4 ms·

It sure seems that way. It's almost as if Netflix is giving in to pressure from content owners (which now includes themselves) to downplay or even weaken their

by joncp 9y ago

It sure seems that way. It's almost as if Netflix is giving in to pressure from content owners (which now includes themselves) to downplay or even weaken their suggestions. First, they got rid of those wonderful ranked lists that made us love Netflix in the first place, replacing them with the much more opaque cover art carousel view. Then they started mixing in lower-ranked items into the carousel. Finally, they switched from the five-star rating to the thumbs up and down buttons, which can't possibly give them as much information about your opinion.

godelski 9y ago
Currently I have zero trust in their rating system. Actually, zero is a bad number because if I see a high ranking I think I am going to dislike the suggestion. This is opposed to me previously trusting the system a lot.
dmix 9y ago
I've heard rumours that the internal backlash at Netflix against 5 star ratings happened with Amy Schumer's most recent comedy special which had thousands of 1 star reviews on Netflix. Which was one of their most expensive comedy productions and whose release coincided not long before the switch over to vague thumbs up/down. Note, the comedy special was similarly panned across the press and social media as being repetitive of her previous work, extremely predictable punchlines, and when seemingly good later exposed to be highly derivative of other comedians work. But regardless of the reality/honesty of her rating it was apparently not good for Netflix's business when they let users destroy content they produced destroy it on their own web site via user generated content. So the suits (heavily swayes by their production studio and Hollywood) were able to convince the product team to hurt the UX for 90% in order to protect the popularity of the 10% of content they own. The truth may be good for consumers in almost all situations. But sadly the interests of executives dealing closely with high value B2B partners and investors tend to have a way to out-valuing the interests of the average user (not to mention far out valuing power users). So I guess we have to rely on 3rd party IMDb web extensions which inject into Netflix in order to get honest ratings.
- Bukhmanizer 9y ago
  By "heard rumours" do you mean "read about it on Breitbart?". http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2017/03/18/netflix-scrap-five-star-ratings-amy-schumer-controversy/ http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2017/03/18/netflix-sc... Notice that they're careful to say that they made the switch "amid" the special, not because of it. Also as far as I can tell, they have no actual data on the fact, and they're the only "newspaper" reporting it.
  - dmix 9y ago
    Nope... it was a Reddit self-post (incl. people who put together the viral compilation video of her joke 'borrowing', breaking down why she's no longer as popular, and analyzing Netflix's timing and stated rationale). I'm curious why you brought up Breitbart? I just googled it and found a ton of other (non-political/right-wing) sites which drew the same exact conclusion between Schumer and the ending of 5 star reviews. Are you trying to say her thousands of awful reviews were somehow political? Or that it's all just some "alt-right" right-wing conspiracy? - https://movieweb.com/netflix-cancels-5-star-rating-system/ https://movieweb.com/netflix-cancels-5-star-rating-system/ - http://ew.com/tv/2017/03/16/netflix-star-ratings/ http://ew.com/tv/2017/03/16/netflix-star-ratings/ - http://collider.com/netflix-rating-system-thumbs-up/ http://collider.com/netflix-rating-system-thumbs-up/ - http://screenertv.com/television/goodbye-stars-hello-thumbs-netflixs-new-rating-system-plans-to-make-accounts-more-personal/ http://screenertv.com/television/goodbye-stars-hello-thumbs-... - https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/mar/17/netflix-changes-ratings-system-to-simple-thumbs-up/ https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/mar/17/netflix-cha... I saw Amy's show live, which she later filmed, and it was just awful. Those reviews were highly justified. And I used to be a big fan of hers before anyone knew who she was. If Amy Schumer wasn't the original reason why they started to ditch 5-stars then it was most certainly a motivating factor to get it pushed out (conveniently right after her special was famously destroyed - which got widespread press before the switch over to thumbs). As it most certainly also faced internal resistance as they were basically abandoning a decade of 5-star reviews via user-generated-content, in favour of a vague Thumbs Up/Down. Amy provided a perfect example of the inconvenient and conflicting goals which Netflix has as a producer and content platform. The timing of the release would have been HIGHLY coincidental if it wasn't related in some fashion.

