I use trackers
I want a clean history I can understand, correct and move.
Start with the field guideScrobbling, in plain language
Your media history should outlast the app that recorded it.
A scrobble is a durable record of what you watched, read, heard or played, and when. Done well, you can inspect and correct the record, then carry it elsewhere.
The player knows what is happening now. A useful history remembers what happened then, without losing the original time, progress or source.
Where the trouble starts
The playhead moves every second. History has to make sense tomorrow.
A playhead can move every second. History should enter once, and it should still make sense after an import, a correction or a new app. Most readers arrive with one of two questions.
I build trackers
I need events that survive retries, synchronization and export without making duplicates.
Read the implementation guideThe activity lifecycle
One media session can produce four different records.
The distinction matters when a track repeats, an import runs twice or a person fixes the wrong entry.
| Record | Meaning | Boundary |
|---|---|---|
| Now playing | What the player is handling right now. | Temporary; it may never enter history. |
| Progress | Where playback or reading can resume. | Changes often during one session. |
| Scrobble | What happened, and when. | Durable history; it must be correctable. |
| Completion | Whether a work or chosen unit counts as finished. | The policy depends on the medium and source. |
Across media
A page is not a second. Keep the unit that explains what happened.
A percentage is handy on a progress bar. The original unit lets a person understand, resume and correct the record.
Listening
Keep elapsed time, duration, recording, release, episode or feed context.
Watching
Keep work, release, season, episode and order context.
Reading
Keep edition, volume, chapter, issue or page context.
Playing
Keep session, platform, turn, score or completion context when it matters.
The draft principles carry that rule into timestamps, identity, provenance, retry, correction and export. They are published for testing and comment, not as an adopted industry standard.
From diaries to self-hosted trackers
35 projects. Start with the job you need done.
A project might listen to a player, offer a diary, synchronize another service or hold a self-hosted history. The catalogue compares what each source establishes and leaves the ranking to you.
Fasti appears as working software in the same catalogue. It also provides a place to turn a reproducible tracking failure into a test or code change.