This has been discussed several times, and I am bringing it up again. The half-star option seems to be a polemic topic, and this is why I will poll it.

Simply put, do you want to see it on PA or not? I would definitely prefer to have the option to assign 3.5 or 4.5 stars to an album, and I think many other PA-ers feel the same way. Let's see.

And, no.

Oh heck, just for good measure - no.

I'm not remotely convinced we need it. The current five ratings available forces you to choose unequivocally. Increasing the resolution wont add any value to the rating function or make the results any more 'accurate*' IMO. Use a written review to articulate any ambivalence you might have (many reviewers do this already)

* Why are so many obsessed with a points sports ladder for what is NOT a sport? It's Art ffs

^ This.

I do like Logan's multiple genre thoughts.  An example is Fairport, always seems lost or misplaced to me under Prog Related (whatever that means).

I'll add another No to that and also a Big No-No to multiple genres.  

That level of resolution is completely unnecessary for this activity.

BTW, making a choice with two different answers (ie: No AND It is perfect as it is) is not the way to ask such a question.

Quite obviously, from my posted response, I believe the answer is no - but as I don’t think it’s perfect as is, even though I believe the answer is no, I can’t really vote for any option here.

Absolutely yes, I've needed it many times.

But actually I am not a big fan of numeral ratings for several reasons.

Have to agree to disagree with your genre no :)  I always thought the point of Genre is to place similar style of music as an assistance tool to help people to find something more in common to what they like to hear.  Therefore under one Genre a lot of artists sounds do seem to be completely misplaced.  Two Genre's would substantially increase success.

I could quote thousands or examples.  But here just a couple:

Folk - would allow for a Steeleye and Fairport comparison

Prog Related.  Does anyone seriously compare Kate Bush with Led Zeppelin.

But sorry this perhaps should be a different discussion topic.  Not relevant to this poll.

Nick

I don't see the problem with allowing 1/2 star ratings. If people don't want to use it -- then just click on whole stars. For everyone else, the feature is there.

And I agree with Logan about allowing multiple "tags" at the album level. It is ultimately more flexible, more descriptive, and avoids pigeon-holing a band into a genre based on one persons decision when adding a new band, or when the band has evolved over time and no longer fits that description.

I do not like to "rate" anything ... I mean do I rate Tchaikovsky higher than Beethoven, or the Beatles over the Beach Boys ... at a certain point of the discussion objectively, one finds that the ratings are not satisfying at all, and they lack verve and quality ... many of the albums listed with high ratings, are not, in my view, really that well deserving showing what I imagine is a serious ability to listen to other music and something that is different.

I've requested, more than once, that only a "reviewer" be able to RATE anything, but the rating needs to be "changed" somewhat so that the whole band, or artistry is included and not just one song from one album. THAT IS IMPORTANT for the value of the artistry ... otherwise it becomes just a fan party ... drunken and stoned ... and not exactly showing any artistic merits, other than fun!

Even if it was a different poll. For example, I might like to review 2 JT albums and I would rate them high ... however, sadly, too many of the other albums are just songs looking for the US radio, and I honestly did not think they had the ability and musicality of those 2 albums ... and I would rate the albums much lower even though many of them are appreciated ... I don't dislike them! But if the rating was for the band AS A WHOLE my rating would change and probably lower as time went by because I do not think that Ian had another TAAB or PP or even MIAG in his bag ... I really think he was looking for the chance to get another hit ... and as such. I'm not sure that a lot of the albums following were as important or valuable ... nice stuff ... but many other artists also had them! And some deserved more attention and they did not get it!

Reminds me of Damo's posting in this board about the Japanese stuff (some other stuff from the area), where he can even find stuff that is older than many of us ... and we over looked it at the time! Just like we do now!

But I don't see the "ratings" as important as they are designed and used ... in some cases I find them offensive since it is about one song, and yet another fan, and not the music!

