Improve Ratings
[was: Make it easier to rate songs]
If you make song ratings really easy and obvious, you'll be able to crowd-source much more meaningful data. On top of that, users will be better able to keep track of what songs/artists/albums they like and what they don't.
nozai
shared this idea
15 comments
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worldblee
commented
Hmm, I come back to this topic a year later to see not much has changed. Being able to favorite tracks works to a certain degree to identify songs you really like, but the lack of ability to get rid of tracks you hate and give a thumbs down to MOG suggestions for you negates the usefulness of the 'just for you' suggestions to a large degree. Maybe 1 in 10 of the suggested albums are something I want to listen to. Being able to thumbs down certain tracks on albums you otherwise like would also streamline album play if there was an option to never play songs you thumbed down even if they otherwise would appear in an album or play list. Thanks for listening!
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Jonny Warren commented
Totally in agreeance, thumbs up/ thumbs down approach is fantastic. Thumbs up to hear that track again and others like it, thumbs down for disliking a specific song (with a view to tweaking the future selections) and leaving the rating for tolerated or passable songs.
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skywolf
commented
I've recently decided tagging (in addition to thumbs down) is the best way to give everyone the flexibility they need while not being in the way and keeping things simple when you just want to click and listen. Tagging would be a private, individual option to provide functionality MOG isn't otherwise willing to implement.
I've listened to many editor's picks and "suggestions for you" that I dont hate, but don't really love either. So, I just need a way to remember that I've already checked them out AND what I thought. The planned play history feature might help with the first need, but in this example I would still want to tag a song, album or artist with some kind of rating as a reminder of my impression.
Once thumbs down/dislike (please vote for the new seperate suggestion!) and play history are both implemented, it may be sufficient for a typical user to accept in-my-play-history-but-not-liked-or-disliked as an implicit 3-star rating. For me, "3-star" basically means let it play in radio mode, but don't waste time reconsidering it for addition to playlists if i run into the name/title again after it has faded from memory...
As a final plug, note that tagging WITH filtering by tag would be powerful and flexible enough to supplement or replace any other rating/filtering system while not impeding the simple thumbs up system.
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skywolf
commented
It sounds like there are (or should be) two entirely separate rating systems--public and private. As far as public ratings, I don't care about them and agree that automatically captured metrics along with editors picks, "friend" recommendations, etc. are sufficient.
On the other hand, a private rating system is essential when dealing with such a large collection. I can see the value in a star rating system for some, but far more important and, as others have pointed out, the huge gaping hole in MOG is the ability to dislike/banish/thumbs down a track, album or artist so it never appears in radio mode or suggestions unless we unbanish it.
With millions of tracks, there is no way to remember everything sampled and disliked unless we maintain our own database outside of MOG which would be a PITA. There's nothing worse than queuing a bunch of tracks only to discover you already heard and disliked some of them months ago and forgot.
Note: Dislike/thumbs down may warrant a separate suggestion to vote on apart from the broader "improve ratings" discussion.
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Solid State commented
I would also like a way to "banish" tracks I don't like. Just add an ick face button to the player. :-)
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napsfan
commented
AND, perhaps more importantly to me at least -- Don't EVER play that song. Slacker keeps a list of "disliked" songs and ensure that they don't ever get played again. You can go in and view your list of disliked songs and remove the "dislike" marking if you ever change your mind in the future.
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napsfan
commented
YES! I am a Slacker subscriber and this is one feature that is a MUST HAVE for MOG, just like Slacker already has. When an artist or song comes up in the radio that I dislike, I need the ability to dislike it and then have that prevent that same song from coming up again next time. I know there is the "thumbs down" feature, but that is worthless if the song shows up again next time.
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dmoo
commented
It's crazy that this is not already in
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Bill Moore
commented
I'd add to this the ability to thumbs down an entire album.
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JP
commented
...and maybe roll in a thumbs up button along with this, so that certain tracks can get mixed back in more frequently if they're faves.
Either way, having the "uck, no thanks" button is a must for the Radio.
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Brian Hinman
commented
There are currently titles being recommended to me that I already own (cd/mp3), which is great because it means something you're doing is working. However, I will probably never listen to those titles on MOG (since I have them readily accessible). It would be nice to acknowledge that I like those Artists/Albums so that recommendations continue to be based on them, but also to clear them from the recommendation list so I might get new ones.
It seems like ratings could accomplish this. -
Fikus
commented
Agree it is annoying to have a song appear on different playlists when you don't like it.
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Mr. Johnson, my point is not that ratings are useless.
1. Historically across a number of these services, a very small number of users rate items. One typically sees a Pareto distribution, where 80% rate nothing and 20% rate like crazy. Given all of the requests MOG has right now, we are reluctant to invest in a feature that a minority will use, especially when it effectively creates more work for the user
2. MOG believes the primary benefits of rating - suggestions for each user - can be achieved through observation of user behavior (Favoriting, play history etc.)
I have commented on a few suggestions that MOG allow "sorting by ratings" requesting clarification. If users want MOG to sort by their own individual ratings, point 1 above comes into play. Users must invest a lot of work to have that be meaningful for them.
If users are looking to sort by someone else's ratings (AMG, MOG average rating, etc.) we question the value of that. MOG believes popularity (as determined by a mix of play count, favorites, playlisting, and other observed behaviors) can provide that same value without requiring users to do the work of rating.
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worldblee
commented
I agree--I thought the 'X' button might do this but I'm not sure. I definitely want the ability to heart and get rid of tracks in ALL views and modes. When you hear something great, you immediately want to give it a heart of thumbs up, and when you hear something sucky you want to banish it ASAP.
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Isaac Girard
commented
Allow songs to be banished from the play queue for a week/month/forever. Allow management of banished tracks via settings.
