How to use a five star rating system

…

How I use a 5 star rating system

I’m not doing any research, and I have no idea how others use it.

So ages ago itunes, or maybe winamp, or maybe realplayer, introduced the 5 star rating system for your music. I painstakingly applied it to my library then suffered a hdd crash, lost it all, and didn’t use it again for many years. Several years ago I started using it again, and as a music hoarder it’s been a huge help. Especially through Foobar2000. Search up “%Rating% GREATER 3” and I don’t have to worry about company randomly hearing a Final Fantasy death march.

It’s useful, but daunting, especially if you have a lot of files. But it doesn’t have to be daunting, and it’s so beneficial that I’ve been applying the logic to all of my entertainment files via Tag Spaces.

The secret to it not being daunting, no matter how many files you have?

• Start by rating everything as 3 stars.

That’s your median number. From there everything is essentially a binary that you can say “yes” or “no” to as you come across the files.

But there’s 5 stars, if 2 and 4 are no and yes, what’s 1 and 5? Very no and very yes? Essentially, but if you’re thinking in terms of quality I’m sure you’ll soon notice that gets things pretty muddy pretty quickly. Here’s what your actually rating:

• Repeatability.

You’ve obtained the file, you’ve shown interest in it, give it the benefit of a doubt that it’s earned 3 stars. Now, if you have a mixed playlist and it pops up again, would you consume it again? Heck yes? 4 stars. Mmm, too soon? 3 stars. I’d rather not. 2 stars. I might delete it later, but it’s too soon to tell. 1 star. How about that mythical 5 star rating? Let time determine that one. Have media that still makes you feel warm and fuzzy after 5 years of repeats? Give that the medal.

There, that should help you simplify your feelings towards rating your files, but I admit, it still can be a bit tricky sometimes. So I have a final bit of advice:

• Use a 10 Star Rating System.

The best way to use a 5 star rating system is to use a 10 star one. Actually that gets a little confusing. I still use a 5 star, but I break by 0.5 stars. This allows me to have 3 stars as my median, and keep a 5 star at its legendary status.

1 Star = archives 1.5 Star = It’s a bad joke 2 star = it’s just a joke 2.5 star = I never seem to be in the mood 3 star = It exists. Here it is. 3.5 star = I approve of its existance 4 star = You should approve of its existance 4.5 star = OH YEAH 5 star = volunetarily Rick Rolled

But of course it will depend on having software that allows you to apply your own rating tags… Like Foobar2000 or Tag Spaces.

So because I feel like typing another list, here’s my advice in shortest form:

How to use a 5 star rating system

1. Rate everything at 3 stars
2. Raise or lower rating by how repeatable it is
3. Use a 10 star system

Masterclass.

This year’s pumpkin. A deer has already munched it.

I spent the other night making a list of movies for my boss. “Mindfuck” probably isn’t the right category, but I dunno. It’s pretty close for most of them. The last three movies are a bit divergent, but they flow nicely as a list.

1. 

   Triangle

   A good round-a-bout entry to start this list. Group of friends stranded in the ocean board a mysterious ship where they soon encounter copies of themselves. Some of them try to protect each other, some try to kill each other. Everyone just wants off the boat.

2. 

   Coherence

   Triangle, but with much less bloodshed. A group of friends have a dinner party while a comet passes overhead. The power goes off in the neighborhood, but they can see a light on in the house down the street, which looks “strangely” like their own.

3. 

   The Congress

   Continuing with the stoic, somber tone: a famous actress signs an eternal contract. It’s actually less fantastical than it sounds. She’s scientificly immortalized, but what happens when the mass public inevitabley looses interest?

4. 

   Under the Silver Lake

   I wasn’t fond of this movie, but it I think it fits this list really well. Hollywood is fake! But this movie gets really weird about it. There’s a lot of uncomfortable woman objectification in this one, but that’s supposed to be part of the theme… unfortunately I don’t quite get it, but it’s still interesting with a bunch of memorable scenes.

5. 

   Naked Lunch

   I love it when Cronenberg is given an actual proper narrative. An exterminator gets addicted to consuming his pesticide, then goes into hiding after killing his wife. Enjoy the disgusting insect puppetry while trying to decipher how blurred the line is between reality and hallucination.

6. 

   John Capenter’s The Thing

   Finally a break from questioning reality, but we’re taking the body horror up to 11. A “thing” is loose on an artic base. It absorbs life, then replaces its victims. The dog dies.

7. 

   Pontypool

   Speaking of contagions, what if speaking was the contagion? A radio host has a run in with violent, inchoherent zombies, and attempts to talk his way out of it.

8. 

   Beartrap

   An indie film shot in Edmonton. Exactly how sick and twisted is the new room mate? It has a slow start, and isn’t nearly as heavy as anything else on this list, but it’s well worth watching, especially because it’s literally impossible to find unless you know someone who bought it 10 years ago.

I’m sick of always mispelling “loses”. Lose should be spelt loos. It’s not pronounced “L-oh-s”. Loose can stay loose, but when somebody “loses” something, they should “looses” it. I don’t think “looses” is even currently taken by a definition. You can loosen something, or have it loosed, but not looses. So let me spell it the way I hear it. Christ.

October’s got me in the mood for feature lengths. Fistfuls of feature lengths. I had watched Scaredy Cats summary of the new Fear Street trilogy a month ago, and apparently I had already forgotten it, because upon re-watching I see that they had completly spoiled Fear Street 1666. Maybe that’s why spoilers don’t affect me, I never pay enough attention for it to matter. More than that, I thought Scaredy Cats had a more negative opinion of the movies, maybe it was subliminal from the critical tone. I knew it was still a recommendation, but I thought they had given some more conflicting opinions, and I was going to give my take here. Upon rewatching to actually identify these conflicts, I found myself in staunch aggreement for nearly every point.

So quit wasting time reading my words. Watch both trilogies.

I thoroughly enjoyed Fear Street. I loved that the plot misdirection actually worked for me. It’s very fun, if nothing else. I didn’t find the start of the first movie to be off putting, abeit the fact that I do hate asshole characters, but I actually think that I preferred it to the second half when the plot set in hard and everybody just straight played their roles. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I put the show on while doing the dishes. Chores might be the secret ingredient to being a modern film lover. The relationship of the main couple struck me as a bit toxic in the first movie, but yah, the multi-generational love story won me over that. It didn’t however win me over the use of Calibri and comments about SSDs. Were those bait? lol.