Enhancing Movie Discovery: Introducing a Personalized Movie Rating Platform with Innovative Features
As a passionate computer engineering student with a deep love for cinema, I have always sought better ways to track and evaluate the movies I watch. While platforms like IMDb, Letterboxd, and Criticker offer valuable features, I noticed they each have their limitations. This inspired me to create a new kind of movie rating website — one that centers on personalized rating assessments and social connectivity. Today, I’m excited to share the journey and vision behind Sinefile.
Visit Sinefile here: https://sinefile.com
About Sinefile: A New Approach to Movie Ratings
My platform introduces two foundational concepts: Similarity Score and Expected Rating. While these ideas share similarities with Criticker’s TCI and PSI scores, my calculation methods differ significantly to better reflect individual preferences.
Understanding the Difference:
Criticker’s scores utilize percentile rankings based on a user’s overall rating distribution, which can sometimes distort personal movie evaluations. For instance, my average rating hovers around 6.7 because I tend to rate movies I anticipate enjoying higher. Consequently, a middling movie rated as a 6 might be considered below average by Criticker, even if my personal middle-ground is actually a 5.
To address this, I’ve introduced the feature where users specify their personal average rating. This allows the system to calibrate similarity and expected ratings based on an individual’s self-assessed baseline, making comparisons more meaningful and tailored.
The Social and Gamification Aspects:
Recognizing the importance of community, I plan to incorporate features like achievement systems—for example, unlocking “The French New Wave” badge after rating ten French films from the 1950s and 1960s. Additionally, future features include:
- User reviews and direct messaging
- Community polls
- Custom lists and watchlists
This will transform Sinefile into not just a rating tool but a vibrant social platform where movie enthusiasts can engage more deeply.
Technical Foundations
Building Sinefile has been an exciting journey through modern web development tools:
- Next.js (frontend)
- Express.js (backend)
- Supabase (PostgreSQL database and authentication)
- Redis (caching)
- tRPC (type-safe API calls)
- Kysely (SQL query
