Like it; Don’t Like It – The New Zune Rating System

re: Like it; Don’t Like It – The New Zune Rating System

roger — Fri, 08 May 2009 14:05:02 GMT

hey with my zune dont work in mexico

re: Like it; Don’t Like It – The New Zune Rating System

Lauren Glenn — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 01:28:27 GMT

This is like a Kurt Vonnegat jr. book I read once. You're making all of dumb to meet the needs of people who can't figure out a 1-5 numbering system. If I told you that you should tell me how much you like it on a scale from 1 to 5 where 5 is very much and 1 is not at all, it's not that hard to figure out.

This is like those charts in doctor's offices where they show 10 faces on a wall to describe how much pain you're feeling. How about 5 smilie faces indicating different levels of like/dislike?

This is like making guys sit down and pee because too many of them can't hit the bowl. Some us have to sit down, but you shouldn't make everyone else sit.

re: Like it; Don’t Like It – The New Zune Rating System

mikebob — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 19:17:24 GMT

Give the users options, I personally prefer the 5 star option and now i'm either forced to change the way in which I use ratings or switch to another device. Since you've already converted the old rating system over how hard would it be to use that same functionality and allow for conversion back and forth???

re: Like it; Don’t Like It – The New Zune Rating System

WRS — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 17:52:06 GMT

I am outraged at the change. You can't give functionality, then take it back in an update. Finally we got auto-playlists back, but I'm still at v1.3 because we don't have 5-star ratings. Most people who don't use the system simply don't rate their music at all. They are not going to use any system. Having a sync/don't sync (heear/borken-heart) is fine, but don't take away our rating system. (2 options is not "rating")

re: Like it; Don’t Like It – The New Zune Rating System

Nathan — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 02:04:06 GMT

This is terrible. Why don't they just make this a user setting?

[ ] Hearts (default)

[ ] Stars

[ ] Rating field

I use a rating system of 1-10 and use an mp3 tagging application to modify the Rating field of the mp3 tag.

re: Like it; Don’t Like It – The New Zune Rating System

Nathan — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 02:03:52 GMT

This is terrible. Why don't they just make this a user setting?

[ ] Hearts (default)

[ ] Stars

[ ] Rating field

I use a rating system of 1-10 and use an mp3 tagging application to modify the Rating field of the mp3 tag.

40 Days #9: Bring the power of social networks to the Marketplace

Playing on Easy — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 03:02:06 GMT

As the Arcade section of the Xbox 360 Dashboard slowly matured, it sprouted some pretty neat features

re: Like it; Don’t Like It – The New Zune Rating System

Chris — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 08:02:59 GMT

I'm going to disagree on this new change... The heart system is completely disatisfying...

I think there should be both, 5 stars, and love/hate it... and it should be put in the options to be able to change it...

I like most of the new things they've put in. but I cannot stand this new heart system, PLEASE change it back or add the old system back...

re: Like it; Don’t Like It – The New Zune Rating System

Tony — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 03:28:21 GMT

Im totally unsatidfied.. i cant group my albums by dragging and dropping anymore.. theyt tooke out the cool features and just started something completly new... i love the layout on the handheld but on my puter i cant stand it.. its very aggravating >;(

re: Like it; Don’t Like It – The New Zune Rating System

tom — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 04:15:17 GMT

Well looks like my auto playlists are now broken! I was actually ranking my favorite songs from 5 stars to 1 star. Anything that wasn't ranked I considered a song I didn't like. Now half the music in my playlist (2-3 stars?) is considered music I don't like??? This sucks!!!!

re: Like it; Don’t Like It – The New Zune Rating System

Eddy — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 19:30:36 GMT

Let me be simple, I will never use a player that does not use a 5 star system. I use it with smart playists...ahem...and to organize and track my music. Basically what MS is saying is that users are not adept to figuring out how to use the ratings system on their own by oversimplifying it, what part of 1-5 do people not understand? I learned that in Kindergarten, having 5 stars is better than one. I will be downgrading to the old firmware and software. If Zune does not go back the the 5 star system oh yeah and implement a smart playlist feature in the new software I will buy and Ipod touch when a 30gig or higher is introduced.

