I thought marketing or rather retention of players.
But the thread on sandbagging mention rating floors. I can see that too
I suspect floors may serve more as an anti-sandbagging measure these days (and not all that well.)
I’m not sure how to measure their promotional impact, but here’s one way to look at it.
This looks at all players active since 2004 with floors of 1400 or above. I’ve divided players into three categories, those who are currently at their floor, those who are within 25 points of their floor and those who are 26 or more points above their floor.
[code]Floor On Floor count 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
1400 above 3044 62.6 62.6 58.3 55.0 52.3 40.0
1400 near 80 72.5 66.3 65.0 62.5 63.8 40.0
1400 on floor 103 75.7 76.7 68.0 62.1 53.4 34.0
1500 above 2860 63.6 62.8 60.1 58.9 54.9 43.0
1500 near 90 67.8 67.8 64.4 62.2 55.6 48.9
1500 on floor 148 75.7 73.6 60.1 57.4 56.1 40.5
1600 above 2462 64.7 62.8 61.5 60.2 57.1 44.9
1600 near 98 78.6 67.3 69.4 62.2 51.0 37.8
1600 on floor 121 68.6 68.6 54.5 56.2 45.5 35.5
1700 above 1873 67.8 66.4 64.4 63.0 59.2 46.8
1700 near 117 76.9 71.8 65.0 56.4 58.1 43.6
1700 on floor 144 78.5 72.2 70.1 63.2 60.4 43.1
1800 above 1528 70.4 68.1 64.1 63.6 62.4 50.0
1800 near 123 78.0 72.4 61.8 62.6 56.1 46.3
1800 on floor 123 70.7 72.4 68.3 65.0 58.5 44.7
1900 above 1095 67.1 67.3 62.2 62.5 59.6 48.4
1900 near 113 78.8 63.7 74.3 69.0 68.1 53.1
1900 on floor 95 65.3 72.6 65.3 56.8 61.1 46.3
2000 above 747 71.6 70.3 64.4 60.8 62.0 46.3
2000 near 103 81.6 76.7 69.9 68.0 73.8 54.4
2000 on floor 99 87.9 75.8 75.8 72.7 62.6 49.5
2100 above 468 55.3 59.0 58.5 58.3 57.9 42.5
2100 near 16 75.0 81.3 75.0 87.5 81.3 43.8
2100 on floor 18 83.3 55.6 44.4 66.7 55.6 38.9
2200 above 333 84.7 81.4 75.7 74.5 71.2 58.0
2200 near 86 88.4 89.5 82.6 81.4 82.6 70.9
2200 on floor 104 81.7 82.7 76.9 72.1 72.1 61.5
[/code]
I wonder if they interfere with Chess at times?
For example, it looks like I am might be falling. No where near the floor. But what is wrong with me crashing through the floor if I do it over 2 years?
You can petition to have your floor lowered, but you need to have been at or near it for an extended period of activity.
You can also apply to the ED for the Special Patzer Floor Waiver.
Can you send me a list of criteria? I think I may be eligible for that.
Not counting the absolute floor of 100+games played that many scholastic players start at, floors start at 1400, so in order to get a floor your rating has to have gone over 1600.
Since you have not done that you can’t have a floor. Given that your rating is based on less then 50 games, it will fluctuate a lot. Don’t worry about the rating drop at this point. Work on improving your chess, and gaining more experience.
Floors are for people like me, who play way too much Game/30! (I can’t help myself. I’m an addict.) 
I would probably be closer to my old rating if I played nothing faster then game/75.