First, let me say that I obsessively hoard my music. I keep stuff I have no intention of ever listening to again. I know it isn't logical, I just do. :)

I've got 250 gig of MP3s, and 60 gig of iPod space, so ratings very much influence what goes on the iPod.

Anyways, here's my scale:

1 = never want to hear again
2 = don't hate, nothing special, not iPod-worthy
3 = don't hate, nothing special, iPod-worthy
4 = like it, good or great
5 = a favorite!

And then, for syncing to the ipod, I have:

- "4+ stars": sync'd
- artist specific: a large number of artist-specific playlists, made up of:
    (Artist Name) + (unrated or 3+ stars)
    I pick & choose from these which to sync
- audiobooks: only sync those marked "active" in the "Grouping" field
-a few other "mood" playlists of various types
- 3+ stars = random playlist that fills up whatever space is left after that (currently 15GB and shrinking)

I call it my distillation process, squeeeeezing an archive into 60 gig. :)

I borrowed Ranger Rick's process to fill out my own iPod, so my system is pretty similar. (Ben, as he's known IRL, was my roommate for a couple of years.) However, I do assign a little different weight to the stars.

5 - "My life would be different if this song hadn't been in it." "OHMIGOD, I LOVE this song!"

4 - "Damn that song rocks. Kick ass!"

3 - Good background music, doesn't really grab my attention either way. Like Ranger Rick above, whether it goes on my iPod or not usually follows by artist.

2 - Meh. On the "take it or leave it" scale, I can definitely leave it. Boring, a tad annoying, or just from an artist that I have no loyalty to. Like 3-star songs, 2-star songs usually follows the artist or album.

1 - I never want to hear this song again.

I consider both 4 & 5 star songs as "favorites" that *must* go on the iPod. If I give you a mixed CD or a playlist, all of those songs are guaranteed to be 4 or 5 stars.

I consider both 1 & 2 star songs as "un-iPod-worthy." I uncheck those songs in iTunes so they never turn up in random plays or are put on the iPod.

Only 3-star songs may or may not be on the iPod. I either have a random sampling of them (a smart playlist with a size constraint) or I just drag the 3-star songs from a bunch of favorite albums into a playlist. I go back and forth.

I think Netflix, believe it or not, has the most succinct phrasing of these levels:

5 - "Loved it"
4 - "Really liked it"
3 - "Liked it"
2 - "Didn't like it"
1 - "Hated it"

I think those line up with my system pretty well, but I guess in this case the 3 or 4 is a little tight. So I use this rule of thumb (for movies!):

5 - "my life would be different if I hadn't seen this movie" (e.g. "The Commitments" encouraged my brother and I to start a band, we loved it so much.)

4 - "I'd watch this movie again." (e.g. "Spider-Man" was a lot of fun!)

3 - "Pretty good." (e.g. "Four Brothers" was a movie I didn't expect to like, but it was pretty darn good. I wouldn't watch it again, though.)

Make sense? For music it goes about the same, but instead of "watch again," it's more of a "want it on my iPod" or "want it to turn up often in a random shuffle."

Hal, one last thing -- I think Vogon poetry has to be a 1. It's at the bottom, very, very, very bottom, of what constitutes a 1, but there's nothing LOWER than a 1 star rating, so it has to be a 1. As does Britney.

(Unless it's Nickel Creek covering "Toxic", in which case, following the artist, it's a 3.)

Why would you bother rating something a "1 - Don't want to hear again" when you can just delete it? If you're never going to listen to it again, why keep it?

Nevermind. FOr some reason I didn't see Ben's first paragraph. Hoarder. Got it. ;-)

I too am a "horder." I have TONS of CDs, some of which I've opened and never listened to, some I have listened to once, hated and filed away. I've yet to rate any of them though. For some strange reason, I like to rely on my memory for ratings. Basically, if it's remotely good and I think I will want to listen to it/someone will want to hear it at a get together of something, it makes it onto my iPod. If it royally sucks, I won't even load it into iTunes and will just let the CD sit in my CD rack.

Larry,

I hear ya about Netflix's rating, except for that I wish there were 1/2 ratings also.