Ratings: Thumbs Up vs Five Star
In the context of rating systems, I’ve recently been pondering the difference between thumbs up and thumbs down versus five star styles.
When I discussed my use case for Plex a little while back, I mentioned how the star rating system for songs and dynamic playlists allowed me to have effectively the same functionality as Google Play Music and its thumbs up playlist. I tell the system that I like a song, and I can shuffle the collection of all songs that I like. Pretty simple, and they both do that job very well.
However, that doesn’t really tell the full story. The part where I tell the system what songs I like? That’s actually an enormous undertaking. My music library has a ton of tracks. Currently, it sits at 34340 items, and that continues to grow week after week. I can’t guarantee that I’ve even listened to all of those tracks (confession: I definitely haven’t), let alone considered each of them long enough to give it an informed rating.
There are a couple ways that I could go about rating every single song. If I were starting from a fresh library, I could listen to songs as I add them, and rate each of them. Too bad that doesn’t apply to me. Given the massive collection that I could have, I could just go to the list of all my songs, start at the top, and listen to them in sequence. I did that for a time with both Google Play Music and Plex, but it became more of a chore than a joy. I listen to music for the pleasure of it, not because it’s a job. Plus, the total play time of all my music is something north of 80 days straight. That’s a very long time to put up with somewhat of a dreaded task.
Maybe I could listen a bit at a time, maybe 30 minute or hour sessions. If it’s a slog of music that I just don’t really care for, I can switch it up to something I enjoy after I finish some. But with Google Play Music, that process highlighted one glaring issue with the thumbs up thumbs down rating system. If I like a song, I give it a thumbs up. If I dislike a song, I give it a thumbs down. If it’s just ok, I give it a… what, exactly? There’s no way to mark a track as one I am ambivalent toward.
If I don’t love a song, and I don’t hate it, the thumbs up rating system of Google Play Music left it in this purgatory of tracks that maybe I didn’t care for, but maybe I hadn’t listened to it at all. I wanted to go through and rate all my tracks to really take advantage of the thumbs up playlist, but I had no way of indicating that middle ground. Eventually, that left me with a bunch of thumbs up and thumbs down, but even more tracks that were in some mystery state.
In contrast, the star rating system of Plex shines in that regard. If a song is just alright, I give it 3 stars and keep going. There is no uncertainty with apathy vs unrated. If a track has no rating, I simply haven’t rated it yet. With that middle area actually represented, I could know with certainty whether I liked, disliked, or didn’t really mind a song. Even beyond that, I could specify if I absolutely loved a song, or if it was just pretty good. Just because I enjoy a song enough to shuffle it, doesn’t mean that it’s one of my favorites. That distinction is left to the 5-star songs in my library.
So that remedies the problem of not knowing what I have and haven’t rated. Plex goes a step further with that powerful auto-playlist functionality. I also have an “unrated” playlist where I include any tracks that do not yet have a rating. I don’t have to scroll through my whole list of tracks, skimming for the ones that I haven’t rated. I go straight to that playlist, and I know that everything in there needs a rating. I can even shuffle it, if I don’t want to hear the same genre of music over and over.
As I listen to and rate more music in my Plex library, the good music playlist grows and the unrated playlist shrinks. Those mediocre tracks just fade into the ether. They don’t make it into my go-to shuffle, but they don’t clog up the unrated list either. Those songs still exist in my library. I’ll still listen to them on occasion, whether they exist on an album that I otherwise like, or just because it’s a song I remember but haven’t heard in a while. I don’t have to step over them, though, when I don’t really care about them.
Maybe I’ll eventually rate my entire collection, and know that I’m getting a true mix of all the songs I like. Until then, I’ll make a point to add a few unrated songs to my queue here and there to chip away at it. Hopefully nothing forces me off of Plex, and renders that effort null and void.
When I discussed my use case for Plex a little while back, I mentioned how the star rating system for songs and dynamic playlists allowed me to have effectively the same functionality as Google Play Music and its thumbs up playlist. I tell the system that I like a song, and I can shuffle the collection of all songs that I like. Pretty simple, and they both do that job very well.
However, that doesn’t really tell the full story. The part where I tell the system what songs I like? That’s actually an enormous undertaking. My music library has a ton of tracks. Currently, it sits at 34340 items, and that continues to grow week after week. I can’t guarantee that I’ve even listened to all of those tracks (confession: I definitely haven’t), let alone considered each of them long enough to give it an informed rating.
There are a couple ways that I could go about rating every single song. If I were starting from a fresh library, I could listen to songs as I add them, and rate each of them. Too bad that doesn’t apply to me. Given the massive collection that I could have, I could just go to the list of all my songs, start at the top, and listen to them in sequence. I did that for a time with both Google Play Music and Plex, but it became more of a chore than a joy. I listen to music for the pleasure of it, not because it’s a job. Plus, the total play time of all my music is something north of 80 days straight. That’s a very long time to put up with somewhat of a dreaded task.
Maybe I could listen a bit at a time, maybe 30 minute or hour sessions. If it’s a slog of music that I just don’t really care for, I can switch it up to something I enjoy after I finish some. But with Google Play Music, that process highlighted one glaring issue with the thumbs up thumbs down rating system. If I like a song, I give it a thumbs up. If I dislike a song, I give it a thumbs down. If it’s just ok, I give it a… what, exactly? There’s no way to mark a track as one I am ambivalent toward.
If I don’t love a song, and I don’t hate it, the thumbs up rating system of Google Play Music left it in this purgatory of tracks that maybe I didn’t care for, but maybe I hadn’t listened to it at all. I wanted to go through and rate all my tracks to really take advantage of the thumbs up playlist, but I had no way of indicating that middle ground. Eventually, that left me with a bunch of thumbs up and thumbs down, but even more tracks that were in some mystery state.
In contrast, the star rating system of Plex shines in that regard. If a song is just alright, I give it 3 stars and keep going. There is no uncertainty with apathy vs unrated. If a track has no rating, I simply haven’t rated it yet. With that middle area actually represented, I could know with certainty whether I liked, disliked, or didn’t really mind a song. Even beyond that, I could specify if I absolutely loved a song, or if it was just pretty good. Just because I enjoy a song enough to shuffle it, doesn’t mean that it’s one of my favorites. That distinction is left to the 5-star songs in my library.
So that remedies the problem of not knowing what I have and haven’t rated. Plex goes a step further with that powerful auto-playlist functionality. I also have an “unrated” playlist where I include any tracks that do not yet have a rating. I don’t have to scroll through my whole list of tracks, skimming for the ones that I haven’t rated. I go straight to that playlist, and I know that everything in there needs a rating. I can even shuffle it, if I don’t want to hear the same genre of music over and over.
As I listen to and rate more music in my Plex library, the good music playlist grows and the unrated playlist shrinks. Those mediocre tracks just fade into the ether. They don’t make it into my go-to shuffle, but they don’t clog up the unrated list either. Those songs still exist in my library. I’ll still listen to them on occasion, whether they exist on an album that I otherwise like, or just because it’s a song I remember but haven’t heard in a while. I don’t have to step over them, though, when I don’t really care about them.
Maybe I’ll eventually rate my entire collection, and know that I’m getting a true mix of all the songs I like. Until then, I’ll make a point to add a few unrated songs to my queue here and there to chip away at it. Hopefully nothing forces me off of Plex, and renders that effort null and void.
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