6 ms·

I remember that in the beginning the recommendations for the streaming service were pretty good. But they became worse and worse, at least for me.

smsm42 8y ago
One has to wonder how comes that recommendations were pretty good, but then they spent millions of dollars on improving them, including highly-publicized competitions and a lot of work inhouse I assume, and not they are not.
- riffraff 8y ago
  I have movies I have already rated (i.e. watched) in the "watch next" list. Sure, it can happen that I want to watch them again, but it seems unlikely. It seems clear netflix is optimizing for something which is not just "the movie this user would like to watch next".
  - taeric 8y ago
    It might seem unlikely to you, but I would be surprised if it wasn't the most common action. Many people will watch the same thing over and over. To that end, training the model in their users, it would not surprise me to have that be an emergent recommendation.
  - extra88 8y ago
    Yes, I wish Netflix would hide things I’ve watched more. Obviously if it’s still in My List it should remain, having a Watch it Again section is fine but they should basically disappear from New Releases or lists based on what I liked and be at the end of the list in genre categories.
  - smsm42 8y ago
    Yeah I wish Netflix separated "movies that I already watched but maybe will watch again sometime" from "movies I didn't watch yet but want to". And also from "series that I'd want to watch the new season for but don't want in my list until that happens since I am not going to re-watch old seasons". They are almost there but looks like either my watch-flow is somehow weird or they didn't pay attention to how people actually watch things.
- tjoff 8y ago
  Maybe it is because netflix doesn't host that much good content? When they have you dialed in you've already watched everything worth watching so there is no good content left to recommend.
  - CuriousSkeptic 8y ago
    This is the part I don’t understand. Why do they go through so much effort to have me binge watch Netflix. It costs them bandwidth, and it makes me go through the quality stuff quicker. If they instead tried to get me watching just enough to keep the subscription it would be cheaper for them and I would have be more happy with the mean quality of available options
    - kartan 8y ago
      > Why do they go through so much effort to have me binge watch Netflix. "Focus Area #1: Engagement Engagement is, hands down, the #1 area that you should be concerned with on social media. It is the catalyst for improvement in all of the other social media KPIs we'll discuss." https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/social-media-kpis https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/social-media-kpis This is just an example. Everybody wants to become Facebook for some reason.
      - extra88 8y ago
        That doesn’t make any sense, getting rid of user reviews makes Netflix streaming less social. Netflix is not social media. Trying to have people watch just enough to keep subscribing is too hard a needle to thread, it’s easier to encourage as much streaming as possible so people feel like they’re getting something for their money. I’m sure bandwidth is a minor cost compared to licensing and producing content.
        CuriousSkeptic 8y ago
        Seems to me that licensing and production cost should also go down withe less watching. It shouldn’t be that hard though. Just keep a reasonably diverse catalog and give people tools to browse it. Speaking of diverse, now a days I turn to YouTube when I want to watch something interesting. I wonder how much of that type of content they could add to their catalog. Not specifically the random user generated content, way to much hassle, or “be amazed” crap, they have plenty of that already, but there are a lot high quality channels targeting some niche on the long tail.
tomrod 8y ago
I reckon internal politics weigh down good ideas.
- ajmurmann 8y ago
  I've always wondered if they have different incentives around different shows and movies. Clearly they ideally would want everyone to be hooked on their original content, but I wonder if deal structures for other content make watching certain content better for Netflix than others.
- r00fus 8y ago
  It might have more to do with the content suppliers wanting to get into the same market and competing with Netflix.
ballenf 8y ago
Try starting a new profile under your account and then selectively thumbs-up shows. It was surprisingly effective for me. Also made sure to clean up the watch history on the Netflix website when it got polluted with someone else's stuff or shows that I regretted watching. My experience is that watch history affects the recommendation engine more than thumbs up or down.

smsm42 8y ago

One has to wonder how comes that recommendations were pretty good, but then they spent millions of dollars on improving them, including highly-publicized competitions and a lot of work inhouse I assume, and not they are not.

riffraff 8y ago
I have movies I have already rated (i.e. watched) in the "watch next" list. Sure, it can happen that I want to watch them again, but it seems unlikely. It seems clear netflix is optimizing for something which is not just "the movie this user would like to watch next".
- taeric 8y ago
  It might seem unlikely to you, but I would be surprised if it wasn't the most common action. Many people will watch the same thing over and over. To that end, training the model in their users, it would not surprise me to have that be an emergent recommendation.
- extra88 8y ago
  Yes, I wish Netflix would hide things I’ve watched more. Obviously if it’s still in My List it should remain, having a Watch it Again section is fine but they should basically disappear from New Releases or lists based on what I liked and be at the end of the list in genre categories.
- smsm42 8y ago
  Yeah I wish Netflix separated "movies that I already watched but maybe will watch again sometime" from "movies I didn't watch yet but want to". And also from "series that I'd want to watch the new season for but don't want in my list until that happens since I am not going to re-watch old seasons". They are almost there but looks like either my watch-flow is somehow weird or they didn't pay attention to how people actually watch things.
tjoff 8y ago
Maybe it is because netflix doesn't host that much good content? When they have you dialed in you've already watched everything worth watching so there is no good content left to recommend.
- CuriousSkeptic 8y ago
  This is the part I don’t understand. Why do they go through so much effort to have me binge watch Netflix. It costs them bandwidth, and it makes me go through the quality stuff quicker. If they instead tried to get me watching just enough to keep the subscription it would be cheaper for them and I would have be more happy with the mean quality of available options
  - kartan 8y ago
    > Why do they go through so much effort to have me binge watch Netflix. "Focus Area #1: Engagement Engagement is, hands down, the #1 area that you should be concerned with on social media. It is the catalyst for improvement in all of the other social media KPIs we'll discuss." https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/social-media-kpis https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/social-media-kpis This is just an example. Everybody wants to become Facebook for some reason.
    - extra88 8y ago
      That doesn’t make any sense, getting rid of user reviews makes Netflix streaming less social. Netflix is not social media. Trying to have people watch just enough to keep subscribing is too hard a needle to thread, it’s easier to encourage as much streaming as possible so people feel like they’re getting something for their money. I’m sure bandwidth is a minor cost compared to licensing and producing content.
      - CuriousSkeptic 8y ago
        Seems to me that licensing and production cost should also go down withe less watching. It shouldn’t be that hard though. Just keep a reasonably diverse catalog and give people tools to browse it. Speaking of diverse, now a days I turn to YouTube when I want to watch something interesting. I wonder how much of that type of content they could add to their catalog. Not specifically the random user generated content, way to much hassle, or “be amazed” crap, they have plenty of that already, but there are a lot high quality channels targeting some niche on the long tail.

tomrod 8y ago

I reckon internal politics weigh down good ideas.

ajmurmann 8y ago
I've always wondered if they have different incentives around different shows and movies. Clearly they ideally would want everyone to be hooked on their original content, but I wonder if deal structures for other content make watching certain content better for Netflix than others.
r00fus 8y ago
It might have more to do with the content suppliers wanting to get into the same market and competing with Netflix.

ballenf 8y ago

Try starting a new profile under your account and then selectively thumbs-up shows. It was surprisingly effective for me. Also made sure to clean up the watch history on the Netflix website when it got polluted with someone else's stuff or shows that I regretted watching. My experience is that watch history affects the recommendation engine more than thumbs up or down.