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[broncodan]

Hi,

It is my understanding that the way ratings (speaking specifically Audio - but I believe across the board) work is the following:
1 - hate it - never play
2 - okay
3, 4, 5 - like, better, best
Or something like that.

Is there a way to change this (specifically for AUDIO) so they are all positive - e.g.
1 - okay
2 - like
3, 4, 5 - better, best, the very best

The reason I ask this is that I have a very large library and typically rate the songs based on the billboard charts as a baseline and then adjust as needed.  So how I do it is like this:  if a song was ever 1 - 2 on the charts= 5 stars, spots 3 - 5 = 4 stars, spots 6 - 10 = 3 stars, spots 11 - 15 = 2 stars, everything else gets a 1.  If I don't like it - I just don't play it! 

I can think of more disadvantages then advantages with the current way it works - the main one being that Play Doctor skips half of my library!  .  I am also sure this skews album ratings in MC.  I guess I understand it for Movies - as that is how you typically look at it movies when you are looking at reviews - 1 star = bad movie, etc... but with every other audio playing software I have used - it seems to me that when you rate songs it is because you like it so when starting with a 1 it is a positive instead of a negative.

Although I do hate iTunes - I do like the fact that you can check or uncheck items to leave them out of the library or off certain playlists (like excluding Christmas music except in December or something similar).

So if my assumptions above are correct - I have a few suggestions (which I know aren't always as easy to implement as they sound).

1 -Add a separate tick box (ala iTunes) that you can indicate - never play or never show in my library.
2 - Expand the ratings - if we had more than 5 stars to work with then I could see where having 1 or 2 stars means don't play as I then could adjust my style to work with that but since 5 is pretty narrow it makes it a bit more difficult.
3 - have separate ratings for Movies and Audio tracks
4 - add a negative star or rating

In case no changes are upcoming in the near future - How are other users managing ratings for AUDIO tracks?

I have searched the forum and seen how some are doing it but it seems to me that there shouldn't have to be a bunch of workarounds for something that is fairly universal.  And besides that I unfortunately have to work across ITunes too so using calculated or non-standard tag fields makes it a bit more difficult to implement some of these ideas.

[CountryBumkin]

See this thread on ratings: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=94177.0
I think it will help some - there are some neat tips/tricks near the bottom.

[broncodan]

Thanks but I don't think that is really what I am after - so either you posted a wrong link or I was not clear on my above post.   I don't care about colors, etc...I was hoping that a change in the actual way ratings are used in the system could be addressed.

One of the suggestions I had was to provide a check box (like in iTunes) so that if the rating system was changed from the current definition of a 1 star rating meaning BAD - people could use A NEW alternative checkbox that would indicate that that particular item isn't or shouldn't be played.

I did see a post on RATINGS WEIGHT BIAS - and this would solve my problem or at least help out - I think a larger scale would be more ideal.