BingeWorthy 2 testing

[scripting]

Welcome

Welcome to the testing page for BingeWorthy 2.

I've sent messages to people who rated a fair number of programs in the first version of BingeWorthy. I'd like you to try the new version and report any observations or issues you've seen. Your help is much appreciated. ;-)

What's new?

1. First, it should work as it did before. You scroll through a list of programs and rate them.

2. You can now see who else liked the programs you like, or hated the ones you hated. The theory being if they liked something you did, they might have some ideas for other programs you'd like. It's also interesting to see other people's lists.

3. You can add your own programs, without having to get them approved. You enter the URL of a Metacritic page for the program, we read the Open Graph info from the page, and if everything works, and the problem isn't already there, we'll just add it. This allows the system to grow without requiring a lot of negotiation. If Metacritic likes it, we do too.

4. There won't be a need for a separate BingeWorthy database for movies and perhaps other types of media. In this version the type info is just a field in the database.

5. There are lots of little tweaks that should make it work better. I basically rewrote the whole thing, but kept the UI. I've learned a lot about this subject area in the last couple of years.

Where is it?

The new version is here.

http://bingeworthy.io/tv/

You can bookmark it. Once I'm satisfied that everything works well enough, we'll redirect from that URL to the permanent URL.

The beta is public as of August 16

The announcement is here.

Comments

If you have comments, problem reports, etc just post a comment in this thread.

[jsavin]

I noticed there are two House Of Cards, one with (2013). I assume the difference is because one was already there, and the other was submitted using the Metacritic integration, but I think there's actually a US and a UK version. Not sure if this would count as a bug or not.

[jsavin]

It would be nice to sort ignoring "The", so "The Good Wife" would come after "Good Omens".

[scripting]

@jsavin -- thanks for checking it out. ;-)

1. to the first question, all of the programs in the database have been submitted through Metacritic. there's nothing "left over."

There are two house of cards programs, the original was British, and was fantastic, and the second one, started off great and became terrible (imho).

https://www.metacritic.com/tv/house-of-cards

https://www.metacritic.com/tv/house-of-cards-2013

BTW, you can get to the Metacritic page for the program by clicking on the title.

2. to the second question, I did at one point make that change, but backed off it, but as often happens I don't remember why. I'll think about it, maybe start to implement it and at that point will probably remember. ;-)

[jsavin]

Thanks. GTK that I can get to the Metacritic page by clicking the link.

If you do decide to update the sorting, you may also want to ignore leading "A" and "An". I don't see any of those on the list at the moment, but it's only a matter of time. I wouldn't be surprised if there's an open source package for doing that type of sorting so you may not have to implement it yourself. ;-)

Another thing I found isn't really an issue with BingeWorthy 2, but more of a data issue on Metacritic. I tried to find the show "Alone" (reality, History Channel) but it didn't seem to be listed. Google also didn't find the show on the Metacritic site.

ps. I agree that the US version of House of Cards became terrible. We had to stop watching it.

[peterpol01]

Firstly: it works really well and easy to navigate (except as noted below).

It would be nice to be able to filter for TV, Movie, other? Or did I miss that in the instructions?

If I rate something I get to see who all else has the same opinion, YEA for me! BUT I can't see who else, whose opinion I respect, might have rated it higher! Part of one episode of the Expanse and I would have given it a MEH or worse. Would've been nice to see how many others thought it was really quite good!

Search by name? The list could have THOUSANDS of entries and scrolling is going to quickly lose its charm!

If I am looking at say, Band of Brothers, and I click on someone's name I get to see the other things they have voted on, however when I close that dialogue I'm back at the top of the list. This is one of my pet peeves, getting thrown back to start rather than to the last thing I was looking at!

Filter for: Horror, Sci-Fi, Drama, Police Procedural, Comedy, Rom-com, etc?

P.

[scripting]

@peterpol01 -- thanks for the feedback. :-)

1. I'm going to disallow adding movies and remove the ones that are there. Only want to try to deal with TV shows for now.

2. You can see how people have rated it other than yourself by temporarily changing your rating. There really are too many ratings for many of the shows to show them all. I'll think more about how this might work.

3. One of the things I've learned about designing software over the years is not to over-design for problems you may have later but don't have now. For now I think the UI we have is adequate. Maybe it'll never grow. Who knows?

4. I think the behavior you describe is a bug. I'll look at preserving the cursor in that case.

[scotthansonde]

I clicked through, rated some shows, changed my rating for some, added a couple of new shows, everything seems to work.

Minor feature request: when I add a show, I probably want to rate it right away so it would be nice if the cursor went to the new show right after adding it.

