Hi TrackTV team,

I know I'm onto a topic that have been discussed already, and I'm trying the shed a new light here, my apologies if this has been already discussed also.

I'm seeing more and more rating on episode that have not been released yet, which is annoying (because it is not very smart) but mostly it is biaising the overall rate of a tv show (unless it gets loads of votes), hence degrading the trust a user can have of TrackTV ratings.

I have seen several other requests that have been denied but none pointing out the negative impact on ratings and user trust. This could also be handled by banning early rater from rating a new show for example ?

Many thanks for your help
KR
François

Recently you had an all around update on comments. Great! Finally!
Yet it wasn't anything like reporting comments, or giving us a way of ignoring certain people. But at least a step in the right direction. But one thing in particular is disappointing here:
It seems you did the same mistake again as you did with last_activity.

In terms of last_activity:
If a user edits any comment, commented_at of that user would change.
But you'd have to sync ALL comments ever written by that user because you have no chance knowing what or how many comments were edited (or in this context unfortunately "commented"_at).

In terms of comments/recent:
Again, editing a comment isn't well-thought-out. comments/recent wouldn't change the position if a user edits a comment. Given the fact that last_activity changed I'd expect that comments/recent updates as well and puts the updated comment at the top.
But it doesn't, it stays where it was before, it orders by created_at only.
That means with comments/recent I can only sync comments at a specific point in time. It's basically impossible to sync once and update as needed.
If comments were changed (and I'd have to assume constantly that's the case) I'd have no idea how many comments were changed and I'd have to call all 141640 comments again (worst case) to check.

And why is it that replies aren't in this endpoint? Don't they count as comments in this instance? I feel your wording is highly inconsequential on several occasions leading to issues on where the API goes.

Then there's the issue with likes. Liking a comment changes that comment as well indirectly. But I have no way of syncing/checking that either efficiently.

You seem to create one endpoint after the other to do basically the same thing just with different responses but the same issues.
That reminds me of v1. I'm not seeing the intricate cogs of your API from within but I see it from the outside and what I see is you're doing the exact same mistakes again you did back then with v1...

All we need is a simple way of getting either all or a specific user's comment objects (where replies are considered as comments) and an endpoint to check for comment changes with the changed comment's ids returned, not the timestamp of the last change. The latter is a completely useless information.
Whereas a comment is considered to be changed when: (un)liked, replied to, edited, user rating changed (where possible), or even created.
Endpoint: comments/changed
OrderBy: updated_at
Page and Limit as usual
Returns:
[{
trakt_id: n1,
likes: m,
replies: m1,
user_rating: n2 || null,
created_at: xy1,
updated_at: xy2,
parent_id: 0 || n3
}, ... ]
(Being nitpicky as I am you could then support /comments/[:ids]/* endpoints to lessen the requests, that's what I would do in your position at least)

How would you go about syncing comments of a or all users with your own API as of now? Including updates.
I don't see how that's possible without missing some crucial information or hitting your servers with redundant requests, doing twice or more work on any side involved.

In the on deck and progress sections, setting to "recently aired" will sort correctly by which show had the most recent episode, but it'll show an episode that is not next-to-watch for me.

For example, if I have a weeks worth of episodes for several shows, it sorts properly, but as soon as one show airs another episode (without being watched yet), the "on deck" will show me the latest, effectively skipping the correct next episode to watch.

Ideally, I'd like a reverse-direction sort of "previously aired" for on deck, showing only my personal next-to-watch episodes sorted by their air date.

The Episode Count in Magnificent Century is factually incorrect. Season 1 is correct with 24 episodes and the correct airdates - Although you do have 25 listed, with the 25 episode having no airdate. However, Seasons 2 should have 39 episodes, not 63 and some of the airdates are incorrect. Season 3 should have 40 episodes, not 92 episodes. While Season 4 should have 36 episodes, not 82 episodes. Although you have Season 5 on there which is also factually incorrect as the show finished after Season 4, therefore Season 5 doesn't exist.
Here at TVDB: https://www.thetvdb.com/?tab=seasonall&id=228921&lid=7 - it supports this, should be 139 episodes in total.

What i find really annoying with using trakt, is the way you have to seperate shows or movies into seperate list for your personal "status" on that show (Like i need to make my own list for shows that i have dropped, have on hold or have completed (and you have the default Watchlist for shows you want to watch.))

So what i think would immensely help organize our shows/movies, is to have a more "Complete list" of every show/movie and their own "Status", like they do on MyAnimeList. (Or we could just have a new system of "tagging" shows, so these "Statuses" are more clearly visible.) An example of this is the way i have organized my page on MyAnimeList: https://myanimelist.net/mangalist/davidpeder2

Here you can filter every entry after their status; like "watching", "on hold", "dropped" or "want to watch", and you can easily see what their status is. I also find this way much easier to find out how many episodes you have watched, than to hover your mouse over the shows to see how many episodes you have watched/how many times you have seen it. Here you can also give comments on the specific entry.

This would make organization much easier, and would make it so that i dont have to have multiple tabs open just to see everything i am watching, have completed, have on hold and have dropped.

I have this as VIP since this is a little more complex but it would work fine non-VIP as well.

What I was thinking was that when you pull up a show's main page, it will show an estimate of when you will ether catch up or finish watching the show.

Here is an example of the math for it to work.... at least I think it works. But it should give you a general idea of how it may function.

Key:
b = Average time between episode plays for that show.
x = Time since last played episode for that show.
r = number of remaining episodes in that show.
l = length of unwatched episodes(22 minutes, 44 minutes, etc.).
u = time till next un-aired episode date(if there is any unaired episodes).
T = Time till you are caught up/completed with the show

#1. (b+x) ÷ 2 = A

You are adding the average time between episodes to the time since the last payed episode and averaging.

#2. r(A) + r(l) = m

You are then multiplying that average time by the number of remaining episodes. Then multiplying the length of the unwatched episodes by the number of remaining episodes and adding those two numbers together to get m.

#3. If m < u then m = T

If m is a date/time sooner than the time till the next unaired episode date/time(u) then m is the Catch up/Complete date/time that is displayed.

#4. If there are no unaired episodes left then m = Time til you are caught up/completed. (m = T)

#5. If m > u then repeat #2 with r = r + # of unaired episodes m is later than.

If m is a later date/time than unaired episodes' air date/time(u) then repeat step #2 with the number of unaired episodes that m is later than being added to the number of remaining episodes(r).

________________________________________________________

I hope this makes sense, if it doesn't please ask and I will elaborate if I can.

One area where trakt currently is severely lacking is keeping up with your "network"/"friends". The number of people you can follow before the dashboard looses it's usefulness is probably a mere 3 users. Capping out at 12 recent items is quite harsh. A single casual user these days can probably nuke that feed in an evening alone (watching, collecting, commenting, lists, etc.). Going above that you can pretty much scratch that area of trakt. If you want to find out what certain people are enjoying you are forced to click on their profile AND "study"
their history (at least for TV data).

What could be improved / expanded:
- Filter options. However not just a single selector but checkboxes for the different types of interactions.
- Different display views including a text/icon list. (the current one is overloaded and not easy to read)
- Condensed user actions as I once suggested before V2 (http://support.trakt.tv/forums/188762-general/suggestions/3561062-condense-activities-dashboard).
- User independent views or data. Ex. most watched shows among friends in the last x-days, highest rated.
- Recent feed for each of the users (as an expanded view).