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If their experiment are zo good, why are the recommendations so bad that I had to turn off the feature that adds items to My List? Several series I’ve enjoyed

If their experiment are zo good, why are the recommendations so bad that I had to turn off the feature that adds items to My List? Several series I’ve enjoyed watching several years ago now appear on Netflix. Too late for me on Netflix, but as I liked them I rate them with thumbs up, hoping that Netflix would give me better recommendations. Instead of recommending other movies or series, to my dismay Netflix starts recommending the series I’ve already watched elsewhere. As I can only rate a series I’ve watched, why on earth does Netflix recommend something I’ve already watched? The diversification of Netflix is great, but most of it is too little or too late for my taste. Still better than Disney or Apple TV+ where I could find 1 or 2 shows of my liking. Looking forward to a couple of months of HBO Max once it is available in my region. HBO Europe made some award winning documentaries and I’m hoping to find more that I haven’t watched. Luckily for me there is an alternative for the streaming platform as for the past several decades every week my local TV stations have 1 or 2 great movies and maybe a new serie, selected not by experiments but by real people of flesh and blod.

ajmurmann 5y ago
If you want something selected and curated by actual humans, I recommend checking out Mubi. Lots of odd ball, but phenomenal movies on there. They started out having thirty movies on there and replacing the oldest every day with a new movie. It's often times a few in a row by a specific director or around a theme. They now also a have decent library in addition. Almost every movie I find truly memorable in they just few years came to me via Mubi.
onlyrealcuzzo 5y ago
Recommendations aren't really chosen by "experiments". And certainly, they aren't A/B testing budgeting and development of shows. Recommendation engines can be improved with experiments. And they - along with budgeting and show development (at least at Netflix) - are "driven by big data". Further, it doesn't matter if you - personally - like a feature. If that feature is moving the numbers and passes the A/B test, it will make itself into the app. They run thousands of experiments. Of course there are going to be several that you - personally - do not like.
dewey 5y ago
> why are the recommendations so bad Without knowing anything about how it works internally I'd guess that the recommendations are not simply about what's best for the user but also what's best for Netflix (pushing Netflix originals).
kevin_thibedeau 5y ago
They used to have good recommendations for their DVD service with star ratings. The rental catalog was huge and varied then so a lot of interest areas were well covered and easy to extrapolate from your ratings and your common cohort. I suspect the problem they have now is most of the top tier content is gone and it's 90% filler that isn't compelling to watch.
Semaphor 5y ago
I can only assume that the majority of people like a) rewatching things they’ve already seen, b) like watching things they said they don’t like, and c) watch things from categories they don’t like. Because that’s what Netflix has been doing to me pretty much since they became a streaming service.
WhyNotHugo 5y ago
> If their experiment are zo good, why are the recommendations so bad that I had to turn off the feature that adds items to My List? They've gotten very good at grabbing attention with cover art, but then you click on it and quickly realise its crap. In other words, they've put appealing covers on all the boxes, so now you pick ones that are crap only to abandon them 20 minutes later. I wonder if abandonment rate is a metric too.
- wheelinsupial 5y ago
  > I wonder if abandonment rate is a metric too. Apparently they categorize the type of viewer you are based on when you abandon the content. [1] mentions starter, watcher, and completer as viewer categories based on how much of the content they view. [1] https://www.fool.com/investing/2019/12/06/how-netflix-decides-what-type-of-viewer-you-are.aspx https://www.fool.com/investing/2019/12/06/how-netflix-decide...
  - watwut 5y ago
    Never realizing that "abandoner" is likely someone whose suggestions and bad in the first place.
nerdponx 5y ago
I think the recommendations are not good on Netflix because the content is mostly not good. Lots of Netflix Original stuff that lacks staying power and seems designed to pander and not to actually be good. Fortunately, as time marches on, Turner Classic Movies is starting to show films from the 70s and 80s (I guess something can only be a "classic" if it's at least 40 years old), so I imagine that TCM will get a better and better selection in the coming years. If you have a cable subscription, you can stream their rotating selection of films online. I also find that Hulu generally has better options for TV series than Netflix. You have to deal with ads unless you pay extra for the premium subscription, but it's not like they aren't harvesting your data anyway, and it's easy to just mute the ads (I always muted them on cable, too) and go do something else. It's also still a lot fewer ads than on cable TV.

ajmurmann 5y ago

If you want something selected and curated by actual humans, I recommend checking out Mubi. Lots of odd ball, but phenomenal movies on there. They started out having thirty movies on there and replacing the oldest every day with a new movie. It's often times a few in a row by a specific director or around a theme. They now also a have decent library in addition. Almost every movie I find truly memorable in they just few years came to me via Mubi.

onlyrealcuzzo 5y ago

Recommendations aren't really chosen by "experiments". And certainly, they aren't A/B testing budgeting and development of shows. Recommendation engines can be improved with experiments. And they - along with budgeting and show development (at least at Netflix) - are "driven by big data". Further, it doesn't matter if you - personally - like a feature. If that feature is moving the numbers and passes the A/B test, it will make itself into the app. They run thousands of experiments. Of course there are going to be several that you - personally - do not like.

dewey 5y ago

> why are the recommendations so bad Without knowing anything about how it works internally I'd guess that the recommendations are not simply about what's best for the user but also what's best for Netflix (pushing Netflix originals).

kevin_thibedeau 5y ago

They used to have good recommendations for their DVD service with star ratings. The rental catalog was huge and varied then so a lot of interest areas were well covered and easy to extrapolate from your ratings and your common cohort. I suspect the problem they have now is most of the top tier content is gone and it's 90% filler that isn't compelling to watch.

Semaphor 5y ago

I can only assume that the majority of people like a) rewatching things they’ve already seen, b) like watching things they said they don’t like, and c) watch things from categories they don’t like. Because that’s what Netflix has been doing to me pretty much since they became a streaming service.

WhyNotHugo 5y ago

> If their experiment are zo good, why are the recommendations so bad that I had to turn off the feature that adds items to My List? They've gotten very good at grabbing attention with cover art, but then you click on it and quickly realise its crap. In other words, they've put appealing covers on all the boxes, so now you pick ones that are crap only to abandon them 20 minutes later. I wonder if abandonment rate is a metric too.

wheelinsupial 5y ago
> I wonder if abandonment rate is a metric too. Apparently they categorize the type of viewer you are based on when you abandon the content. [1] mentions starter, watcher, and completer as viewer categories based on how much of the content they view. [1] https://www.fool.com/investing/2019/12/06/how-netflix-decides-what-type-of-viewer-you-are.aspx https://www.fool.com/investing/2019/12/06/how-netflix-decide...
- watwut 5y ago
  Never realizing that "abandoner" is likely someone whose suggestions and bad in the first place.

nerdponx 5y ago

I think the recommendations are not good on Netflix because the content is mostly not good. Lots of Netflix Original stuff that lacks staying power and seems designed to pander and not to actually be good. Fortunately, as time marches on, Turner Classic Movies is starting to show films from the 70s and 80s (I guess something can only be a "classic" if it's at least 40 years old), so I imagine that TCM will get a better and better selection in the coming years. If you have a cable subscription, you can stream their rotating selection of films online. I also find that Hulu generally has better options for TV series than Netflix. You have to deal with ads unless you pay extra for the premium subscription, but it's not like they aren't harvesting your data anyway, and it's easy to just mute the ads (I always muted them on cable, too) and go do something else. It's also still a lot fewer ads than on cable TV.