Just out of interest, what made you choose 1200 as the default member-rating for member's who've just signed up? I'm not saying it's a bad idea, but I just fancy knowing what had you pick it :)
The choice of initial rating is just the choice of the average rating of all players. Apparently they thought 1200 was a good average. I would say 1500 or 1600 is more accurate, since most regular otb chess ratings vary from around 600 to 2600 (excluding the extremely high- and low-rated players).
Hmm according to the Dutch National Ratings Statistics, the average Dutch National Rating is somewhere between 1600 and 1700 now (link - top graph shows average rating per rating list).
I agree with the 1200 rating unless someone has a high Elo, USCF, CFC, IECG, IECC, ICCF, BCF rating. Most of the 1200s that I have played are really 1200 or less.
Just out of interest, what made you choose 1200 as the default member-rating for member's who've just signed up? I'm not saying it's a bad idea, but I just fancy knowing what had you pick it :)