8 ms·

There's just enough content I like on Netflix now that I'd consider it worth it without any non-Netflix produced/branded shows and movies. Unfortunately, it's

There's just enough content I like on Netflix now that I'd consider it worth it without any non-Netflix produced/branded shows and movies. Unfortunately, it's next to impossible to find what I want through Netflix's interface. Somehow they have all this data on my watching habits and can't even get close to showing me things I want to watch. I depend entirely on review sites and recommendations from others.

zajd 8y ago
It's a dark pattern and what led me to unsubscribe. See also: getting rid of the five star rating system (I realize this wasn't ideal in terms of figuring out what people want but it was invaluable for cataloging your own preferences)
- Waterluvian 8y ago
  Personally I like it better. There's so many crappy movies my wife and I love to watch, often as the secondary focus, that otherwise get buried. Basically Netflix says, "hey I see you like crap so here's some more Adam Sandler!"
  - jessaustin 8y ago
    One would have expected, à la Anna Karenina, for every crappy movie to be crappy in its own way? I certainly wouldn't want my enthusiasm for e.g. "Mohawk" to inspire any Sandlerian recommendations...
- dazc 8y ago
  I initially thought getting rid of the 5 star ratings was a good move since, for me, a movie is either good or bad. However, the percentage rating alternative seems to tell me nothing other than a movie I haven't watched yet is a similar genre to movies I have? Then there are the 'New' movies which don't have any rating at all yet. The 'suggestions' also seem only to suggest stuff I've already decided not to watch.
pembrook 8y ago
I have a strong suspicion the reason the interface is set up like this is to prevent you from realizing how small their catalog actually is.
- utopcell 8y ago
  I agree. Amazon recently moved to a Netflix-like interface, likely for similar reasons, a pain to navigate compared to what they had before.
- jesseb 8y ago
  I see comments similar to these on a lot of websites, and I don't understand the sentiment; I feel like I'm missing something major here. There are thousands of television series and movies available to Americans on Netflix (less so in other countries, but the point still stands). Cable television doesn't offer a fraction of what's available on Netflix. I'm not aware of another streaming service that offers more titles. What is Netflix's library "small" relative to? Again, just curious because I've seen this mentioned plenty of times, and I personally find there's an overwhelming amount of content on there.
  - gnicholas 8y ago
    With cable television, you get new content. Most of Netflix's catalog is old, and much of it is really quite bad. One of my pet peeves is that they don't indicate that a show is in a foreign language with English subtitles. Why is there no way to set a flag to just show English-language content?
    - exolymph 8y ago
      This drives me crazy too, since a lot of the time I want a background show, and for that I need English audio.
  - SpecialistEMT 8y ago
    Relative to the pirate bay ;)
  - 8y ago
stickydink 8y ago
It's worth having a couple of different profiles on your Netflix account. Whenever I'm not finding anything interesting on my main profile, rotate through to the next one and there's usually some surprises.
gnicholas 8y ago
For me, the pendulum has swung far enough that I'm planning to drop Netflix for at least 6 months. We don't watch that much stuff on Netflix these days (mostly Amazon Prime or current seasons from CBS, ABC, etc.), and the stuff I watch on Netflix isn't time-sensitive. That is, I use Netflix to watch seasons of shows several months after they've aired on TV. Obviously I don't care about watching them in real-time, and it doesn't matter to me whether I'm 3 months behind or 9 months behind. Might as well just bunch up my Netflix watching into 6 months of the year and drop the subscription the rest of the time. It's not a huge deal to save 6 months worth of Netflix, but as the monthly price creeps up, this is becoming more material.
- assblaster 8y ago
  You need to realize there are shows on Netflix you probably haven't seen yet. Dark Safe Marcella The Break Le Chalet Suburra Happy Valley The Fall Santa Clarita Diet Okkupert The Rain La Mante Hotel Beau Sejour Luther
Chris_Jay 8y ago
Discoverability seems to be a challenge on just about every streaming platform. It doesn't seem that difficult to write an algorithm that balances novelty with comfort, and yet nobody seems to have even moved in that direction. I'm not sure what the problem is, the discoverability problem seems to have gotten worse as machine learning has become more mainstream.

