feature when processing results from events which straddle an end of month. Taking Hastings as an example, they wouldn't have been able to process the December 2016 results for their December list, which means that their January list is the first to reflect Hastings results. Without knowing in detail how the calculations work, you don't know how much a difference it makes as to whether a game is notionally played in December or January. What I suspect they are doing is re-rating everyone overnight on December 31st.
It's worth reflecting that rating systems aren't purely for trying to predict future results. They also have to be measured against practicality such as being able to trace that correct data has been used and their use in setting seeding orders for Swiss tournaments and their role, both direct and indirect, in awarding of titles,