Hi,

I always thought that the "ratings" was something for the geeks and folks that were not really interested in the music past their favorites of the week. And in many cases, I keep thinking that some folks were voting, just because their friends did ... and made an album look better. 

That's not to say that some of the albums do not deserve the ratings, I think they do, but sadly I think that half of the folks voting that high, have not heard 60 or 70 percent of the other bands in the "top 100" .... and I don't think their interest lies in the music side of things ... heck you can see that in Hollywood and in many places when the band shows up ... and all the fans want to kiss Iggy, they want to touch David, they want to dress like Tim ... which can be fun on Halloween, but sad the rest of the time ... 

Ratings, has been a way of telling people to believe that the sales and blah blah from this or that band was worth checking out ... nothing more. The movie studios started that in the 1920's ... when they not only wanted people to see the movies, but to catch the new sensation ... which would help the numbers in the bank!

So it could be said that the "ratings" are meaningless! Unless all you do is count cash, of course!

Hi,

I just thought that if we expanded the star system, that the top three settings (8,9 and 10) would be specifically RESERVED for folks that did a FULL REVIEW of the album, not just this song sounds like, this one is bad, and that one is crap kind of thing, but the big one is awesome. That's not a review and needs to be taken out or ask the writer to redo his review if he/she wants to keep the ratings. 

The reviews themselves, need a lot of trimming and cleaning ... there are many that do not fit, and should be removed to a thread ... instead of being considered a review! I'm not sure this can be done, but I really think that we have to uphold PROGRESSIVE MUSIC to a much higher standard than pop music and as such the reviews could/should, at least, reflect the very intention and attitude that brought up so much more than 55 years ago ... sadly, I only see a database adding numbers, and they are, on the average, quite meaningless.

It's almost that some folks don't realize how clear the information on a database is ... but how that information gets taken and used is another story.

Yes, let's start with your 6 page, 39 paragraph, 3,303 word review of King Crimson's "In the Court of the Crimson King"!

Hi,

It was written that way due to the lack of comparison and understanding that a lot of folks have for that album.

IT IS, and FOREVER WILL BE, the best photograph of that time and place, and all of the lyrics are centered towards that end ... like words disappearing in the wind ... and we don't get it, specially in the age of social media when words are meaningless and concepts even more so.

Folks still don't get it ... what EPITATH is about when in those days buildings and what not were getting blown out and innocent folks falling due to something that the British created to prevent someone's freedom ... add the confusion and then you have a stupid reason to be there... the British did the same thing in India.

Again, as is the issue in this board ... YOU ARE NOT LOOKING AT THE CONTENT AND ITS POINT ... you are merely looking at the length and thinking that it's too long and can't possibly have anything of value in it.

HOW CAN YOU APPRECIATE THE LONGER CUTS IN PROGRESSIVE MUSIC THAT WE LOVE IN THIS SITE, WHEN YOUR ATTITUDE IS THAT OF SOMEONE THAT WANTS A 5 MINUTE SONG?

Show your progressive ability and side ... is all that anyone can ask and hope for. You have a right to your opinion, but when it is not BASED ON CONTENT, I can not take it seriously ... and people on this board just about "refuse" to hear about history ... and think that it is all just stupid and mindless songs.

Guess what? Most of those musicians were not mindless. And they did phenomenal things!

Hi,

You are more than welcome to set up your own prog rock website and database and use that kind of editorial control because it will be your website. This site, on the other hand, has inclusivity as a key part of its philosophy and allows individuals from all different kinds of backgrounds and reading/writing/listening skill sets to take part in its evolution. If you don't like how some reviews are written, you are more than welcome to move onto another review or even another site. There is nothing on this site requiring you to read something that is beneath your elitism.

3.89632 vs 3.89633 ......winner winner chicken dinner, by .00001!!

Hi,

Even if I DID have a couple of million to spare and waste ... I probably would invest a large amount of it on PA instead ... to improve the use and setup from the database ... M@x might not like it, but at least there would be a little more attention to stuff that is showing its old age, and has not been cleaned up or looked at ... and in the review sections, doing "singles" is crazy ... and a serious waste of space!

