This is weird. Kind of hard to notice at first but seems the "Sort By' functionality of the web channel store is broken. Bear with me and follow the steps:Go to https://www.roku.com/channels#!browse/games/by-ratings (I am choosing sort by "highest rated" because is easier to spot the problem)What you see will look something like this (GandK Reversi is on top for me) [spoiler=sort working:hq8b7efd][/spoiler:hq8b7efd]It only makes sense that the order in which they are sorted now will be monotonically decreasing (i.e. non-increasing) re the stars rating, yes? So we start at 4.5, then eventually go to the apps with 4 stars, then 3.5 and so on. Let's gingerly scroll down and make sure that is the case...Wait! What is this? Suddenly there is a jump in the stars, the sort is broken! (currently i see this at first between "Dance Party"=3.5, followed by "Monkey Pole Climb"=5) [spoiler=sort broken:hq8b7efd][/spoiler:hq8b7efd]Then the order continues for a while in decreasing order and - BAM! - it happens again, this time from "Casino Slots" 2.5* it jumps to "Robreed - Flippin' Awesome"=5*, then starts going down.Next hiccup is from "Marble Puzzle"=3.5 jumping up to "Gem Girl"=4.5And one more, when from "GlobalTrade"=3.5 it goes up to "Treasures"=5I think this (or that) picture visualizes how the channel rating goes down- it is more of a "saw-tooth"-shaped (dis)order rather than a single downward slope:PS. i notice the pattern 6666 in this - the sort reversal/singularity happens every 6 rows. Or maybe it's in batches of 24 channels (6 rows x 4 per row), though that doesn't sound as ominous. The point is that sort only works within small portions of the list and there is no way to see which is the best-rated item overall. I suspect the same is true for sorting by "most popular" but have no handy example to illustrate the dis-order there.

Roku guys - would you kindly comment on this issue?Am i getting something wrong - or do you recognize this as a bug? Not only as a user - but as a developer whose app standing is affected by defects in your sort - i "have a horse in this race".

the channel store is a mess. last time I brought this up, my top selling channels got suddenly moved to the very bottom of the list, even though 2 were on the top selling paid list at the time. good luck. 😉

As requested, chiming in here: yeah, we know it is kinda borked. Bugs have been filed on things like BradC's loss of channel ranking. On the device, Game section ranking is now done manually based on a report run once per week, someday when the Game section ranking algorithm is repaired it will go back to automatic rolling 7 day popularity ranking. - Joel

"BradC" wrote:the channel store is a mess.last time I brought this up, my top selling channels got suddenly moved to the very bottom of the list, even though 2 were on the top selling paid list at the time.I agree it's a mess and RokuCo's web-dev team does not compare favorably to the core developers. I am looking for an English phrase and so far found the somewhat crass " ass can't cash". And what i mean by that is they re-designed the web site for "responsive design" in irresponsible manner. Someone is learning-on-the-job there and we the internet users of the world are their guinea pigs. Oh wait - here is another one "their eyes are bigger than they can stomach".I remember you questioning the different order of channels in the web vs the player stores, as well as the variation between different player models - and i thought the explanation someone Roku* gave made sense, that each line of players uses their own stats, based on how downloads go for that model - where the web store uses aggregate stats. But i doubt the Co would have maliciously downgraded your channels, it seems out of character. HOWEVER, this is why it is important the rating/sorting to be fair and transparent - so that good, prolific developers like you BradC do not get alienated!Back from the general to the specific: so yeah, when i see that sort-by-rating does not work, that's depressing. Even if i were to get 5-out-of-5 rating, i'd still be at the end of the list.

"RokuJoel" wrote:As requested, chiming in here: yeah, we know it is kinda borked. Bugs have been filed on things like @BradC's loss of channel ranking. On the device, Game section ranking is now done manually based on a report run once per week, someday when the Game section ranking algorithm is repaired it will go back to automatic rolling 7 day popularity ranking.Thank you RokuJoel - i think this is quite helpful lessening anxiety!So the popularity ranking is done by a recent performance (be it rolling or fixed weekly term) and not since the Big Bang. That may explain what BradC observed.Is it the #new-installs or the #times-the-game-was-started in that period, the one that counts?

