I just checked your profile and it says RR 98.1 which is correct (you missed only 1 turn out of 72, on a yearly basis, and it was an "excused" one. so no penalties are added to the base % (yes, it IS a percentage).

That said, the general answer is that of course the only way to increase RR is being reliable. The base percentage will slowly increase for every turn you complete correctly, and the added penalties, if any, will be reduced and eventually disappear once enough time passes, as described on the RR explanation page.

Re: the excused missed turns, it is a setting that you specify when you create a game - most long-term players set it to zero, or one, but it's up to the game creator.

1: no, much to my annoyance
2: this also annoys me
3: ok, well now my entire response is "I agree and I am also annoyed"

Question 1: Is it possible to INCREASE your reliability rating by being reliable?

Question 2: Why is it displayed as a percentage, if it is not calculated as one? I have missed one deadline ever (when I unexpectedly lost access to the internet in a game with 24hr deadlines), and submitted something like 100 orders on time. Therefore, my reliability rating if correctly calculated as a percentage would be something like 99%. However, it is displayed as 60%.

Question 3: Why is the Reliability Rating so punitive, but individual game settings can be so forgiving (people get 3 or 4 unexcused absences within a game, but one missed deadline annihilates your RR).