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"Must Hear Albums"

Music
#1

I like this idea because it gives users and onlookers easy pickings to sift through and discover, but I think the algorithm generating these labels (assuming 80+ critic score & +15 critic reviews?) is a bit of an insult to the rest of the user community. I would strongly consider giving equal weight to users and critics.

It would be cool to see the site going towards a more user-centric direction, in which case I would be willing to donate a bit more (been looking for another reason for a while now), but unless you’re getting money from the music publications/critics that are currently considered on AOTY, I don’t think this change does anything for users beyond the surface level. Either way I appreciate the time and effort that has already been put into this site so far and hope to see cool new ways for users to engage with the music and each other!

1 Like
#3

It’s hard for me to put any value in the overall user score for an album. After awhile, the scores tend to clump together because after too many high scores, some people will have to throw a zero at it to bring it down.

I think individual scores of people you trust is a better gauge than the overall user score.

Just to address the money thing, no money is being received from publications. If you are a donor, it’s much appreciated. The main purpose of that is to keep the site from being covered in ads.

3 Likes
#4

Gotcha, makes sense. It just seems like using the amalgam of critic scores takes away from newer artists and albums that can’t achieve the “must hear” status simply because they wont receive enough critic attention and the only way to rectify that would be through integration of user scores, but I do see the problem there.

I didnt think money was actually being received from publications, I was just trying to say it felt like the feature pandered to critics and thus the reason it was implemented. But thanks for informing where our donated money goes and thanks again for your work on the site!

#5

Also, I’m relatively new to the site so I can’t say that the purpose of the site should be to focus on user reviews or activity… if you meant for the site to mostly inform of critic scores, that’s cool, but I think you’ve got something really cool with the user side of the site and the current social features that I’ve yet to find anywhere else on the internet, so I think there’s a lot of room for innovation. Thanks for the responsiveness as well.