zajd 8y ago

It's a dark pattern and what led me to unsubscribe. See also: getting rid of the five star rating system (I realize this wasn't ideal in terms of figuring out what people want but it was invaluable for cataloging your own preferences)

Waterluvian 8y ago
Personally I like it better. There's so many crappy movies my wife and I love to watch, often as the secondary focus, that otherwise get buried. Basically Netflix says, "hey I see you like crap so here's some more Adam Sandler!"
- jessaustin 8y ago
  One would have expected, à la Anna Karenina, for every crappy movie to be crappy in its own way? I certainly wouldn't want my enthusiasm for e.g. "Mohawk" to inspire any Sandlerian recommendations...
dazc 8y ago
I initially thought getting rid of the 5 star ratings was a good move since, for me, a movie is either good or bad. However, the percentage rating alternative seems to tell me nothing other than a movie I haven't watched yet is a similar genre to movies I have? Then there are the 'New' movies which don't have any rating at all yet. The 'suggestions' also seem only to suggest stuff I've already decided not to watch.

pembrook 8y ago

I have a strong suspicion the reason the interface is set up like this is to prevent you from realizing how small their catalog actually is.

utopcell 8y ago
I agree. Amazon recently moved to a Netflix-like interface, likely for similar reasons, a pain to navigate compared to what they had before.
jesseb 8y ago
I see comments similar to these on a lot of websites, and I don't understand the sentiment; I feel like I'm missing something major here. There are thousands of television series and movies available to Americans on Netflix (less so in other countries, but the point still stands). Cable television doesn't offer a fraction of what's available on Netflix. I'm not aware of another streaming service that offers more titles. What is Netflix's library "small" relative to? Again, just curious because I've seen this mentioned plenty of times, and I personally find there's an overwhelming amount of content on there.
- gnicholas 8y ago
  With cable television, you get new content. Most of Netflix's catalog is old, and much of it is really quite bad. One of my pet peeves is that they don't indicate that a show is in a foreign language with English subtitles. Why is there no way to set a flag to just show English-language content?
  - exolymph 8y ago
    This drives me crazy too, since a lot of the time I want a background show, and for that I need English audio.
- SpecialistEMT 8y ago
  Relative to the pirate bay ;)
- 8y ago

stickydink 8y ago

It's worth having a couple of different profiles on your Netflix account. Whenever I'm not finding anything interesting on my main profile, rotate through to the next one and there's usually some surprises.

gnicholas 8y ago

For me, the pendulum has swung far enough that I'm planning to drop Netflix for at least 6 months. We don't watch that much stuff on Netflix these days (mostly Amazon Prime or current seasons from CBS, ABC, etc.), and the stuff I watch on Netflix isn't time-sensitive. That is, I use Netflix to watch seasons of shows several months after they've aired on TV. Obviously I don't care about watching them in real-time, and it doesn't matter to me whether I'm 3 months behind or 9 months behind. Might as well just bunch up my Netflix watching into 6 months of the year and drop the subscription the rest of the time. It's not a huge deal to save 6 months worth of Netflix, but as the monthly price creeps up, this is becoming more material.

assblaster 8y ago
You need to realize there are shows on Netflix you probably haven't seen yet. Dark Safe Marcella The Break Le Chalet Suburra Happy Valley The Fall Santa Clarita Diet Okkupert The Rain La Mante Hotel Beau Sejour Luther

Chris_Jay 8y ago

Discoverability seems to be a challenge on just about every streaming platform. It doesn't seem that difficult to write an algorithm that balances novelty with comfort, and yet nobody seems to have even moved in that direction. I'm not sure what the problem is, the discoverability problem seems to have gotten worse as machine learning has become more mainstream.