Since kcador ignored my message in the other thread, I’d like an answer to this by Trakt please.
I use the collection feature like a watch list.
I add shows to it that I want to watch, so that I can go into my collection and look at shows that are not completely watched, to select which show I want to watch next.
So effectively it is operating as a watch list.
Am I someone who is “abusing” the collection feature?
There is one and only one reason I do it this way - it’s because when I add the show to the collection I select the episodes release date and that then allows me to sort on that.
I note that even for this to have been an option provided shows that in it’s original form, this was not only a supported, but an encouraged way of using Trakt. Why else would someone want to add items to their collection based on when they were released?
But I digress - there is one and only one reason I do it this way.
It’s so that I can go to my library view (v2) and sort shows by “Added Date”
The effect of this is that shows come to the top of the list that have recently been aired (because the added date is the “released” date)
This fixes a specific UI issue in Trakt.
Without this, the closest possible option is to sort by Release Date (of the entire show)
But this causes shows which have been running for years to be pushed far down the list often multiple pages in.
Take The Simpsons for example - it’s release date is 18 December 1989!
This means that if I were to use Release Date, I have to navigate 10 pages into my collection!
For a show that is currently airing!!
Do you understand the broken user interaction case here that is pushing me to use the library as a way to set the collected date as the released date (of each episode) purely so that in the library I can sort by added date, which brings something like The Simpsons up to the Page 1 where it should be as a currently airing show?
This entire situation would be completely resolved by allowing sorting in lists or the library by “Last Aired Date”
I can understand that there could be database load involved with this if you are having to fan out a query down from show level to episode level in order to ascertain the most recent air date.
However, I think this is a highly prominent use case for caching the date of the most recent airing of an episode at the show level, and then you could allow sorting on that.
This would remove the dependency on the library for this use case, and I could happily use a watch list instead, sorting on “Most Recent Air Date”
Without this, watch lists are NOT a viable solution.