ArsMoriendi
Cyan isn\'t a shade of blue.
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Last Active 12-09-22 12:08 am
Joined 08-22-13

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Recs vs. What You Actually End Up Checking

So you've asked Sputnik to give you some recommendations for music and you get a sea of over 100 albums that may or may not fit the criteria you initially asked for. How do you decide which ones you listen to and which ones are priority? (The parentheses included are here to show the conclusions some people may jump to.)
1Portishead
Third

Possible option 1: You look for some trusted users who have rec'd you albums you have enjoyed in the past/are known to have expertise in certain genres. (Hey people like this guy and he knows his hip hop! He'll lead me to what 90s east coast hip hop album I'm looking for!)
Pro: You have a higher chance of loving what they rec'd you.
Con: You miss out on a diverse array of rec's you could have checked.
2Creedence Clearwater Revival
Pendulum

Possible option 2: You look for users who have only rec'd 1-3 albums instead of ones who rec'd a around dozen or in some cases even more. (Wow that guy who rec'd 16 albums probably just named every post-punk album he's ever listened to... but that guy who only rec'd 2 probably picked albums that were specifically the gothic post punk with electronic elements I was looking for!)
Pro: Those few choices tend to fit the criteria you were initially asking for a lot more closely.
Con: Some users who tend to rec only a few albums tend to go for the more general/popular/classic, non-obscure recs. (Wait, no he only rec'd Joy Division and Talking Heads! )
3The Beach Boys
Friends

Possible option 3: You do research on every album rec'd. (Wow look at all these rec's, better go read some albums reviews, check wikipedia, discogs... maybe I'll listen 1 song from all 134 albums rec'd!)
Pro: You end up figuring out what albums you'll probably want to hear.
Con: Extremely time consuming, especially if there has been a lot of recs. If you wanna hear an album now, too bad, you have to do a lot of research on it first.
4Cocteau Twins
Treasure

Possible option 4: You pick the rec'd albums at random! (OH I'll just randomly pick 5 of the 47 albums people suggested! Sure!)
Pro: It's the easiest option here.
Con: It's also the riskiest option here. What if you picked the 5 worst albums rec'd?
5The Beatles
Rubber Soul

Possible option 5: You look for users who took the time to say a little thing about their recs, instead of just those who listed some albums. (Oh... this user gave a synopsis on that noise punk album... but this other user didn't, maybe that first user cares more if I hear their rec...)
Pro: In some cases descriptions for the album show that the user rec'ing it is passionate about said said album, leading to a higher probably of it being great.
Con: Users describing their rec could be wrong about their description/users who didn't describe the album could still be rec'ing something amazing.
6Nine Inch Nails
Year Zero

Possible option 6: You check the scores for the album whether it be on Sputnik, RYM, other places, and any mix of those options. (If the Sputnik AND RYM communities both think this is good, it probably is... right?)
Pro: You can see how the general population of these rating sites feel about the album.
Con: Arguably everyone hates at least 1 highly rated album. (How does _____ have a 4.3 average with over 300 votes? It's pure shit!)
7Black Sabbath
Paranoid

The CaimanJesus option: "you just check out the recs slowly over a period of time"
Pro: You get around to listening to everything.
Con: It's time consuming and you might end up being lazy only really only checking the first few. Especially if there's more than 50 recs for a specific sub-genre.
8Mr. Bungle
California

The Cl0ver option: "I say thank you every time and maybe look at 2-3 of the recs and ignore the rest, and then feel awful about the fact i neglected the albums people took time out of their lives to suggest."
Pro: You get to hear at least 2 new albums recommended by others!
Con: You feel awful for not getting around to most of it.
9Ween
Quebec

The AdolfChrist option: "checking the recs whose titles sound cool or interesting."
Pro: Artists with cool album titles might have a higher chance of making a good album. Probably a good key to finding experimental stuff?
Con: There's so many bad albums with good titles and probably plenty of good albums with bad titles.
10Pixies
Surfer Rosa

The macman76 option: "design an algorithm"
Pro: Step 1: Design an algorithm.
Step 2: Apply that algorithm to a list of recommended albums.
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Profit!
Con: Not everyone knows how to design a proper algorithm.
11Portishead
Dummy

The Sinternet option: "i ask for recs, completely forget about it and somehow happen to listen to the album out of pure coincidence and rec it to the person who recced it to me in the first place"
Pro: You do end up listening to albums rec'd.
Con: You didn't listen to them because they were rec'd. Or is this also a pro?
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