Options to using TCI like a direct numeric match & maybe improved TCI

Ideas to improve Criticker and new feature requests, as well as announcements about new enhancements.
EvilAsh
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Options to using TCI like a direct numeric match & maybe improved TCI

Post by EvilAsh »

Since my post ended up being so long, I'll start with the actual request, so it doesn't get buried in the wall of text, followed by my more detailed description of why I'm requesting it.

First, it would be great if you could switch to a pure numeric match/comparison, for those of us who like & use the full 100-point rating scale that Criticker uses by default, this way you could get much better, more accurate comparisons to those people on here using the full scale, at least as an option to the TCI system to try to find more people who better match your opinion, and then you could potentially choose/switch between TCI & direct numeric match to see which gives you the better match.

This would be useful both as an overall profile option to choose between Best TCI's/Best Direct Match or whatever you want to call it, and also on the specific movie pages to Order by TCI / Direct Match, etc.

Second, the TCI system could potentially also be improved by being able to select your personal rating style, like "1-4", "1-5", "A-F, aka 1-6", "1-10", "1-20, using .5's", or "1-100". Also, you could select what different ratings you consider Terrible all the way up to Perfect in at least 10 total/optional steps including "bad, decent, good, great, etc", so for example according to some maybe "50 = Terrible, 75 = Decent, 100 = Perfect", while others might rate it "1 = Terrible, 5 = Decent, 10 = Perfect" and so on. These would be some of the ways you could get around the current issues with TCI...


Here's my more detailed info & description of the why's:
Just found this site and love the concept of comparing & matching user ratings of movies, and the movie rating you see is then based on ratings from people with similar taste in movies. This is something that's badly needed and missing in your main competitors like IMDB, and why I found this site in the first place. I can't even describe how often ratings on IMDB are completely different from my opinion, which makes imdb ratings fairly useless when trying to decide whether a movie is worth watching or not. I also really like Critickers much more nuanced 100-based rating system, which is what I like to use for myself anyway.

While I also understand and initially liked the concept of the TCI system since people use so many different ways to rate good/bad movies, unfortunately the TCI system feels a bit flawed. It actually seemed to work the best when I had only added 10-20 mostly average movies, but as soon as I started to add a lot more of my best & worst movies it started to fall apart, even when trying to average out the ratings when I realized that the TCI system doesn't really work well when you have too many of your favorite movies added and not enough "bad ones".

Even though I have now added over 350 movies with a lot of movies over the entire rating scale, it's still just off. For example, one of my most recent ratings of Zombieland is an 82, which to me means "Great", yet is described on the page as "Decent
(69th percentile)". First of all it seems a bit weird to me that the 69th percentile would be considered "Decent", which to me is a movie in the 50 range, which IMO would be the most logical if you're rating between 0-100. Even if you say it doesn't matter what the description is on my rating, more importantly it indicates that my movies rated in the 80's range could be compared to someone else's ratings that he/she ACTUALLY considers "Decent", instead of "Great", which is of course a huge difference.

I feel that the biggest problem with the TCI system is that it sort of assumes that you have seen (and rated) an identical amount of bad & good movies, and even across all ranges of the scale. Even if you rate all the movies you see you would hopefully at least be able to avoid most of the really bad ones and mostly watch movies you at least somewhat like.

Ironically also the better the match works and the better the "Probable Score" matches your own score, the less bad movies you would need to endure :-) and the worse the TCI would get as a result...

mpowell
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Re: Options to using TCI like a direct numeric match & maybe improved TCI

Post by mpowell »

Welcome to the forums, and thanks for this detailed suggestion!

We've heard suggestions similar to this in the past, and we're not completely opposed. We like the TCI the way it is now... well, because we built it... but also because of its simplicity. That said, we totally recognize that there are ways to improve it, or even to allow variations. We hope to look into these at some point in the future.

We've added your ideas to the long-running thread we keep about ideas for improving the TCI. The next time we revamp that functionality, we'll definitely be consulting this list. Thanks again!

EvilAsh
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Re: Options to using TCI like a direct numeric match & maybe improved TCI

Post by EvilAsh »

Thanks for your reply! In case my original post came off as somewhat negative I want to be clear that I think Criticker has a very cool and unique concept and even as is TCI seems to overall work pretty good, certainly much better than just going by the IMDB rating for example.

I understand you want to keep it simple, but I think if you would add a couple of my suggestions even as optional profile settings you wouldn't be forcing anyone to use them but for those who do it could potentially make a big difference, like adding an option to just use a direct numeric compare overall and on a specific movie.

MJtt
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Re: Options to using TCI like a direct numeric match & maybe improved TCI

Post by MJtt »

I will start by saying that I am indeed interested in Criticker.

I have rated many movies, but it is absolutely ridiculous to me that an 80 is "bad". Really?

I want to say worth watching, but not the best. I won't go higher than 80 out of 100 for some, but they are still well worth watching. I am confused and don't feel like I can compare my scores on here.

Now, after reading the response about not wanting to change, I will look around at opinions of other users until satisfied and continue on to the next thing in life.

Respectfully,
John

mattorama12
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Re: Options to using TCI like a direct numeric match & maybe improved TCI

Post by mattorama12 »

MJtt wrote:I have rated many movies, but it is absolutely ridiculous to me that an 80 is "bad". Really?

I want to say worth watching, but not the best. I won't go higher than 80 out of 100 for some, but they are still well worth watching. I am confused and don't feel like I can compare my scores on here.


You have Troy rated 80. Other than The Lobster (rated 10), are there any movies in the whole world that you think are worse than Troy?

EvilAsh
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Re: Options to using TCI like a direct numeric match & maybe improved TCI

Post by EvilAsh »

MJtt brings up one of the issues I mention with the TCI system, that if you for example only/mostly rate movies you think are good, which I'm guessing is the case here (?), it will not work at all, and say that anything below 80, or even reasonably between 80-90 are more or less considered bad.

If we could select a direct numeric match type system as an option that I requested, this would still work and his ratings could still be compared with mine, assuming we use the same scale, either way it would still work better in many cases.

I would also like to mention that it's not only an issue if you've rated all your movies 80+, I have now rated 985 movies thanks to importing my ratings from IMDB, in all ranges from 1 to 100, and I think my average is probably around 55-60 or so, but still when I look at one of my latest ratings for 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty' rated 70, that's considered "decent" which makes no sense to me. 70s to me means "Really good" to "Great".

EvilAsh
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Re: Options to using TCI like a direct numeric match & maybe improved TCI

Post by EvilAsh »

movieboy wrote:
EvilAsh wrote:70s to me means "Really good" to "Great".

What do 75, 80, 85, 90, 95 & 100 mean to you if 70 is nearing Great?


What I meant was 70s as in 70-79 to me means "Really good" to "Great". My point is there's a big difference between "decent" and even "really good", a part of the scale many movies fall between.
Here's a quick ratings guide basically copied from another post, slightly changed for my personal rating system

1 pure junk
2 awful
3 really bad
4 bad
5 decent
6 good
7 very good
8 great
9 excellent
10 perfect

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