3 ms·

Agreed, I feel that in the case of Netflix et al., it's just orders of magnitude more ridiculous -- may I just get the list of the films instead of being force

Agreed, I feel that in the case of Netflix et al., it's just orders of magnitude more ridiculous -- may I just get the list of the films instead of being force spoon-fed crap content, please? I don't even know how to begin to tell the recommender engine that it's completely missing my preferences. That would be somewhat digestible if their search experience wasn't terrible as well -- no facet search, no dynamic category browsing? What the heck.

pigeonhole123 4y ago
It feels like these design choices are there to hide the fact that their catalog is tiny (maybe especially in Europe). The majority of what I search for just displays things that are similar to what I actually wanted to watch. For example if I search for Family Guy I get some off-brand Netflix cartoon in the "irreverent" category.
- solarkraft 4y ago
  Yeah, they can't even tell you they don't have it. I wanted to watch лучше чем люди (Better Than Us), which was recommended to me by a co-worker as available on Netflix. It looks like I was too late and it had left their catalogue again, but anything I found on the internet was either "look at this nice show available on Netflix" (posted 2 years ago) or, very very rarely, a Netflix page with a grayed out play button. Again, no explanation. It was the first time in a long while I had opened it and also the last.
  - lemursage 4y ago
    One more thing I've also noticed. I wanted to exchange movies with a Turkish friend. We both realised that the best movies/series from our regional Netflix offerings are not available in other's Netflix feed. The only available movies were either regional Netflix productions (of contestable quality) or absolutely low-quality non-Netflix productions. Bad search does not help in conscious discovery either. I cannot understand why the best regional movies/series/classics are not shared between regions (excluding UK and US maybe). Those that happen to be available had a very lackluster translation. I doubt this is exclusively licensing issue, but I may be wrong.

pigeonhole123 4y ago

It feels like these design choices are there to hide the fact that their catalog is tiny (maybe especially in Europe). The majority of what I search for just displays things that are similar to what I actually wanted to watch. For example if I search for Family Guy I get some off-brand Netflix cartoon in the "irreverent" category.

solarkraft 4y ago
Yeah, they can't even tell you they don't have it. I wanted to watch лучше чем люди (Better Than Us), which was recommended to me by a co-worker as available on Netflix. It looks like I was too late and it had left their catalogue again, but anything I found on the internet was either "look at this nice show available on Netflix" (posted 2 years ago) or, very very rarely, a Netflix page with a grayed out play button. Again, no explanation. It was the first time in a long while I had opened it and also the last.
- lemursage 4y ago
  One more thing I've also noticed. I wanted to exchange movies with a Turkish friend. We both realised that the best movies/series from our regional Netflix offerings are not available in other's Netflix feed. The only available movies were either regional Netflix productions (of contestable quality) or absolutely low-quality non-Netflix productions. Bad search does not help in conscious discovery either. I cannot understand why the best regional movies/series/classics are not shared between regions (excluding UK and US maybe). Those that happen to be available had a very lackluster translation. I doubt this is exclusively licensing issue, but I may be wrong.