Played Count / Skip Count [#13326]

[andonevris]

I've been using mediamonkey for years on windows and since its launch on Android so I know a bit about the history of the play counter and skip counter i.e when does a track count as played etc. but I'm noticing some weird behaviour on MMA which I think is a bug unless someone can explain the logic behind it.

So when playing a track and skipping it within the first few seconds of play I get a skip registered for that track, similarly when listening to a track all the way to the end the play count gets incremented but if I listen to a track almost all the way to the end and skip it it gets neither a skip increment or a played increment. This doesn't seem right I have just listened to the track so you would expect either the skip count or the played count to increase, it's as if that track was not played at all.

This feels like a bug but if not I can't understand the logic of leaving the track with no increment in either counter?

[rusty]

Thanks--tracking at http://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=13326

-Rusty

[rivorson]

I vaguely remember a discussion about this in MMW a couple of years ago and it was decided by design at the time. I can't remember the specifics but the idea is that a skip is counted if you only play the first few seconds because then it's most likely that you didn't want to hear the track at all. It's a statement of disliking a track. If you get half way through then you probably don't dislike the track so it's not counted as a skip. It also wouldn't be correct to mark it as played at the half way mark though, especially since that could cause problems with bookmarkable tracks, so a play is only counted when the track is fully played.

What I would like to see is a user configurable setting for what position in the track counts as a play. For example you could set it so that a play is counted at the earliest of either one minute or 50%. Even better if it is configurable per track type.

[andonevris]

I vaguely remember a discussion about this in MMW a couple of years ago and it was decided by design at the time. I can't remember the specifics but the idea is that a skip is counted if you only play the first few seconds because then it's most likely that you didn't want to hear the track at all. It's a statement of disliking a track. If you get half way through then you probably don't dislike the track so it's not counted as a skip. It also wouldn't be correct to mark it as played at the half way mark though, especially since that could cause problems with bookmarkable tracks, so a play is only counted when the track is fully played.

What I would like to see is a user configurable setting for what position in the track counts as a play. For example you could set it so that a play is counted at the earliest of either one minute or 50%. Even better if it is configurable per track type.

It seems you are right
Some notes how this currently works in MMW:

For the skipped# increase: the track needs to be skipped in area "from 2 seconds to 3/10 of length of the track" as originally suggested by Jiri here 0006246:0019951

The played# is increased (and bookmark reset) once track end is reached and also the following condition is true: (Time played in session + Bookmark > 1 min.) or (Track Length < 3 min.) - see 0011183:0037642

So it is true that if a track is skipped in 2/3 of song length then:
- Played# isn't increased
- Skipped# isn't increased too

This logic doesn't work work in my mind, If you've listened to most of the song one of the counters should update, but I guess it works for others since it was decided by the devs to work this way and no-one else seems to mind?

Maybe user configurable is the way to go?

[timepiece]

Yes, If I've listened to over half of a song, I feel like that should count as a play. I definitely shouldn't have to go to 100% - sometimes you get those live tracks with extended applause at the end (yes, I know I should trim it) that you just want to get past, but it should still count as a play.

50% is probably as low as I'd go, but I can see arguments for 75% or 90%. 90% should be the upper number for consideration.

[andonevris]

Yes, If I've listened to over half of a song, I feel like that should count as a play. I definitely shouldn't have to go to 100% - sometimes you get those live tracks with extended applause at the end (yes, I know I should trim it) that you just want to get past, but it should still count as a play.

50% is probably as low as I'd go, but I can see arguments for 75% or 90%. 90% should be the upper number for consideration.

It's especially bad for dance music a lot of it has long outros for DJs to mix out of and you would not listen till the end on this sort of track. I have a lot of this music in my library and checking through it very few tunes have a played count or skip count and I listen to them often.

A simple option such as "Mark track as played after xxx percent" would be very useful for me.

[andonevris]

Thanks--tracking at http://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=13326

-Rusty

Can't access that link anymore, asking me to login?

[rusty]

Sorry--we're fixing it as part of MM5, and MM5 is still a 'private' project as there's so much in flux. We expect to open it up like MM4 once things stabilize a bit more.

If you have any other thoughts about the issue, please share them here.

Thanks for understanding.

-Rusty