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I'd add to this their removal of star ranking and that percentage system. It's so geared to what they want to promote vs what is good TV.

ehsankia 8y ago
I honestly don't care about what ranking they use as it gives good results. Thumbs up, 5 starts, 10 starts, %, it's all the same. What frustrates me is that even after changing it, the recommendations are still just as bad, so the whole change was basically pointless.
- bunderbunder 8y ago
  The recs were very good back when it was the DVD service. Wild conjecture: A paucity of things to recommend, combined with a desire to not concede that there are only like 3 things left I haven't watched yet but would be likely to give 5 stars, prompted them to first tweak the recommender's calibration, then eventually to wholesale switch to a metric that blurs the distinction between, "Yeah, I'll watch it", and "That was great!"
  - derefr 8y ago
    My guess is that they’re using variable-scheduled rewards: they’ll recommend you a bunch of shows they know you’d only give 3-4 stars, and “hold back” a 5 star show, surfacing it at some random set time since the last time they gave you something good. Such a strategy would get you more addicted, but also allow them to stretch their supply of subjectively-five-star-rated shows at the same time. It’s win-win ...for them.
    - bunderbunder 8y ago
      In my case, I think it's even more stark: I've definitely wasted the odd hour hunting for something to watch, and, in the process, have become keenly aware of just how minuscule their library is right now. They're building it back up with their private content, but, quite understandably, only in some very focused areas - presumably, the stuff that they expect to have the widest appeal. They originally built their business on basically owning the long tail, but now they've been forced to forsake it. I think that's where a lot of the discontent is coming from. Folks are realizing that Netflix has turned into something very akin to the Blockbuster outlets that everyone had once cheered them for running out of town.
slumberlust 8y ago
I visited my father this weekend who has an older 'smart' tv and the app on his TV was still using the star system. It also had no auto-play which was awesome. I wonder if he's using an older version of the app and if there's a way to roll back on newer tvs.

ehsankia 8y ago

I honestly don't care about what ranking they use as it gives good results. Thumbs up, 5 starts, 10 starts, %, it's all the same. What frustrates me is that even after changing it, the recommendations are still just as bad, so the whole change was basically pointless.

bunderbunder 8y ago
The recs were very good back when it was the DVD service. Wild conjecture: A paucity of things to recommend, combined with a desire to not concede that there are only like 3 things left I haven't watched yet but would be likely to give 5 stars, prompted them to first tweak the recommender's calibration, then eventually to wholesale switch to a metric that blurs the distinction between, "Yeah, I'll watch it", and "That was great!"
- derefr 8y ago
  My guess is that they’re using variable-scheduled rewards: they’ll recommend you a bunch of shows they know you’d only give 3-4 stars, and “hold back” a 5 star show, surfacing it at some random set time since the last time they gave you something good. Such a strategy would get you more addicted, but also allow them to stretch their supply of subjectively-five-star-rated shows at the same time. It’s win-win ...for them.
  - bunderbunder 8y ago
    In my case, I think it's even more stark: I've definitely wasted the odd hour hunting for something to watch, and, in the process, have become keenly aware of just how minuscule their library is right now. They're building it back up with their private content, but, quite understandably, only in some very focused areas - presumably, the stuff that they expect to have the widest appeal. They originally built their business on basically owning the long tail, but now they've been forced to forsake it. I think that's where a lot of the discontent is coming from. Folks are realizing that Netflix has turned into something very akin to the Blockbuster outlets that everyone had once cheered them for running out of town.

slumberlust 8y ago

I visited my father this weekend who has an older 'smart' tv and the app on his TV was still using the star system. It also had no auto-play which was awesome. I wonder if he's using an older version of the app and if there's a way to roll back on newer tvs.