4 ms·

> Netflix is an interesting example of a substandard product becoming mainstream just because of some kind of a social momentum (it certainly is not the right t

> Netflix is an interesting example of a substandard product becoming mainstream just because of some kind of a social momentum (it certainly is not the right term; so whatever that is called) it received. When netflix started, it wasn't a substandard product. It was like $5 a month and you got movies mailed to your house! For basically a late fine at blockbuster you could watch your movies for as long as you wanted and never had to drive to the video store. It was an amazing product! There was nothing else like it. When they added streaming, their DVD library was still king. It had everything. Even weird stuff that could be hard to find elsewhere. Gradually though, the streaming offerings improved enough that people started mailing out DVDs less frequently. Until the TV/cable networks took their content back and started their own streaming services netflix was a really good deal. Tons of great content, low prices, mostly ad free (no third party ads until recently, but ad creep has always been a problem for netflix), and you could watch shows on your own schedule. The rise of netflix originals was a reaction to everyone else pulling their content from the platform and that necessitated higher fees but even that wasn't too terrible. It wasn't just some kind of social momentum that made them popular. They were once a pretty good service. Very few dark patterns. Customer service always sucked though which was a lot more understandable when they were small. It's just been going downhill for a long time. At this point, they're just being greedy, which is a bad look when so many people are genuinely struggling. I suspect that momentum is what's mostly keeping users around now though.

shiroiuma 3y ago
Like so many big-tech companies, they've become completely enshittified.
IIsi50MHz 3y ago
I agree with all of this except the part about customer service always being bad. Until about two years ago, I always had timely service, including accident'ly discovering that their table app, when attempting to connect to chat after 23:00, would make a VOIP call to a live person who answered in three rings. I've only sought support once since then, and although I could still find service codes sprinkled around, I couldn't find any way to contact support except something like "Did this page solve youi issue?". Which I used to report that some page directed me to click some link that took me back to the top of the support section instead of promised content. I think I had been looking for how to find the promised and announced "Add an extra member" feature…which it turned out didn't arrive in my accounts UI until maybe two months later.
- IIsi50MHz 3y ago
  Whups, forgot the other exception. Ads creep has always been a problem on Netflix? I've never had ads on Netflix, though I do know they now have an ad-subsidised tier. Prime Video and Hulu, on the other hand…
  - autoexec 3y ago
    Ads I've seen involve things like full screen ads you have to click past just to get to the main page. I think the last one I saw was for some kind of "netflix awards" and I had to click "No Thanks" or something to get into the app. There's an almost full screen ad on the profile selection screen (which used to look like this: https://beebom.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/netflix-pin-lock-5.jpg?quality=75&strip=all https://beebom.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/netflix-pin-lo...). There are always giant banner ads at the top of the screen you have to scroll down from to get to the continue watching category (these ads look like this https://old.reddit.com/r/netflix/comments/39lav3/apparently_netflix_thinks_the_kid_section_is_a/ https://old.reddit.com/r/netflix/comments/39lav3/apparently_...). I've seen weird tall ads for shows that span multiple rows (like this: https://www.tvforum.co.uk/tvhome/n-series-44712 https://www.tvforum.co.uk/tvhome/n-series-44712). Right now there's some strange ad for a "Halloween collection" that spans multiple columns in the "Trending Now" category. Ads have played automatically at the end of shows or were shown between them (see here: https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/17/netflix-tests-video-promos-in-between-episodes-much-to-viewers-dislike/ https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/17/netflix-tests-video-promos...). Ads flash rapidly on the screen if you pause any show for more than a couple minutes. Here's the trending now section surrounded top and bottom by ads: https://phspawprint.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Oct-art.png https://phspawprint.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Oct-art.p... It's important that people are able to recognize ads when they see them. Netflix is filled with ads designed catch your attention or to more heavily promote certain shows in ways other than just listing them in every other category on the page. They aren't third party ads like you see on their cheapest plan, but they are still ads and the more of them there are, and the more annoying they are, the more I want to cancel.
- autoexec 3y ago
  Not having better ways to reach support is part of the problem. For the DVD days they always took care of my issues (mainly broken/scratched/lost disks) but everything was handled through their website. I'd have liked more options. Today it's so much worse. You pretty much have to call them on the phone. Last time I called them I'd had problems with their subtitles. I spoke to a rep and they took all the info, then never fixed the problem (at least not for over a year, maybe it's better now? I gave up)

shiroiuma 3y ago

Like so many big-tech companies, they've become completely enshittified.

IIsi50MHz 3y ago

I agree with all of this except the part about customer service always being bad. Until about two years ago, I always had timely service, including accident'ly discovering that their table app, when attempting to connect to chat after 23:00, would make a VOIP call to a live person who answered in three rings. I've only sought support once since then, and although I could still find service codes sprinkled around, I couldn't find any way to contact support except something like "Did this page solve youi issue?". Which I used to report that some page directed me to click some link that took me back to the top of the support section instead of promised content. I think I had been looking for how to find the promised and announced "Add an extra member" feature…which it turned out didn't arrive in my accounts UI until maybe two months later.

IIsi50MHz 3y ago
Whups, forgot the other exception. Ads creep has always been a problem on Netflix? I've never had ads on Netflix, though I do know they now have an ad-subsidised tier. Prime Video and Hulu, on the other hand…
- autoexec 3y ago
  Ads I've seen involve things like full screen ads you have to click past just to get to the main page. I think the last one I saw was for some kind of "netflix awards" and I had to click "No Thanks" or something to get into the app. There's an almost full screen ad on the profile selection screen (which used to look like this: https://beebom.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/netflix-pin-lock-5.jpg?quality=75&strip=all https://beebom.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/netflix-pin-lo...). There are always giant banner ads at the top of the screen you have to scroll down from to get to the continue watching category (these ads look like this https://old.reddit.com/r/netflix/comments/39lav3/apparently_netflix_thinks_the_kid_section_is_a/ https://old.reddit.com/r/netflix/comments/39lav3/apparently_...). I've seen weird tall ads for shows that span multiple rows (like this: https://www.tvforum.co.uk/tvhome/n-series-44712 https://www.tvforum.co.uk/tvhome/n-series-44712). Right now there's some strange ad for a "Halloween collection" that spans multiple columns in the "Trending Now" category. Ads have played automatically at the end of shows or were shown between them (see here: https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/17/netflix-tests-video-promos-in-between-episodes-much-to-viewers-dislike/ https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/17/netflix-tests-video-promos...). Ads flash rapidly on the screen if you pause any show for more than a couple minutes. Here's the trending now section surrounded top and bottom by ads: https://phspawprint.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Oct-art.png https://phspawprint.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Oct-art.p... It's important that people are able to recognize ads when they see them. Netflix is filled with ads designed catch your attention or to more heavily promote certain shows in ways other than just listing them in every other category on the page. They aren't third party ads like you see on their cheapest plan, but they are still ads and the more of them there are, and the more annoying they are, the more I want to cancel.
autoexec 3y ago
Not having better ways to reach support is part of the problem. For the DVD days they always took care of my issues (mainly broken/scratched/lost disks) but everything was handled through their website. I'd have liked more options. Today it's so much worse. You pretty much have to call them on the phone. Last time I called them I'd had problems with their subtitles. I spoke to a rep and they took all the info, then never fixed the problem (at least not for over a year, maybe it's better now? I gave up)