6 ms·

Success is independent of the quality of the product, but if the quality of the product is any indication, I'd say it's unlikely. After being a Netflix subscrib

by mnm1 9y ago

Success is independent of the quality of the product, but if the quality of the product is any indication, I'd say it's unlikely. After being a Netflix subscriber for over a decade, I finally pulled the plug. Their "original" series include some great shows but also include a lot of crap. Almost everything else is garbage. They got rid of the star rating system which was the only thing sort of making discovery of the few non-garbage items possible. Even when they had the star rating system, you couldn't sort by stars because they didn't want you to see all the garbage in the system. They cannot produce or license, it seems, new shows fast enough to justify the $10 or so a month anymore. Licenses expire and good content goes away. The list of problems is almost never ending and instead of improving the platform, they're making it worse. Even "House of Cards" was rather disappointing this season. I don't see them turning this around with one or two good shows every year.

jlebrech 9y ago
maybe they should partner with IMDB to see what content that isn't available that their customers want, or even make Netflix free (with only the option to watch pilot shows or old classic movies) and additional option to put shows and movies into a wishlist whether it's part of the catalogue or not.
- lorenzfx 9y ago
  As IMDB is part of amazon this seems rather unlikely.
- emsy 9y ago
  In a story posted a few weeks ago a user pointed out that Netflix doesn't need to show customers the best recommendations, but good enough ones too keep them paying. Ideally they could phase out pricey licenses and keep them at bay with Netflix originals. Which is a good recommendation system, but for Netflix' business model.
Washuu 9y ago
This weekend I spent about twenty minutes using their terrible "discovery" interface then finally resorting to a third party web site to determine if any of the twenty to thirty year old movies I wanted to watch were available. All them were on Netflix, but only available outside the USA. Amazon Prime Video was just as bad.
puranjay 9y ago
Same here. Ended my subscription last week. First, the movie library in my country is very weak. Second, the TV library is becoming filled so fast with so much crap that I don't even know what to watch. Selecting the right show has become such a massive chore that I don't even try anymore. There is no way to "preview" a show (as I would on regular TV if I was just browsing around). I truly feel paralysis by analysis when I open my Netflix app. Part of me wants to go back to old cable days. It was just so much more convenient to watch TV. Switch on, flip channels, catch something you like. Follow-up if you loved it, otherwise forget it. With Netflix, the fact that I have to make a choice from its unending supply of mediocre shows makes watching anything harder. Netflix seriously needs some sort of a radio-like, "always on" option that I can just put on my TV when I feel like watching something
- continuational 9y ago
  A "watch something random" + "skip to next random thing" might actually give us everything broadcasting had to offer with very little efford!
  - BinaryIdiot 9y ago
    It would have to be better than random, though. With "channel surfing" of the old days you would cross channels with themes but obviously Netflix has algorithms that would make this better. The biggest UX issue, IMO, is getting the channel surfing UX perfect. It must not show buffering or loading but an instant change between shows as I flip through. That's so much harder with digital I can't think of the last time I felt something pull off something as good as the analog. But yes this would be a HUGE help with my show selection as well.
    - dzhiurgis 9y ago
      Is it really that difficult? Keep 100mb of cache, perhaps 10 shows, 10mb each, potentially overcompressed, as audio is the key. All starting at interesting place, not at intro.
faceyspacey 9y ago
I disagree. I think for $10 bucks and that I only watch 4-8 episodes per month it's perfect. I can barely get through all the good content. That said a few years back I would watch way more and exhausted what appealed to me in Netflix's catalog, as it sounds you have. I think the idea is you just gotta compare what else costs $10 bucks. Um lunch, maybe. So if you have realistic expectations for what you get for $10 bucks and don't watch "too much" TV, it's perfect.
- Camillo 9y ago
  Ten dollar bucks.
bshimmin 9y ago
I will admit I found it hard not to read this comment and wonder about your sense of entitlement in the face of the vastly privileged situation we live in now in terms of media consumption. You pay $10 per month to watch high quality TV from the last few decades as much as you want, whenever you want (and, goodness me, if you have children, Netflix is an absolute godsend - fire up Paw Patrol and off you go...); to watch a large and moderately decent selection of films, often including relatively new releases, whenever you want, as many as you want; and as if that weren't enough, they even produce their own content, some of which is actually good. I remember when, if you wanted to watch a film, you would drive to Blockbuster and rent it, and you had a couple of nights to watch it or the fees would start racking up - and their selection was never all that great, and the availability was limited to how many DVDs or videos they physically had. If you wanted to watch a TV series, you'd buy the boxset - and before DVDs, Friends took up about four feet of your bookshelf. Sure, I've seen a bit of a movement lately from Netflix to Amazon Prime, but seriously, what we have right now in 2017 is so miraculously much better than what we had ten years ago (when I had a LoveFilm account and had to rely on films being sent through the post - which seems oddly even more antiquated now than Blockbuster does, frankly), that to describe it as "crap" and "garbage" just seems crazy to me.
- taway_1212 9y ago
  > high quality TV I think he's debating this part. Frankly, most of TV is mind-rotting crap.
- mythrwy 9y ago
  You drove to Blockbuster? Luxury. I built a treestand behind the drive in theater and sat in it with a AM radio and can of mosquito spray. And they only had one film.
- tanilama 9y ago
  This is typical HN: Nothing can please me because I am intelligent advanced than the rest of the crowd. Instead acting like whiny baby. The suggestion that Netflix get rid of scale rating is pure conspiracy, without any evidence to back it up. Reminders: 1. Youtube Red: 10 dollars 2. HBO Now: 15 dollars 3. Amazon Prime: 9 dollars 4. Youtube TV: 35 dollars 5. Watch a movie: 10 dollars on average. Maybe the OP is suggesting piracy? That is the only way I could bring out of my mind for cheaper price for any (relatively) well produced content.
jondubois 9y ago
A lot of very popular products these days have bad UI. I often find myself using Google to figure out how to do the simplest things. Managers just make random decisions.
gcp 9y ago
They got rid of the star rating system which was the only thing sort of making discovery of the few non-garbage items possible. It's quite interesting given that they organized a huge machine learning competition just for that.

