diff --git a/regrank/xgboost_regrank.h b/regrank/xgboost_regrank.h
index 7163f2ed9..d0148ab1a 100644
--- a/regrank/xgboost_regrank.h
+++ b/regrank/xgboost_regrank.h
@@ -200,11 +200,6 @@ namespace xgboost{
                 fprintf(fo, "[%d]", iter);
                 for (size_t i = 0; i < evals.size(); ++i){
                     this->PredictRaw(preds_, *evals[i]);
-                    for( size_t j = 0 ; j < preds_.size(); ++ j){
-                        if( fabsf(preds_[j]- 0.5f)>1e-6f){
-                            printf("p[%lu]=%f\n", j,preds_[j]);
-                        }
-                    }
                     obj_->PredTransform(preds_);
                     evaluator_.Eval(fo, evname[i].c_str(), preds_, evals[i]->info);
                 }
@@ -288,10 +283,7 @@ namespace xgboost{
                     #pragma omp parallel for schedule( static )
                     for (unsigned j = 0; j < ndata; ++j){
                         preds[j] = mparam.base_score + base_gbm.Predict(data.data, j, buffer_offset + j, data.info.GetRoot(j), bst_group );
-                        if( preds[j] != 0.5f ){
-                            printf("pred[%d:%u]=%f\n", bst_group, j, preds[j]);
-                        }
-                        utils::Assert( preds[j] == 0.5f, "BUG");
+
                     }
                 }else
                     #pragma omp parallel for schedule( static )
diff --git a/regrank/xgboost_regrank_eval.h b/regrank/xgboost_regrank_eval.h
index 497d32921..24e514933 100644
--- a/regrank/xgboost_regrank_eval.h
+++ b/regrank/xgboost_regrank_eval.h
@@ -102,14 +102,22 @@ namespace xgboost{
 
         /*! \brief Error */
         struct EvalMatchError : public IEvaluator{
+        public:
+            EvalMatchError(const char *name){
+                name_ = name;
+                abs_ = 0;
+                if(!strcmp("mabserror", name)) abs_ =1;
+            }            
             virtual float Eval(const std::vector<float> &preds,
                                const DMatrix::Info &info) const {
                 const unsigned ndata = static_cast<unsigned>(preds.size());
                 float sum = 0.0f, wsum = 0.0f;
                 #pragma omp parallel for reduction(+:sum,wsum) schedule( static )
                 for (unsigned i = 0; i < ndata; ++i){
-                    const float wt = info.GetWeight(i);                    
-                    if (static_cast<int>(preds[i]) != static_cast<int>(info.labels[i]) ){
+                    const float wt = info.GetWeight(i);
+                    int label = static_cast<int>(info.labels[i]);
+                    if( label < 0 && abs_ != 0 ) label = -label-1;
+                    if (static_cast<int>(preds[i]) != label ){
                         sum += wt;
                     }
                     wsum += wt;
@@ -117,10 +125,13 @@ namespace xgboost{
                 return sum / wsum;
             }
             virtual const char *Name(void) const{
-                return "merror";
+                return name_.c_str();
             }
+            int abs_;
+            std::string name_;
         };
 
+
         /*! \brief Area under curve, for both classification and rank */
         struct EvalAuc : public IEvaluator{
             virtual float Eval(const std::vector<float> &preds,
@@ -303,7 +314,8 @@ namespace xgboost{
                 }
                 if (!strcmp(name, "rmse"))    evals_.push_back(new EvalRMSE());
                 if (!strcmp(name, "error"))   evals_.push_back(new EvalError());
-                if (!strcmp(name, "merror"))   evals_.push_back(new EvalMatchError());
+                if (!strcmp(name, "merror"))   evals_.push_back(new EvalMatchError("merror"));
+                if (!strcmp(name, "mabserror"))   evals_.push_back(new EvalMatchError("mabserror"));
                 if (!strcmp(name, "logloss")) evals_.push_back(new EvalLogLoss());
                 if (!strcmp(name, "auc"))    evals_.push_back(new EvalAuc());
                 if (!strncmp(name, "pre@", 4)) evals_.push_back(new EvalPrecision(name));
diff --git a/regrank/xgboost_regrank_obj.hpp b/regrank/xgboost_regrank_obj.hpp
index 6f367744c..f3fd4010b 100644
--- a/regrank/xgboost_regrank_obj.hpp
+++ b/regrank/xgboost_regrank_obj.hpp
@@ -134,6 +134,9 @@ namespace xgboost{
                         }
                         Softmax( rec );
                         int label = static_cast<int>(info.labels[j]);
+                        if( label < 0 ){
+                            label = -label - 1;
+                        }
                         utils::Assert( label < nclass, "SoftmaxMultiClassObj: label exceed num_class" );
                         for( int k = 0; k < nclass; ++ k ){
                             float p = rec[ k ];