Is the ELO ranking a better gauge of player abilities?

[kineas]

Strongly agree. Provided one does not play for ELO only and plays all kind of matches, not just meetings.

Every game is most joyful when you are playing on your skill level, that's only why I consider ELO important. So you should seek an 50% of win ratio :)
/McIvan should achieve this by getting drunk before the games - fun galore ;)/

But ELO needs about 20 games to converge, and trust is also an important factor when it comes to select opponents. It seems to me that dropouts occur too often in the pbem-business.