re: Like it; Don’t Like It – The New Zune Rating System

Harry Henry Gebel — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 06:55:10 GMT

I am completely dependent on the 5 star system for organizing my music, not having it makes my music collection completely unmanageable. I won't be upgrading my software.

re: Like it; Don’t Like It – The New Zune Rating System

Wade — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:59:49 GMT

I think it is pretty clear that this is about the worst thing you could do. I started with an Ipod but wanted subscription service so I switched to Urge. I loved Urge--it had everything I wanted and it just worked. Then it merged in with Rhapsody and I bought a Sansa because it was supposed to work great with Rhapsody, but I found Rhapsody to be a huge nightmare. When I heard Zune would have podcasts and the Zune pass, I knew this was the place for me, but underlying all my music listening is my use of the rating system. I love everything else about Zune, but I refuse to use a service that restricts me to saying "I love it" or "I hate it" to my music. At least give people a chance to turn on the "I'm too stupid to figure out how to rate something from 1 to 5" rather than making it mandatory.

re: Like it; Don’t Like It – The New Zune Rating System

Chip Hannum — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 22:22:45 GMT

I wrote this for iTunes/iPod: http://filebox.vt.edu/users/channum/files/smartlist_management_v5.1.pdf

I've got no idea how many people have downloaded it in total, but I do know that I regularly receive comments praising it, and many regulars on iLounge hawk it to others. For those too lazy to download it and read the couple of dozen pages, it describes ways to use smartlists and song criteria, of which ratings are a major part, to customise smartlists to create your own, personalised "radio stations" with user specified and weighted composition (e.g. 40% 5 star, 30% 4 star, 15% random, 15% least played). As an extreme example, I'm able to manage a 170GB audio library of about 30,000 songs with 100% automation on a 8GB iPod nano.

Lately, I've been rather disillusioned with Apple due to their botched support of smartlists on the new gen of iPods/phones. With all the hype, I'd been hoping the new Zune might represent Microsoft finally getting their act together and advancing past the iPod/iTunes interface...

And then I read this, wth? I was hoping I'd see something where the Zune would actually beat the iPod for what you could do with smartlists - it's not like Apple's put any effort into the system for the past three years. But, I guess not.

People with lots of music need ways to make management of it easier, and this will not accomplish that. By rating my gargantuan library and making sure that all tags are correct I am, in turn, able to always craft any mix of any sort I want with just a bit of fiddling with some smartlists. Take away ratings and I'd be screwed. Take away ratings (and possibly even smartlists if another Zune blog is to be believed) and this is one iPod power user who cannot defect even if he'd like to.

I defected from being a Mac user in 1998 to Microsoft because I found, in spite of the hype, that it was Windows, not the Mac, that let me have more control over my user experience. I would just as soon repeat the story today, but, for that to happen, MS actually has to deliver a better user experience, and things like the removal of the ratings system are a clear sign that this isn't the case yet.

re: Like it; Don’t Like It – The New Zune Rating System

Mike — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 22:10:51 GMT

I've been pondering this change even more since I posted yesterday, and my thoughts haven't become any more positive. Music is about passion and emotions. You just can't measure or express that depth of feeling with on/off. I know this is digital music, but that's taking it too far. Given that the change is coming, I suppose we will have to set up manual playlists to emulate the old star system. Heck, I guess I will just call them "1 Star", "2 Star" etc and instead of rating a song I will add it to my "star" playlists.

And what's with the hearts? I can see who MS thinks is their target audience - teenage girls, clearly. A broken heart for a song I don't like? Oh, please. What am I? Like, totally 13?

If you really must inflict this dumbed-down system on us, is it possible to add customised like/hate symbols? Perhaps sports car/train wreck, Zune logo/Apple logo, maybe even just green dot/red dot. It all means the same thing and would add a level of personalisation at least.

Not yet over my annoyance, but at least I feel better now.