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Album ranker

Pick a discography, then pick between two records at a time until the order is finished. No scores, no dragging rows around, and nothing to argue with yourself about: the ranking is what your own choices add up to.

How it works

  1. 01Switch off the records you have not heard. Ranking an album you have never played is the fastest way to get an order you do not believe.
  2. 02Two covers, one question: which do you rate higher? Arrow keys work, and you can undo a pick you regret.
  3. 03At the end you get your ranking next to the community’s, and a button that turns yours into a list with its own page.

Discographies worth sorting

Anyone else in the catalog works too: open their page and follow the ranker link.

Questions

What is an album ranker?
A tool that works out your order for a discography by asking you to choose between two records at a time. You never assign a number to anything. After enough picks the tool has a full ranking, from the record you rate highest down to the one you rate lowest.
Why is choosing between two albums better than giving them stars?
Because a star rating is a judgement in isolation and a choice is not. Most people compress everything they like into the top of a five-point scale, so a shelf of fours tells you nothing about the order inside it. Comparisons break the tie the scale cannot.
How many picks does it take?
Roughly n times log n, which in practice means about twenty picks for eight albums and about sixty for twenty. The tool never asks a question it can already answer: put one record above another and every consequence of that is taken as read.
Do I need an account?
No. Ranking runs entirely in your browser and stores nothing. An account is what lets you save the result as a list on your profile, where it gets a public page other people can read, like and fork.
Which artists can I rank?
Any artist in the Riffiter catalog with at least six full-length albums with artwork. That is thousands of discographies, and the catalog grows on demand, so an artist who is missing today can be added.