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Netflix Replacing Star Ratings With Thumbs Ups and Thumbs Down

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221–230 of 298 posts

Re: Netflix Replacing Star Ratings With Thumbs Ups and Thumbs Down

#221

If you have many reviewers, you don't need to get more information than thumbs up or down from each person. How much people thumbed it up is a good indicator. Star-rating can be too much detail, anyway: if you're comparing two shows, and one has a higher fraction of five-star ratings, but the other has a higher fraction of ratings that are four or above, which is better? Star ratings can be too much detail and cause…

>> Star ratings can be too much detail and cause confusion The iOS App Store is a good example of this. An unbelievable number of people, for some reason, thing 1 star = great and 5 star = bad.

Since the early days of Yelp I learned to read restaurant star ratings:

3.5: Good place, check it out

4.0: Great place, impress your friends

> 4.2: Fake

Re: Netflix Replacing Star Ratings With Thumbs Ups and Thumbs Down

#222
post #70

I feel like star ratings, if just given in general, are pretty useless for anything that has multiple qualities. For example, maybe I like the cinematography of a movie but I think the acting is shit, or maybe I think the taste of the beer is nice but it's too acidic or sour and wouldn't work with specific foods because it's overpowering. Airbnb does this pretty much spot on, in that they ask for 1-5 stars for five c…

Certainly the data you get will be of better quality that way, I just don't know that you'll get a huge quantity of it. Seems like for better or worse, Netflix is going for a higher quantity of ratings. (As well as the possible ulterior motive mentioned elsewhere in this thread, of making lame movies look not-so-bad - like helping out the dullards in class by grading it pass/fail.) An exquisitely detailed system like…

I agree, that's a good point. I think it's a different cost/value proposition with Airbnb vs Netflix, since you paid for a, sometimes expensive, service and then when the service is rendered you can review it, whereas with Netflix, while you are paying for the service you're not paying directly for a movie/show. So, with Airbnb, since you invested a bit of money you feel like you should take the time and review, but with Netflix, if it's not too simple you may just skip the review.

Re: Netflix Replacing Star Ratings With Thumbs Ups and Thumbs Down

#223
post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or edge cases like me will get that little boost to just give up on Netflix. I already use them less than other streaming services, and I could always just turn it on and off again.

Honestly one of the only reasons I keep it is because I have so many movies that I've rated and didn't want that time investment to go to waste. I guess now that isn't going to be a factor.

This!

My dream is to build an open source app that gathers all these personal ratings (from Netflix to Pandora to GoodReads to restaurants) and puts it back on where it belongs: the users hand!!

Unfortunately finding the time to work on this will be tricky..

Anyone knows if that's a thing already?

Re: Netflix Replacing Star Ratings With Thumbs Ups and Thumbs Down

#224

As I posted in the dupe: This saddens me. >Users would rate documentaries with 5 stars, and silly movies with just 3 stars, but still watch silly movies more often than those high-rated documentaries That's not incongruous to me. The stars are not about "enjoyment" factor, they are about perceived quality. I may have a go to cheap ice-cream and rate it 3-stars but rate a good affogato 5-stars and only have it once in…

But there's no difference in price between going to see a silly movie or a"good" movie.

Re: Netflix Replacing Star Ratings With Thumbs Ups and Thumbs Down

#225

Amy Schumer's comedy special bombed so hard they're changing their ranking system? Total failure.

She's blaming the boogeyman of the "alt-right" for the poor reviews. Yeah, it's got to be that, not that she has no actual material beyond "I'm a girl saying gross things, now laugh at me."

I'd rather have seen the money wasted on her spent boosting the publicity of female comics that are actually, you know, talented. Start with Tig Notaro.

Re: Netflix Replacing Star Ratings With Thumbs Ups and Thumbs Down

#226

Amy Schumer's comedy special bombed so hard they're changing their ranking system? Total failure.

I read that headline too, but the actual story didn't provide any evidence to support it. Schumer's 'Leather Special' was your usual tedious progressive lecture disguised as comedy with a few laughs and a lot of porn, and was modded appropriately, but that doesn't connect it to the Netflix rating change as far as I can see.

Re: Netflix Replacing Star Ratings With Thumbs Ups and Thumbs Down

#227
post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or edge cases like me will get that little boost to just give up on Netflix. I already use them less than other streaming services, and I could always just turn it on and off again.

Honestly one of the only reasons I keep it is because I have so many movies that I've rated and didn't want that time investment to go to waste. I guess now that isn't going to be a factor.

Why on earth would you use Netflix as a rating service? First of all their library lacks a lot of great movies, or info about the movies they have. Netflix isn't IMDB.

Re: Netflix Replacing Star Ratings With Thumbs Ups and Thumbs Down

#229
post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've analysed product ratings in the past and found that the online ratings tend to have primarily bimodal distributions. People who rate online welf select and either love something​ and give very good ratings or they dislike and give poor ratings. Unlike surveys where people have to answer questions, only people with extreme reactions tend to answer these online rating questions and you don't get any meaningful di…

I'm far from an expert on statistics, but wouldn't the fact that star ratings tend to fall on a bimodal distribution just mean that the ratings that don't fit the bimodal distribution have a higher signal/noise ratio than the ones that do? I'd think you could use a 2-4 rating as an indicator of a thoughtful reviewer. Additionally, it seems like you could also use the fact that a particular reviewer doesn't fit the ov…

The fact that a reviewer uses 2 and 4 ratings might not be too meanngful. One reviewer might use 2s and 4s the way another uses 1s and 5s.

There may be reviewers who do not generally fit the bimodal distribution, but if they are the minority, why design your whole rating system around them? Better to optimize your system for the way most of your users behave.

Re: Netflix Replacing Star Ratings With Thumbs Ups and Thumbs Down

#230
post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or edge cases like me will get that little boost to just give up on Netflix. I already use them less than other streaming services, and I could always just turn it on and off again.

Honestly one of the only reasons I keep it is because I have so many movies that I've rated and didn't want that time investment to go to waste. I guess now that isn't going to be a factor.

That used to be a big deal for me too. I had a little happy moment back when I rated my 1000th movie. Oh well.
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