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>Finally, they replaced the ratings with “% matching”. I guess so they can recommend their subpar productions even if they get low ratings. That's always what

>Finally, they replaced the ratings with “% matching”. I guess so they can recommend their subpar productions even if they get low ratings. That's always what ratings were. People didn't understand that (as you can see), so they changed it to make it more transparent. https://www.businessinsider.com/why-netflix-replaced-its-5-star-rating-system-2017-4 https://www.businessinsider.com/why-netflix-replaced-its-5-s... >Netflix’s star ratings were personalized, and had been from the start. That means when you saw a movie on Netflix rated 4 stars, that didn’t mean the average of all ratings was 4 stars. Instead, it meant that Netflix thought you’d rate the movie 4 stars, based on your habits (and other people's ratings). But many people didn’t get that.

alisonkisk 6y ago
It's not just that (obviously, since It's not even possible for me to rate a movie more granular than thumbs up/down) What happened is that the notion changed from "predict a scalar rating" to "predict a binary satisfaction." As parent poster noted, the effect of this is to push "3 star" and "4 star" acceptable shows to the user, instead of "5 star" great (in the user's view) shows. Also, in Netflix's defense, users are horribly inconsistent in their expressed ratings (they'll rate a movie based on their personal mood at the time, and they'll binge shows they claim aren't 5 stars while ignoring their 5 star movies)
- mikeyjk 6y ago
  This was a sad turning point for me. We used to have a single streaming platform with an awesome library, a granular review system, and user reviews. You could easily take a quick look to read other users thoughts on a film. Now I have to lookup metacritic / reviews myself, and the NF recommendation is based on whether I've said something is 'palatable enough to watch, isn't terrible, but I'd never watch it again' (thumbs up). I've taken to only thumbs upping stuff that I particularly like to see if that's any better. It all seems to be the same from an uninformed end user perspective. I remember they stated the reviews would still be available in some form for export. It's no longer the Netflix of old imo.
  - derivagral 6y ago
    I've wondered if the lack of this stuff is due to business contracts or internal product goals. Not having e.g. IMDB makes sense since it is owned by a competitor (Amazon; whether that's a USA Trust thing, who knows)
- nerdponx 6y ago
  Also, in Netflix's defense, users are horribly inconsistent in their expressed ratings (they'll rate a movie based on their personal mood at the time, and they'll binge shows they claim aren't 5 stars while ignoring their 5 star movies) This is exactly why they switched from 5 stars to up/down/blank.

alisonkisk 6y ago

It's not just that (obviously, since It's not even possible for me to rate a movie more granular than thumbs up/down) What happened is that the notion changed from "predict a scalar rating" to "predict a binary satisfaction." As parent poster noted, the effect of this is to push "3 star" and "4 star" acceptable shows to the user, instead of "5 star" great (in the user's view) shows. Also, in Netflix's defense, users are horribly inconsistent in their expressed ratings (they'll rate a movie based on their personal mood at the time, and they'll binge shows they claim aren't 5 stars while ignoring their 5 star movies)

mikeyjk 6y ago
This was a sad turning point for me. We used to have a single streaming platform with an awesome library, a granular review system, and user reviews. You could easily take a quick look to read other users thoughts on a film. Now I have to lookup metacritic / reviews myself, and the NF recommendation is based on whether I've said something is 'palatable enough to watch, isn't terrible, but I'd never watch it again' (thumbs up). I've taken to only thumbs upping stuff that I particularly like to see if that's any better. It all seems to be the same from an uninformed end user perspective. I remember they stated the reviews would still be available in some form for export. It's no longer the Netflix of old imo.
- derivagral 6y ago
  I've wondered if the lack of this stuff is due to business contracts or internal product goals. Not having e.g. IMDB makes sense since it is owned by a competitor (Amazon; whether that's a USA Trust thing, who knows)
nerdponx 6y ago
Also, in Netflix's defense, users are horribly inconsistent in their expressed ratings (they'll rate a movie based on their personal mood at the time, and they'll binge shows they claim aren't 5 stars while ignoring their 5 star movies) This is exactly why they switched from 5 stars to up/down/blank.