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Ask HN: How can Netflix and Amazon Prime be this bad at recommending content?

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Re: Ask HN: How can Netflix and Amazon Prime be this bad at recommending content?

#11

Post by navhc »

xyzsparetimexyz wrote: post #4

A big problem on Netflix is that they don't use the original poster or description for movies, instead coming up with their own. I find that these generally don't do movies justice.

Not only that, they dynamically change the poster to try to make it more appealing to each person and it still fails miserably.

Re: Ask HN: How can Netflix and Amazon Prime be this bad at recommending content?

#12

Post by ralusek »

encryptluks2 wrote: post #5

These services get paid to promote content. Did you think they are going to promote legit content?

Netflix gets paid to promote content? That doesn't make sense. They buy or license content, and their incentive is to get you to like what they have to offer in order for you to keep paying them a subscription fee. Why would they pay someone for content, only to have them then pay them to promote the content?

Re: Ask HN: How can Netflix and Amazon Prime be this bad at recommending content?

#15

Post by 0x0000000 »

otikik wrote: post #14
hauxir wrote: post #3

Totally agree, that's why I gave up on it myself and created an aggregator. https://tomatotree.tv

What is min corn and min strawberry?

Looks like corn is the audience score and strawberry is the critic score, sourced from rotten tomatoes.

Re: Ask HN: How can Netflix and Amazon Prime be this bad at recommending content?

#16

Post by 13of40 »

Something else conspicuously missing from these services is a checkbox to make it never show me something again. Why do I have to scroll through an endless line of "nope", "nope", "nope", "definitely not", "no" every night, then look at all the same stuff tomorrow? Does someone get paid when I have to sacrifice a brain cell for each of these minor decisions?

Re: Ask HN: How can Netflix and Amazon Prime be this bad at recommending content?

#17

Post by atum47 »

I do believe they have some kind of "monetization" going on regarding what they recommend you. Even YouTube apparently.

They suggest the same thing over and over under "different" categories. I they go try to force "popular" content on you.

One of the reasons I made this joke/rant project

https://victorribeiro.com/recommendation/

Re: Ask HN: How can Netflix and Amazon Prime be this bad at recommending content?

#19

Post by benrapscallion »

otikik wrote: post #14
hauxir wrote: post #3

Totally agree, that's why I gave up on it myself and created an aggregator. https://tomatotree.tv

What is min corn and min strawberry?

Clicking one of the results, it seems to mean Average Tomatometer and Average audience score … both from Rotten Tomatoes.

Re: Ask HN: How can Netflix and Amazon Prime be this bad at recommending content?

#20

Post by foepys »

HellDunkel wrote: post #13

All streaming platforms i tried have this problem. Maybe the ranking of shows is commercially funded? Also annoying: netflix shows multiple cover images. Most annoying automatic playback of preview (including sound) in the menu.

It doesn't need to be explicitly funded, different licencing costs can be enough. It could be cheaper for Netflix to show their own productions than pay for a stream of licensed content.

You can disable autoplay previews for all devices on Netflix' website in your profile.

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