by joncp 9y ago

godelski 9y ago

Currently I have zero trust in their rating system. Actually, zero is a bad number because if I see a high ranking I think I am going to dislike the suggestion. This is opposed to me previously trusting the system a lot.

dmix 9y ago

I've heard rumours that the internal backlash at Netflix against 5 star ratings happened with Amy Schumer's most recent comedy special which had thousands of 1 star reviews on Netflix. Which was one of their most expensive comedy productions and whose release coincided not long before the switch over to vague thumbs up/down. Note, the comedy special was similarly panned across the press and social media as being repetitive of her previous work, extremely predictable punchlines, and when seemingly good later exposed to be highly derivative of other comedians work. But regardless of the reality/honesty of her rating it was apparently not good for Netflix's business when they let users destroy content they produced destroy it on their own web site via user generated content. So the suits (heavily swayes by their production studio and Hollywood) were able to convince the product team to hurt the UX for 90% in order to protect the popularity of the 10% of content they own. The truth may be good for consumers in almost all situations. But sadly the interests of executives dealing closely with high value B2B partners and investors tend to have a way to out-valuing the interests of the average user (not to mention far out valuing power users). So I guess we have to rely on 3rd party IMDb web extensions which inject into Netflix in order to get honest ratings.

Bukhmanizer 9y ago
By "heard rumours" do you mean "read about it on Breitbart?". http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2017/03/18/netflix-scrap-five-star-ratings-amy-schumer-controversy/ http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2017/03/18/netflix-sc... Notice that they're careful to say that they made the switch "amid" the special, not because of it. Also as far as I can tell, they have no actual data on the fact, and they're the only "newspaper" reporting it.
- dmix 9y ago
  Nope... it was a Reddit self-post (incl. people who put together the viral compilation video of her joke 'borrowing', breaking down why she's no longer as popular, and analyzing Netflix's timing and stated rationale). I'm curious why you brought up Breitbart? I just googled it and found a ton of other (non-political/right-wing) sites which drew the same exact conclusion between Schumer and the ending of 5 star reviews. Are you trying to say her thousands of awful reviews were somehow political? Or that it's all just some "alt-right" right-wing conspiracy? - https://movieweb.com/netflix-cancels-5-star-rating-system/ https://movieweb.com/netflix-cancels-5-star-rating-system/ - http://ew.com/tv/2017/03/16/netflix-star-ratings/ http://ew.com/tv/2017/03/16/netflix-star-ratings/ - http://collider.com/netflix-rating-system-thumbs-up/ http://collider.com/netflix-rating-system-thumbs-up/ - http://screenertv.com/television/goodbye-stars-hello-thumbs-netflixs-new-rating-system-plans-to-make-accounts-more-personal/ http://screenertv.com/television/goodbye-stars-hello-thumbs-... - https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/mar/17/netflix-changes-ratings-system-to-simple-thumbs-up/ https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/mar/17/netflix-cha... I saw Amy's show live, which she later filmed, and it was just awful. Those reviews were highly justified. And I used to be a big fan of hers before anyone knew who she was. If Amy Schumer wasn't the original reason why they started to ditch 5-stars then it was most certainly a motivating factor to get it pushed out (conveniently right after her special was famously destroyed - which got widespread press before the switch over to thumbs). As it most certainly also faced internal resistance as they were basically abandoning a decade of 5-star reviews via user-generated-content, in favour of a vague Thumbs Up/Down. Amy provided a perfect example of the inconvenient and conflicting goals which Netflix has as a producer and content platform. The timing of the release would have been HIGHLY coincidental if it wasn't related in some fashion.