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Wrong colours

Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2018 10:37 pm
by djross
If I "customise" the way that ratings correspond to colours, then my understanding is that when other users view my profile or ratings, they should see the customised colours, rather than the default relationship between rating and colour. At the moment, it seems that other users are seeing the default colour rather than the customised colour.

Re: Wrong colours

Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2018 10:01 am
by mpowell
This is a bit tricky, because we don't necessarily want other users to see YOUR quips -- a German user's quip of "Schlimm" wouldn't mean anything to a non-German speaker, for example. Likewise, if you think percentiles of "80-100" should be dark green, that should apply when you're viewing other users' rankings as well. And vice-versa: if somebody configures their percentiles 4-100 to look dark green... that's fine, but a weird choice like that shouldn't affect the way other users see his list. It would just be confusing.

So, I think the way it works right now is, custom colors and quips are for you only. We've gone back and forth on this one, a lot. Actually, this is a good chance to ask for opinions... how do you guys think it should work?

Re: Wrong colours

Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2018 11:48 am
by djross
Probably agree about quips (or I am just used to it being that way), but disagree about colours. Currently, users can see my scores and my percentiles, which together give them one subjective and one objective quantitative notion, respectively (if you follow my drift). But that's still just one number and another number, without any basis for interpreting what a score means other than as a reflection of percentiles. Letting other users see how I distribute my colours gives them at least a sense of how I perceive the value attributable to my scores.

So for example, I have all films scored between 0 and 49 coloured red, because, regardless of percentiles, I consider 50 to be a "pass" and so anything below that is a fail (and therefore red). The colour change is an effective signal in this regard. More simply, I "like" how my colours correspond to my scores, and I dislike the idea that other users see the "wrong" colour (after all, there is nothing "right" about the default relationship, since the colours have no quantifiable meaning).

I don't agree that it would be confusing: Criticker users are smart! Currently there are some users who through some arrangement or other have all their scores one colour (red, I think): it doesn't seem to be a problem, and this is just an extension of that. I can understand the idea that some strange colouring system could mislead users with respect to percentiles, but one could make a counter-argument that this tripartite judgment (score, percentile, colour) gives other users a way of extracting a lot more information through a kind of triangulation process (User X gave a score of 7, which corresponds to their 50th percentile, but for them that still translates to a dark green...huh!).

Many users (not me) complain that the Criticker algorithm somehow impinges on their subjective freedom by "forcing" their scores into percentiles they don't like (because User X "only watches good films", for example): even though this criticism makes no sense to me, the ability to have one's colours perceived by others may mollify such laments, to an extent at least.

As I write this, I am starting to think maybe the same logic applies to quips, and they should be visible to other users too (or perhaps it should be an option I can turn on or off). Apart from the issue you raise about quips in other languages (which seems like a red herring to me), quips are indeed a way of conveying something about the subjective meaning of scores, and other users would mostly be able to make sense of them.

Re: Wrong colours

Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2018 7:21 pm
by iconogassed
kritikos wrote:I don't know where you're saying that custom quips would be shown, but people can already explain their ratings for specific films with reviews.

When you update your colours, you can also change the word or phrase that occasionally appears alongside your score on film pages and elsewhere, ie. "masterpiece" or "neato burrito"

Re: Wrong colours

Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2018 11:16 pm
by iconogassed
Quips are visible when you click on another user's score while viewing their full rankings. I browse this way fairly regularly, and agree with djross's suggestions.

Re: Wrong colours

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2018 5:29 pm
by livelove
mpowell wrote:if somebody configures their percentiles 4-100 to look dark green... that's fine, but a weird choice like that shouldn't affect the way other users see his list. It would just be confusing.
Yes, the goal should be to make the site less confusing, not more confusing.

mpowell wrote:So, I think the way it works right now is, custom colors and quips are for you only. We've gone back and forth on this one, a lot. Actually, this is a good chance to ask for opinions... how do you guys think it should work?
It should work just as you have described — for precisely the reasons you mention.

Re: Wrong colours

Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2018 5:32 am
by Anomaly
Good point about this potentially being confusing to people, though personally I'll always feel a bit weird about how I (someone who rates out of 100) can go to, for example, Judge Holden's ratings page and see it in only red, because he rates out of 10, and ratings appear red for me below 50. Maybe it's just something that can't be helped.


dookobore wrote:Quips are visible when you click on another user's score while viewing their full rankings. I browse this way fairly regularly, and agree with djross's suggestions.

I just tried this with Judge Holden's ratings, and only got "The Worst," which is my lowest quip. Perhaps it's a bug?

Re: Wrong colours

Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2018 6:03 pm
by mpowell
We'll take a look into this, and make sure it's working the right way. It is a confusing issue, and could use some clarity.

Re: Wrong colours

Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2018 6:26 am
by mpowell
We've made an update so that your custom colors will only apply when you're looking at your ratings, and not somebody else's. So, Judge Holden's list should now look correct to you!

Re: Wrong colours

Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2018 7:08 am
by livelove
excellent!