[jevdemon]

I tried to add Star Trek Lower Decks using the Metacritic URL but it failed with a 504 (apparently the failure was returned by Metacritic, not Bingeworthy2). Here is the error: "Can't read the URL, "https://www.metacritic.com/tv/star-trek-lower-decks" because we received a status code of 504." I was able to add another show without issues (Picard).

[scripting]

@papascott -- it's supposed to highlight the program you just added, so I must have broken that along the line. I'll check it out, and thanks for the report.

@jevdemo -- interesting. I'll try adding that locally in the debugger to see if I can get any more info.

[scripting]

I'm already getting data from the stuff you guys rated today! ;-)

[andrewshell]

I tried to add Star Trek Lower Decks using the Metacritic URL but it failed with a 504 (apparently the failure was returned by Metacritic, not Bingeworthy2). Here is the error: "Can't read the URL, "https://www.metacritic.com/tv/star-trek-lower-decks" because we received a status code of 504." I was able to add another show without issues (Picard).

I had the exact same issue with The State, but I just retried now and it worked.

[andrewshell]

This only happens on my iPad but when I click a rating it requires two clicks. First click changes the background color to show it's selected and the second click actually makes the selection (sidebar icon changes). I can verify if I just click once, navigate to another item and come back it did not change behind the scenes.

[jevdemon]

I tried again with Star Trek Lower Decks and it was added just fine this time. Perhaps it's a transient issue with the Metacritic site? The show is awful btw - not recommended at all, especially if you like Star Trek.

[scripting]

I think maybe the answer is to have a better error dialog. Or maybe on the server I could retry the request when I get a 504 error. BTW, 504 means "gateway timeout error"

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Status/504#:~:text=The%20HyperText%20Transfer%20Protocol%20(HTTP,order%20to%20complete%20the%20request.

[andrewshell]

I've never used Metacritic before. It's interesting to see what's missing from their database. For instance they don't have "Monty Python's Flying Circus" oh well.

According to their FAQ "Note that our television section launched in the fall of 2005, so we do not have any programs in our database from prior to that date." But I know they have shows from the 90s, but maybe they were syndicated?

[scripting]

i noticed a few too.

as this matures, we may find other ways of doing this.

first thing is to get a bunch of people using it regularly and add features slowly that are easy to support.

On Tue, Aug 11, 2020 at 12:59 PM Andrew Shell notifications@github.com wrote:

I've never used Metacritic before. It's interesting to see what's missing from their database. For instance they don't have "Monty Python's Flying Circus" oh well.

— You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/scripting/Scripting-News/issues/184#issuecomment-672091670, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAM32O5TG6LMDW6EPEKVYRLSAF2HZANCNFSM4P2C3ADA .

[scripting]

Problems.

1. Battlestar Galactica (2003) should have a lot more votes. I think somehow I didn't carry forward the votes from the version 1 database.

2. We'll have to find a way to get Monty Python in the database. I noticed that too. I think Fawlty Towers is also missing.

[pwiner]

This is a bug: There are two hotlists and they are not 100% consistent. One list contains an error.

Select "Top 100 (hotlist)..." from the dropdown menu next to the Bingeworthy 2 logo. This window is displayed:

The list of shows is sorted by average vote score, descending. Note that The Wire is #11 on this list.

Now click the "Hotlist" tab on the left-side list of show titles. In this list, The Wire is #1. Also note that when you click The Wire, the pop-up window shows "Rank #11". Look at this illustration:

What's going on here? The Wire is indeed #11 in average vote score. There are 10 shows with higher average vote scores, but they all have a very small number of votes. When shows are ranked by average vote score and more than xxx votes, The Wire is #1.

There's a good precedent for the "minimum votes". In MLB, the top percentage hitters are only ranked if they have a certain minimum at-bats. Otherwise, the top percentage hitter would be some lucky guy who got one hit in one at-bat. Probably a pitcher or someone just promoted from the minor leagues. Duffy Dyer hit two home runs for the Mets in his first two ever at-bats. But I digress.

In the context of Bingeworthy 2, "Adventure Time" has a perfect 4.0 score based on one vote. Good for them, but not sufficient to win the top rank.

Steps to fix this bug:

1. Adjust "Top 100 (hotlist)..." so it uses the more sophisticated algorithm, same as "Hotlist".
2. In the popup for a show, display its rank based on the more sophisticated algorithm, e.g. The Wire is rank #1.

That's it!

[scripting]

@pwiner -- perfect report. I'll get right on it.

[scripting]

@pwiner -- bug is fixed.

