How Sleeve Off's Ranking Works: The Elo Rating System
How Sleeve Off ranks album covers with the Elo rating system, plus two pitfalls I hit while building it.
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Notes on Album Cover Art
Sleeve Off is a blind album cover game. Two covers appear side by side with the artist and title hidden, and you pick the one that grabs you. Only after you vote do you find out what you judged. Every vote feeds an Elo-rated ranking of covers judged by the picture alone.
These notes are essays and experiments around it: where album art came from, what happens when a cover loses its reputation, and how the ranking actually works.
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Is the Internet's "Worst Album Cover Ever" Really That Bad?
Do the internet's "worst album covers" deserve their reputation? Sleeve Off hides the artist and judges covers by the picture alone.
When Did Album Covers Become Art?
From plain paper sleeves to 12-inch LP canvases to phone thumbnails: a short look at how the album cover became art.