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[EnglishTiger]

Today while playing a track I was needed elsewhere in the house and decided to Stop the track that was currently playing, since that track remained selected when I came back I set it playing again and out of curiosity I looked to see what the Playback section of the Tag Window was displaying for that track and was surprised to discover that although I had simply pressed the "Stop" button MC was reporting that it had been played and skipped.

My definition of a played track is one  that has been played all the way through, not one that was stopped and then started again from the beginning. If I've interpreted how the routine that removes played tracks from a playlist correctly I would not have been able to start that track playing again. But I'm struggling to find a valid reason/excuse for MC to decide that a Stopped Track is also a Skipped Track

[marko]

and that's why skip count has been really, a meaningless thing, since its inception, getting on for ten years ago. It's always been that way.

Stop playback before the end, and...
If it's less than fifty percent played, it's considered skipped, and if more than fifty percent played, it's considered played. I've never looked to see what MC will do if we hit stop at exactly fifty percent!

-marko

[Matt]

What would you propose instead?

[marko]

If the listener reaches out and skips the track, increase the skip count.

If the listener stops playback in any way, such as closing the program, starring playback of a different file, or just hitting the stop button, that should not be considered a skip.

This way, over time, the skip count could become more meaningful, a closer indicator of stuff that keeps ending up in the wrong playlists.

As far as number plays goes, I'm personally ok with its fifty percent thing going on, though it feels as though ET is of a much stricter frame of mind.

[Matt]

If the listener reaches out and skips the track, increase the skip count.

If the listener stops playback in any way, such as closing the program, starring playback of a different file, or just hitting the stop button, that should not be considered a skip.

I can probably tune this for v28.  Thanks for the suggestion.

[EnglishTiger]

Now I'm really confused - I intentionally used the Skip Button on a track that was playing just to see what MC did.
This time it decided that the Track had been Played, hadn't been Skipped but quite correctly bookmarked the track.

[Matt]

Now I'm really confused - I intentionally used the Skip Button on a track that was playing just to see what MC did.
This time it decided that the Track had been Played, hadn't been Skipped but quite correctly bookmarked the track.

Once you play over half, even skipping to the next track is a play.

[EnglishTiger]

Once you play over half, even skipping to the next track is a play.

It is possible that you and I may never agree on when a track should be considered/treated as Played but, regardless of how long the track was playing before I hit the Skip button doesn't explain why MC failed to record that it had been Skipped.

[Hendrik]

If the listener stops playback in any way, such as [...] starring playback of a different file

That sounds like a skip to me. I didn't like this one, so I picked a new one. When I'm playing audio on my desktop, I rarely use the "next track" key/button, but just look at the playlist and manually skip around in it, or even pick a different playlist.
What I'm trying to convey is, there is many different ways to navigate, and many different ways people might abort a track they don't like. Which is really what the field should convey, not if you specifically pressed the Skip button.

[Matt]

That sounds like a skip to me. I didn't like this one, so I picked a new one. When I'm playing audio on my desktop, I rarely use the "next track" key/button, but just look at the playlist and manually skip around in it, or even pick a different playlist.
What I'm trying to convey is, there is many different ways to navigate, and many different ways people might abort a track they don't like. Which is really what the field should convey, not if you specifically pressed the Skip button.

Well now we have a stand off.  I was going to change it so that only pressing the next button was a skip.  So stops of the audio or program were not.  But now there's not an agreement, so I won't change anything unless we agree.

[EnglishTiger]

That sounds like a skip to me. I didn't like this one, so I picked a new one. When I'm playing audio on my desktop, I rarely use the "next track" key/button, but just look at the playlist and manually skip around in it, or even pick a different playlist.
What I'm trying to convey is, there is many different ways to navigate, and many different ways people might abort a track they don't like. Which is really what the field should convey, not if you specifically pressed the Skip button.

If the Skip Count and Last Skipped fields/tags are there to record/report that the user took some action that results in the track being Skipped while it was playing why are those 2 fields/tags NOT being Updated when the user SKIPS a track but ARE updated when a user STOPS a track.

[lepa]

For me rules should be something like this:

Stop: no skip, play count not increased (see *)
Next: skip, play count not increased (see *)
Prev: no skip if same item is restarted, play count not increased (see *)
Start another track while playing: skip, play count not increased (see *)

*For play count 50% rule could be applied or perhaps use the rule only for videos where it is common to stop,next,choose another when end titles are still running.

[Hendrik]

If the Skip Count and Last Skipped fields/tags are there to record/report that the user took some action that results in the track being Skipped while it was playing why are those 2 fields/tags NOT being Updated when the user SKIPS a track but ARE updated when a user STOPS a track.

It should be updated when you skip a track, the only question is what you consider a skip. If I played it to 99% of its length and then do something, is that really a skip still? How about 90%? Or 80%?
If it never marks it as skipped, that would be a bug. If you just don't agree on the threshhold it currently considers it a skip, thats not a bug, thats a discussion, and to avoid confusion, we should be clear on that distinction.