[scripting]

Good morning -- hopefully I'm going to start knocking items off the list in the next few days. Let's see. I appreciate any help in verifying that the updated app still works. ;-)

First change -- I noticed that the converter app that i wrote failed to convert an important (to me) program -- Battlestar Galactica (2003). It only had 5 votes as of this morning. So I decided to find out why and fix it. It is now fixed and there are now 131 ratings. That's more like it! ;-)

http://bingeworthy.io/testing/bingeworthy2/?id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.metacritic.com%2Ftv%2Fbattlestar-galactica-2003

It's #13 on the hotlist.

http://bingeworthy.io/testing/bingeworthy2/?page=hotlist

BTW, another thing I should point out. I want there to be permalinks to pretty much everything on the site, and I want most of them to work even if you're not logged in.

[scripting]

A new feature this morning, now you can navigate through the main list with keystrokes. Type the first few letters of a program's name and the cursor moves there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZKjlklkU6Q

[scripting]

If I am looking at say, Band of Brothers, and I click on someone's name I get to see the other things they have voted on, however when I close that dialogue I'm back at the top of the list. This is one of my pet peeves, getting thrown back to start rather than to the last thing I was looking at!

@peterpol01 -- I followed these steps and the cursor never leaves Band of Brothers when I do it.

I investigated the code, and it does remember your cursor position. Only if you're logged in. I don't know what it does if you're not, but it can't save the cursor.

The way it works, the software completely reloads when you click on the user's name. That's a deliberate choice, I want the link in the address bar to always be something you can share.

See if you can pin this down a bit more, I'm happy to take another look.

[scripting]

Good afternoon my friends the BingeWorthy testers. ;-)

Version 1.8.9 is out now. I'm thinking this is the last round of changes for a bit.

1. Now when you view. a program you can see all the people who rated the program.

2. When you add a show, the cursor moves to the show, so you can rate it. Even if the show was already in the database.

3. There was a bug introduced with the last update that broke the Submit dialog. The keystrokes were captured by the program list, behind the modal dialog.

4. If there's an error loading the Metacritic page on the server, we try again, and once again. So it has to fail three times in a row to fail. Theoretically this should not happen very often.

5. It was reported: "If I am looking at say, Band of Brothers, and I click on someone's name I get to see the other things they have voted on, however when I close that dialogue I'm back at the top of the list." I could not reproduce. The program behaves as the reporter said it should.

[peterpol01]

What an excellent feature! I shall try it now.

[peterpol01]

Dave,It was reported: "If I am looking at say, Band of Brothers, and I click on someone's name I get to see the other things they have voted on, however when I close that dialogue I'm back at the top of the list." I could not reproduce. The program behaves as the reporter said it should.I just tried it again, and it behaves the same way that I first reported, to be sure I am describing this correctly, I have taken 4 screen shots of what I observed:1)  First image (Frankenstein 1): default view of list when first opening app.  Cursor at 11.22.632)  Second image (Frankenstein 2): Band of Brothers selected, displays all reviewers3)  Third image (Frankenstein 3): aljfish selected (even at this point cursor can be seen to have moved back to 11.22.63!4)  Fourth image (Frankenstein 4):  After closing aljfish, cursor has returned to 11.22.63 NOT Band of Brothers!  That is the issue I had.  To see anyone else's other reviews I have to select Band of Brothers again!  Also, kudos for now showing all reviewers ratings, not just those agreeing with current users! Greatly appreciated!   Peter-----Original Message----- From: Dave Winer Sent: Aug 14, 2020 12:53 PM To: scripting/Scripting-News

[scripting]

I need some help testing -- can you open the JavaScript console and see if there are any (red) error messages? If so please post a screen shot. I think some people may be getting errors from the server. Thanks.

[peterpol01]

Console screen shot

[scripting]

@peterpol01 -- thank you for the excellent debugging info.

I found a problem in the server and fixed it.

Try reloading the app. If all goes well, this error should disappear.

Thanks again! ;-)

[peterpol01]

'welcome! Just tried it again: app works and the server error 500 is gone, but the Uncaught TypeError remains:

[scripting]

@peterpol01 -- good morning!

This is what that error indicates. You're running an outdated version of the software.

If you click on the code.js reference to the error, I believe that will prove it, this is what you should see there.

I expect what you'll actually see is no try { or catch {.

So we have to figure out how to get Chrome to not use a cached version of the code.

On the Mac, which I use -- you can hold down the reload icon and get a popup menu that says you should reload from the net. Not sure how you do it on Windows though.

[scripting]

Good morning.

BingeWorthy 2 is public now.

http://scripting.com/2020/08/16/155847.html?title=bingeworthy2

I redirected the test version to the real version, which is here.

http://bingeworthy.io/tv/

Read the notes in the blog post. There probably is some stuff there that you don't know. ;-)

We're still in testing mode, but now it's open to everyone.

[peterpol01]

Bingworthy2:

1) Each time I click on Menu>My top picks.... A new tab is opened displaying the whole list (retains cursor position) AND the pop out with your top picks list. This happens each time you select that option, resulting in multiple identical open tabs.

