rapid rating

my rapid rating is 717.

what does this mean?

It is an estimate of your playing strength based on the 15 games you played at that time control.

Its estimate is that you are better than about 9% of the players here playing at that time control. The rating is just an estimate. It will get more accurate as you play more games. Right now, statististics say the rating is within about 200 points of your actual strength in either direction. So your actual rating could fall anywhere in the span from 517 to 917.

thanks butbwhat level is thta in common parlance?

Depends on what you mean by common parlance. You might be the best player in your family, your whole town, your entire chess club, or school... but the pool of players you're against online is so much larger. And many people who play online do so regularly, a lot of them have got a lot of practice under their belts, and try to improve at the game, not just play to have fun with it.

Compared to the vast majority of the players here, people like you and I with low ratings are just really outmatched. Until we improve, at least.

+1 best answer so far I'd say.

I wouldn't compare too much to the ratings of others via percentile though. Sure it can be done, but elo rating is really designed to estimate matchups (one on one). Just know that it doesn't account for openings, play-style, psychology, or many other important factors in deciding who wins. Also, I know that chess.com uses Glicko rating (not elo), but the description of elo will describe the estimation better than I could - the math is extremely similar between Glicko and elo ratings though (I think Glicko has a more generous k-factor or something like that, but they are almost identical once ratings are established math-wise).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elo_rating_system 

717 rapid chess.com rating just means that against a random chess.com opponent in rapid you have an estimated winning chance of 64% against someone rated 617 (100 points lower than your current rating), but a 9% against any random opponent (GMs included). The numbers are meaningless other than for mathematical purposes and for perhaps estimating improvement or winning chances based on rating change or level over time.