Forum Discussion

EnTerr

Roku Guru

10 years ago

Channel Store "Sort By" broken!?

This is weird. Kind of hard to notice at first but seems the "Sort By' functionality of the web channel store is broken. Bear with me and follow the steps:

Go to https://www.roku.com/channels#!browse/games/by-ratings (I am choosing sort by "highest rated" because is easier to spot the problem)

What you see will look something like this (GandK Reversi is on top for me) [spoiler=sort working:hq8b7efd][/spoiler:hq8b7efd]

It only makes sense that the order in which they are sorted now will be monotonically decreasing (i.e. non-increasing) re the stars rating, yes? So we start at 4.5, then eventually go to the apps with 4 stars, then 3.5 and so on. Let's gingerly scroll down and make sure that is the case...

Wait! What is this? Suddenly there is a jump in the stars, the sort is broken! (currently i see this at first between "Dance Party"=3.5, followed by "Monkey Pole Climb"=5) [spoiler=sort broken:hq8b7efd][/spoiler:hq8b7efd]

Then the order continues for a while in decreasing order and - BAM! - it happens again, this time from "Casino Slots" 2.5* it jumps to "Robreed - Flippin' Awesome"=5*, then starts going down.

Next hiccup is from "Marble Puzzle"=3.5 jumping up to "Gem Girl"=4.5

And one more, when from "GlobalTrade"=3.5 it goes up to "Treasures"=5

I think this (or that) picture visualizes how the channel rating goes down- it is more of a "saw-tooth"-shaped (dis)order rather than a single downward slope:

PS. i notice the pattern 6666 in this - the sort reversal/singularity happens every 6 rows. Or maybe it's in batches of 24 channels (6 rows x 4 per row), though that doesn't sound as ominous. The point is that sort only works within small portions of the list and there is no way to see which is the best-rated item overall. I suspect the same is true for sorting by "most popular" but have no handy example to illustrate the dis-order there.

Roku Developer Program

11 Replies

EnTerr
Roku Guru
10 years ago
"RokuJoel" wrote:
... there is a new release of the Web Channel Store going out some time tomorrow, so let us know if it improves this situation or not. I'll also point the web team to this thread.

Seems the new version (btw, channel store got new URL this time: http://channelstore.roku.com) has fixed something, because the next day my app jumped from near the end of the "Highest Rated" sort to its "rightful" place in the 1st quartile (around #23). And reviewing the whole list now, the "sawtooth" jump every 24 is not there.

However... there is something fishy with the default sort "Most Popular", https://channelstore.roku.com/browse/games/popularity

For example, comparing web store to a Roku 3 store, "Games" category:

How come "Mazes", which is #5 on the player, is #105 (4th last) on the web? In what world the paid version "Mazes Plus" (#87 on the web), which gets ballpark 50x less downloads than the free "Mazes" is "more popular" than the free one? Because that's what the web list shows.

How is it that "Red Card Rampage", "Tangrams" and "World Famous Places Puzzle" always stay at the end of the web list (positions 106, 107, 108)? Where in the player list they are at #34, 70, 69.

How come FlipFlop is #10 on web, #65 on roku 3? That does not make sense - should be the opposite because FlipFlop is OpenGL game and would be expected to be higher on Roku 3 but lower in the totals.

"2048 TV" and "2048 Challenge" are #52 and 53 on a Roku3 but #60 and #35 on the web. Which does not make sense, because 2048-Challenge is Marmalade and compatible with only some of the players. Confirmed by the fact that 2048-TV has 4x the number of ratings and therefore approximately 4x more installs. Both are paid at $1. How is it then that 2048-Challenge is #35 on the web?!

Forum Discussion

Channel Store "Sort By" broken!?

11 Replies

Recent Discussions

ROKU Multiview

Help Needed – "mm_icon_focus_hd" Manifest Error Preventing Public App Submission

Start live channel with timeshift at live position

Roku /keypress ECP command returning HTTP status code 401

HELP! Got developer mode activated and then....