I know it's not my board. And, honestly, I would not want to have one in this day and age ... it's not worth it and the folks are not showing an honest and true interest in the music itself, and specially its history and how it came about ... instead we think that a blue guitar and a flipping keyboard is what made "progressive" ... which is so ridiculous as to seem rather ... boring!

It's never been about "my elitism" and you have no idea what you just said and understand. If you had seen, or been a part of the very high literary world that I was, you would not even consider saying that ... but instead you lower your own standards ... I'm merely challenging you to improve them, however you can, and not by how I state it. Progressive Music came around because folks believed in it its freedom, desire and expansion beyond a mere song for the radio ... and here we are talking about it as if it has all to go back to the rock song from the top 100 ... 

I do not dislike PA, but saying that some members have no idea about the music and its history is not out of context ... it's real ... and the folks that "know" are not willing, or care to add/expand that person's knowledge ... too lazy and revert to one (or two) words for a comment that has nothing to do with the music itself.

I simply wish that the database could improve on its ability to also show history ... it's not like all the arts have ignored history for the past 1000 years (you really need to get Jansen's History of Art!) ... and that it was all just a popular song ... we continuously spend out time making sure it is "popular" ... and not for a musical reason!

He was talking about a review. Why yell at someone when he didn't say anything about wanting a 5 minute song?

why are you yelling at us? 

Hi,

Each spigot starts with a circulating biology that only the motor can refresh with backspace keys. Try winding the exponential towards a pump of molecules that will bring you many ringed planets. It's all about the headlines and the fish coaches and the giant barrels of bolted ciders. The arts of chicken substances scrolls like an untidy metrical gold arch, nay, even an obstruction effort for locationism extracted from the deserted dog boxes of yesteryear. 

Screaming at the laziness of points, memories, desk clocks, and excessive socialist noses will sound the seventh lust of mechanical dentistry equipment. A tactic that I hesitate to comprehend opposite the soap numbers from every pair of jeans in the Kurile-Kamchatka chain of volcanoes. Phobos, with the linear fissures, might upend your whoops and tight makers for a nice collection of bass luggage. That's an endogenous component with large-scale terracing with too many toes in the potato salad.

Maybe drag your bellybutton through a yawn factory where the literary circles can inflate their magma chambers to drown out all the dormice using fundamentally different calderas. The minimal toasters hand over the peanut butter you only considered emergent from blue guitars, but have you no comment on Mik Kaminski's blue violin and have you not spent hours digesting a rare Violinski LP? The lake tempers your campaign.

I'm free of a whim of industrial soups that people line up and reckon with their highly developed sliding boards and grandfather gases. The groaning conforms to many, many hours of rounding up the toilets and listening for eventual dododoxes to return. You know, I wrote a song about that once. It's empirical to flank the structures with a through-going fissure and various sofa cushion deformations. Pre-existing radial fractures can only erupt with an underpants diagram about cinnamon rolls and gorgeous windshield wipers.

For your 1000 years, we will still have numbers and these will fill the pillowcases with much joy. Squash the apple seeds and quibble with your megabytes of unconscious pseudo-babble about snacks not know the notes and replying with a tail camera. Think again before hijacking my chaos with a gastric rant. I can stand the smell because I grew up without bathroom spray. Can you stand the gibberish without gibberish spray?

I offer you to join me in some real planetary facts about the Great Red Spot on Jupiter. Is your nose well oiled?

Hi,

So poetic ... where is the bathroom? 

And talking about "psycho-babble" ... yours has no clarity whatsoever, and you think my references are just empty and they aren't!

I think it got moshed.

It's just me and the millipedes. I won't chew the soap if you remember to stop washing your hands in the cherry and 7-Up punch. No matter what size lawn you're taking care of, only select species of grasses can make it through the meatloaf. Have a soft pretzel on me.