Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Theory
3. Needed equipment
4. Procedure
1. Login to the Dashboard
2. Navigate to Relativity
3. Activate Relativity Slider
4. Select a title to rate
5. Send the title to a chosen level
   1. Predefined "Send to"
   2. Repeat Command
   3. Specific Command
6. Recurse
7. Save
8. Refresh Experiences
5. Glossary
6. Appendix
7. Other

Introduction A relative rating system (RRS) may, at first, seem like an inefficient and abstracted way of generating ratings, but it is useful in that it provides an accurate way in which to see the popularity, impressiveness, or other measure of an object in a given category. melative.com uses this system as a way of allowing users control over their personal media ratings. The site is based around various media forms including, artistry, cinema, literature, music, and television, and any piece within these categories may be rated using the RRS. When a user is familiar with the theory behind the RRS, usage does become streamlined and the simplicity of the system shows.

Theory Ratings are most commonly accomplished using numerical systems of 5 or 10 maximum points. The melative RRS is a non-numerical and fully relative rating system, with a recursive nature.

In the simplest case, two items, A and B, may be rated relatively to one another in three scenarios:

A is greater than(>) B
A is less than(<) B
A is equivalent to(=) B

These scenarios can be represented on a list when A appears above B on the list, A appears below B on the list, and A appears on the same level as B on the list, respectively.

It may seen quite confusing that this is possible with a large set of items, but during each comparision, only two items need be compared, and then the process repeated. Eventually, all items on the list will have a rating based on their positions in the list. Of course, this limits the size of the list to the number of items in the list.

The result of such rating will not be relevant for only one or two lists, but when a given item appears in positions throughout many lists, a "true" position may be found for that item relative to other items in the lists. The details of such computing are not needed to use the RRS, but it is important to keep in mind simple facts about the computing on melative.com.

1. The higher an item appears on the list the more significant it is (ie on level 1 of a 100 level list, 100 points are awarded, but on level 2 of a 100 level list receive less than 99 points).
2. An item appears that appears higher on a list with many levels is more significant than the lower it appears on a list with few levels.

Needed equipment An active user account and javascript capable web-browser is needed in order to access the melative RRS. Browsers below are known to be capable of running the RRS:

Mozilla Firefox 1.0 and higher
Opera 8.0 and higher
Internet Explorer 7.0 and higher
Safari
Netscape

User accounts are free and only require providing a valid e-mail address. (http://melative.com/register)

One other necessity is that the user has logged "Past" or "Current" experience of at least two media in a given category. For instance, two music albums or two movies. (see Appendix)

Procedure

1. Login to the Dashboard Login to the user account. The site will redirect the the dashboard, but if it does not, click the username in the right side of the site heading, opposite to the search input.

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2. Navigate to Relativity From the Dashboard, click the link titled "Relativity" on the DashCP panel under the "Media" section.

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3. Activate Relativity Slider In the center panel there will a section titled "Activate Relativity Slider". Click the category which will be used to rate two or more works.

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4. Select a title to rate After the page loads, there should be various sections labeled by level in the center panel. Within each level there are the titles of media experienced by the user. Clicking a title will activate the item, denoted by a bold border.

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5. Send the title to a chosen level After selection, it is important to decide on the rating level where the item or title belongs.
   
   Level controls are found at the base of each level. The controls allow the shifting of items from level-to-level.
   
   There are various ways to shift items in the interface, but each involves sending a command. The easiest method to use is the predefined "Send to" control, along with "Repeat". A more advanced method involves specifying commands manually in a prompt. While the first method may be preferred, the second has the advantages of speed and flexibility.
   
   1. Predefined "Send to" New Upper - Creates a level above level 1, level 1 becomes level 2, 2->3, etc. Selected items are then sent to first level. Top - Sends selected items to level 1. Up 50% - Sends selected items to the level half-way between the current level and level 1. Up 10 - Sends selected up 10 levels. Up 5 - Sends selected up 5 levels. Up 1 - Sends selected up 1 level. Down 1 - Sends selected up 1 level. Down 5 - Sends selected down 5 levels. Down 10 - Sends selected down 10 levels. Down 50% - Sends selected items to the level half-way between the current level and the bottom level. Bottom - Sends selected to bottom level. New Lower - Creates a level below bottom level, and selected items are sent to this new level.
   2. Repeat Command This control will repeat the last used predefined "Send to".
   3. Specific Command Clicking the "Specific" control on a level will result in a user prompt. All shifting commands can be sent with this method. (See command reference).
   Item moved The selected item will then belong to the level it was sent to.

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6. Recurse After one cycle of comparing items and rating higher, lower, or equivalent, the same process can be continued at the user's discretion. Repeat steps 4 and 5.

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7. Save When the RRS list has been order according to the user, it is time to save. Saving can be done at any time and it is adviseable to save after 4-5 shifts. To save, click any 'Save' button in the main panel of the RRS. After saving, any empty levels will be removed and the server makes proper adjustments to the list items.

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8. Refresh Experiences After saving the list, the user may add or remove experiences in a given category on melative.com. Previously saved RRS lists may not match the current experiences when this occurs. In order to update the RRS items, the user may refresh their list.
   
   At the top of an active RRS panel, click the 'Refresh' button. This will remove deleted experience items, and insert new experience items to the list.
   
   Note: Newly inserted items will be found in the middle level of the list. (ie: If a list contains 15 levels, new items will appear on level 7).

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Glossary level - a position in a list. melative.com - a free website, currently under development. meta - pertaining to the data of an object, that does not define the object. (ie a painting is not defined by its reviews). RRS - stands for relative rating system. recursive - a function or procedure which recurs until a stopping condition is met. relative - the "meta" relation between two items in a relative rating system. relative rating system - a rating system which employs non-numerical rating of items based on their relation to each other in a list. Items may appear at the same position in the list shift - the movement of an item in a list from one level to another.

Appendix

User Experience On melative.com users are able to log their expereiences with media. There are four modes of experience: Past, Current, Wishlisted, and Blacklisted. "Past" is designated by "Of Course" and "current" is designated by "In Progress" in the "Experience Delta" panel located on a media's page. In order for a media title to appear in the RRS, the experience must be set to "past" or "current" ("Of Course" and "In Progress" respectively).

Commands Commands have two general categories: relative and absolute. Relative commands are denoted by positive and negative signs (+/-).

The numeric values of commands generally indicates the level which selected items should be shifted to. In the case of relative commands, the level is designated by +/- a given number of levels from the current level.

Decimals commands denote percentages, and must be preceeded by a zero (ie. 0.50).

Other melative.com is a web2.0 interface currently under development and testing. These instructions are functional on the site, but the most of the site is still behind closed doors. Hence, these instructions may not be of use until late 2007.