Best Ever Albums

Re: Average of average user ratings

Fergenaprido — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 21:44:38 GMT

Author: Fergenaprido

Posted: 12/20/2013 02:44

There is a film rating website called Criticker that does something like this. It takes all of the ratings of each user and allocated them into ten tiers. It then does some calculation to show you users whose taste most closely resembles your own (http://www.criticker.com/?te). So, you might rank an album 60 and someone else rank it 90, but both of those rankings might mean that the album in question is in the 2nd Tier (another way to put it would be saying top 20th percentile I guess). I don't really know how the formula works, but someone else might be able to figure out it.

Re: Average of average user ratings

paladisiac — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 18:58:37 GMT

Author: paladisiac

Posted: 12/19/2013 23:58

Makes sense. Thanks for the response.

Re: Average of average user ratings

albummaster — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 17:54:32 GMT

Author: albummaster

Posted: 12/19/2013 22:54

paladisiac wrote:

So an "average of average user rating" would be informative to know if the album/song rating is above or below the average of average user ratings for albums.

Of course, as i said, the average album rating goes through a complicated formula, which skews its actual value a little. Maybe the "average of average user rating" should go through the same formula?

Anyway, it's a low-priority "nice to have" for me and it's quite possible no one else would find this useful.

The average user rating is already displayed on the individual album pages. All the individual ratings are listed along with the average for the user, so you can assess the user's rating in relation to their norm.

I do recall looking into doing something similar to what you are suggesting in relation to the average. The main issue with doing it is that a person's average is changing all of the time, so when you leave a new rating (e.g. your 10,000th rating), your previous 9,999 ratings would also be affected because your average will have changed (assuming it was a rating outside of your norm), and this would also then affect the average of the 10,000 items that you have rated. So, the algorithm is computationally expensive (not to rule it out on those grounds completely, but it's a big issue that would stop this from being implemented with BEA's current hardware) & the current algorithm does not have this issue (one new rating only affects the current item).

Re: Average of average user ratings

SuedeSwede — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 17:15:56 GMT

Author: SuedeSwede

Posted: 12/19/2013 22:15

paladisiac wrote:

it's quite possible no one else would find this useful.

I would.

Average of average user ratings

paladisiac — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 15:51:19 GMT

Author: paladisiac

Posted: 12/19/2013 20:51

"Average rating of users"

Currently, i can go to an album or a song and see its average rating out of 100. This is calculated using some complex formula Albummaster has shared based on all of the users' ratings and how many ratings there have been so far. This is fine.

However, individual ratings make up the overall average and individual ratings can swing wildly BY USER. For example, UserA might rate an album as an 80 which sounds great (!) until you look at his/her average rating given which is a 90. That means, UserA liked the album less than the average album s/he has rated. Or, UserB could rate an album a 60, which seems average until you look at UserB's average album rating which is a 50.

What i'm trying to say is that an average rating for an album might actually be higher or lower than perceived based on whether each individual's rating is higher or lower than what they rated the album. Does that make sense?

So an "average of average user rating" would be informative to know if the album/song rating is above or below the average of average user ratings for albums.

Of course, as i said, the average album rating goes through a complicated formula, which skews its actual value a little. Maybe the "average of average user rating" should go through the same formula?

Anyway, it's a low-priority "nice to have" for me and it's quite possible no one else would find this useful.