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Bummer. I understand why they do it but I think it's too coarse. I'd much rather know how many people thought a movie was fantastic and not just decent.
And not only that, but also removing their existing collections of videos and replacing it with their "Made by Netflix" shows that mostly amount to shovelware. I'm about ready to drop them, just like they've dropped MASH, soon to be X-Files, and many many movies.
Why are they dropping shows? Does it save them money somehow?
- Netflix's licences to stream shows are presumably for a limited period of time.
- There's only so much money in the pot, and they want to spend it on the renewals and new acquisitions they think mostly likely to retain existing subscribers and attract new ones.
- Sometimes the rights owner may not want to renew Netflix's licence: they may strike an exclusive deal with another platform, or may feel that having the show on Netflix is cannibalising their DVD sales.
But the UX of the current rating system sucks. Rating stars are very small and you have to hover them to know you can rate. Only if you watch a movie to the very end you will see a clearer rating functionality, but even then you have few seconds to use. I bet many new users don't even know they can rate. I wonder if people aren't rating much because the UX sucks, not because it's a 5-star system.
And not only that, but also removing their existing collections of videos and replacing it with their "Made by Netflix" shows that mostly amount to shovelware. I'm about ready to drop them, just like they've dropped MASH, soon to be X-Files, and many many movies.
I read something (on HN actually) awhile ago about how Amazon seems to be actively trying to kill Netflix, not by going after subscribers but by going after licenses for programming by over-bidding. I think Netflix though is making more off of their in-house produced content these days so I wouldn't say they're in danger, they just might look quite different in a few years.
What's next. Just a thumb up like on Facebook? Rating is a hard problem. No system works universally well. IMDb (Amazon property) for example uses 10 stars, Amazon uses five stars. Facebook use thumb up ("likes"). Games ratings are often in percent 1-100% (summarized by metacritics.com and others). School systems around the world use A, B, etc or numbers like 1-5 or 1-6 for grades.
Now that mediocre content will be scattered across the two categories I really care about; I guess IMDB/Rotten tomatoes will steer clear of this ridiculous binary rating systems.
And not only that, but also removing their existing collections of videos and replacing it with their "Made by Netflix" shows that mostly amount to shovelware. I'm about ready to drop them, just like they've dropped MASH, soon to be X-Files, and many many movies.
> but also removing their existing collections of videos and replacing it with their "Made by Netflix" shows that mostly amount to shovelware. You are not wrong "US Netflix offers only 31 of IMDb's top 250 movies, study shows" "David Wells, Netflix’s chief financial officer, was quoted by Variety stating that the company wants half of its content to be original productions over the next few years." [1] RIP Netflix! 1…
I think Netflix's move might help this. It certainly lowers the cost rating.
They kind of already know this though. (How many times have I watched a particular movie on Netflix?)