by mnm1 9y ago

jlebrech 9y ago

maybe they should partner with IMDB to see what content that isn't available that their customers want, or even make Netflix free (with only the option to watch pilot shows or old classic movies) and additional option to put shows and movies into a wishlist whether it's part of the catalogue or not.

lorenzfx 9y ago
As IMDB is part of amazon this seems rather unlikely.
emsy 9y ago
In a story posted a few weeks ago a user pointed out that Netflix doesn't need to show customers the best recommendations, but good enough ones too keep them paying. Ideally they could phase out pricey licenses and keep them at bay with Netflix originals. Which is a good recommendation system, but for Netflix' business model.

Washuu 9y ago

This weekend I spent about twenty minutes using their terrible "discovery" interface then finally resorting to a third party web site to determine if any of the twenty to thirty year old movies I wanted to watch were available. All them were on Netflix, but only available outside the USA. Amazon Prime Video was just as bad.

puranjay 9y ago

Same here. Ended my subscription last week. First, the movie library in my country is very weak. Second, the TV library is becoming filled so fast with so much crap that I don't even know what to watch. Selecting the right show has become such a massive chore that I don't even try anymore. There is no way to "preview" a show (as I would on regular TV if I was just browsing around). I truly feel paralysis by analysis when I open my Netflix app. Part of me wants to go back to old cable days. It was just so much more convenient to watch TV. Switch on, flip channels, catch something you like. Follow-up if you loved it, otherwise forget it. With Netflix, the fact that I have to make a choice from its unending supply of mediocre shows makes watching anything harder. Netflix seriously needs some sort of a radio-like, "always on" option that I can just put on my TV when I feel like watching something

continuational 9y ago
A "watch something random" + "skip to next random thing" might actually give us everything broadcasting had to offer with very little efford!
- BinaryIdiot 9y ago
  It would have to be better than random, though. With "channel surfing" of the old days you would cross channels with themes but obviously Netflix has algorithms that would make this better. The biggest UX issue, IMO, is getting the channel surfing UX perfect. It must not show buffering or loading but an instant change between shows as I flip through. That's so much harder with digital I can't think of the last time I felt something pull off something as good as the analog. But yes this would be a HUGE help with my show selection as well.
  - dzhiurgis 9y ago
    Is it really that difficult? Keep 100mb of cache, perhaps 10 shows, 10mb each, potentially overcompressed, as audio is the key. All starting at interesting place, not at intro.

faceyspacey 9y ago

I disagree. I think for $10 bucks and that I only watch 4-8 episodes per month it's perfect. I can barely get through all the good content. That said a few years back I would watch way more and exhausted what appealed to me in Netflix's catalog, as it sounds you have. I think the idea is you just gotta compare what else costs $10 bucks. Um lunch, maybe. So if you have realistic expectations for what you get for $10 bucks and don't watch "too much" TV, it's perfect.

Camillo 9y ago
Ten dollar bucks.

bshimmin 9y ago

I will admit I found it hard not to read this comment and wonder about your sense of entitlement in the face of the vastly privileged situation we live in now in terms of media consumption. You pay $10 per month to watch high quality TV from the last few decades as much as you want, whenever you want (and, goodness me, if you have children, Netflix is an absolute godsend - fire up Paw Patrol and off you go...); to watch a large and moderately decent selection of films, often including relatively new releases, whenever you want, as many as you want; and as if that weren't enough, they even produce their own content, some of which is actually good. I remember when, if you wanted to watch a film, you would drive to Blockbuster and rent it, and you had a couple of nights to watch it or the fees would start racking up - and their selection was never all that great, and the availability was limited to how many DVDs or videos they physically had. If you wanted to watch a TV series, you'd buy the boxset - and before DVDs, Friends took up about four feet of your bookshelf. Sure, I've seen a bit of a movement lately from Netflix to Amazon Prime, but seriously, what we have right now in 2017 is so miraculously much better than what we had ten years ago (when I had a LoveFilm account and had to rely on films being sent through the post - which seems oddly even more antiquated now than Blockbuster does, frankly), that to describe it as "crap" and "garbage" just seems crazy to me.

taway_1212 9y ago
> high quality TV I think he's debating this part. Frankly, most of TV is mind-rotting crap.
mythrwy 9y ago
You drove to Blockbuster? Luxury. I built a treestand behind the drive in theater and sat in it with a AM radio and can of mosquito spray. And they only had one film.
tanilama 9y ago
This is typical HN: Nothing can please me because I am intelligent advanced than the rest of the crowd. Instead acting like whiny baby. The suggestion that Netflix get rid of scale rating is pure conspiracy, without any evidence to back it up. Reminders: 1. Youtube Red: 10 dollars 2. HBO Now: 15 dollars 3. Amazon Prime: 9 dollars 4. Youtube TV: 35 dollars 5. Watch a movie: 10 dollars on average. Maybe the OP is suggesting piracy? That is the only way I could bring out of my mind for cheaper price for any (relatively) well produced content.

jondubois 9y ago

A lot of very popular products these days have bad UI. I often find myself using Google to figure out how to do the simplest things. Managers just make random decisions.

gcp 9y ago

They got rid of the star rating system which was the only thing sort of making discovery of the few non-garbage items possible. It's quite interesting given that they organized a huge machine learning competition just for that.