2) Tried to add MASH and All in the Family, but Metacritic does not include them on their site. Interestingly though, there are ad links to streaming sites for those shows on the Metacritic search page.

[scripting]

@peterpol01 -- thanks for the testing! :-)

1. that's the way it's supposed to work. I want the URLs to be in the address bar, so it's easy to share. as with everything in software it's a tradeoff, you get extra tabs. there may be another way to do it, but this is the wrong moment to try to change that, having just opened the app to the public. it would be analogous to ripping out the plumbing in Madison Square Garden just as a concert is starting.

2. MASH and All In The Family aren't really shows to binge. They're nice shows for sure, but this site is called _Binge_Worthy.

[cshotton]

Right now, the menu bar doesn't display on phone-sized devices. Also, PrivacyBadger is blocking the scripting.com content that is setting a cookie by way of the how.to page (user menu -> About Bingeworthy 2)

[xicubed]

Could be responsive on iPhone/chrome. Content cut off even in landscape.

[scripting]

@xicubed -- you're right. the first version was responsive, but something broke in the transition. thanks for the nudge. i'm going to work on that today. ;-)

[scripting]

I did some work on the mobile version of BingeWorthy this morning, and it should work now, whereas before it did not. It's still not totally the way I want it. Below is a screen shot.

[jsavin]

Looks good on my iPhone 8+.

One issue I noticed which you might already be aware of: Only the show list can be scrolled, not the details on the right side. This means that for shows with many opinions, I can’t see the full list of who’s rated the show in the right column. Here’s a screenshot of 30 Rock:



Hope this helps. :-)

-Jake

On Aug 20, 2020, at 10:01 AM, Dave Winer notifications@github.com wrote:

I did some work on the mobile version of BingeWorthy this morning, and it should work now, whereas before it did not. It's still not totally the way I want it. Below is a screen shot.

https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1686843/90802425-39015c00-e2e5-11ea-81ba-86712c5210fa.png — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/scripting/Scripting-News/issues/184#issuecomment-677785573, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAN6VASA4MXK67FADAYE4UDSBVJG5ANCNFSM4P2C3ADA.

[jsavin]

Here's a very minor issue: I just up-ranked Better Things from Loved to Best!, and noticed that in the right column (show details) that the list of who ranked the show didn't change. When I switched to a different show and then switched back, my new ranking was correctly reflected.

[scripting]

@jsavin, thanks for the report. Totally verifiable.

[scripting]

@jsavin -- bug fixed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-5UO4IFWCw&feature=youtu.be

[jsavin]

Nice – thanks. 👍

[scripting]

Small change. The rank now displays the rank in the hotlist displayed in the second panel, which has a minimum of five ratings. Previously, The West Wing, which is currently third, would show a rank of 15 because there were programs with less than five ratings that averaged higher than The West Wing with 141 ratings.

[scripting]

I just put in a BingeWorthy RSS feed.

http://xmlviewer.scripting.com/?url=http://bingeworthy.io/rss.xml

It supports rssCloud, so you can get realtime updates.

It's a first cut. I may do a namespace for it, so I can fit in a couple of bits of info I have in the database that doesn't easily fit into RSS.

The description element is the URL of the Metacritic page, or the ID of the program.

[scripting]

First, thanks for bug reports and questions about the functionality of the software. That's what this thread is here for.

Second, I am deleting complaints about programs not handled by Metacritic. I get it, your favorite program isn't there. You don't like the system. I've heard that. It's way way better than the system we had in the first version.

Maybe there's another iteration coming, maybe not. Time will tell. But there is no mechanism for me to manually add a program that is not in Metacritic.

And, some people have been saying things like "boo hiss" -- that's not cool. Professional, respectful demeanor here only. You may think it's funny -- I don't. No one is being paid here to help you, so behave accordingly. Thanks.

[scripting]

This thread is for bug reports and questions about the functionality of the software. Anything else will be deleted.

[scripting]

I wrote a feed viewer for the RSS feed, first time I've been able to actually read it, and it highlights some problems with the way it works.

http://scripting.com/code/testing/viewrssfeed/

[frameworker]

"The Bureau" (French spy drama w subtitles) on Sundance is really great but it isn't on metacritic.

[bph]

Hi there - I love Bingeworthy Thank you! I wished I could visit it on my Pixel phone. Everytime I want to login with Twitter, it opens the Android Twitter app and dead ends. I know that's a setting on the app for Twitter links, before I remove the "all" to 'ask me first' for all Twitter links, I was wondering if you'd invest your time troubleshooting this, also for others, who.might enjoy scroll through Bingeworthy while taking a break using their phones. It would give people a great alternative to scrolling aimlessly though misinformation on Facebook 😋