The Clickbaitification of Netflix
slate.com
The Clickbaitification of Netflix
1–10 of 313 posts
Re: The Clickbaitification of Netflix
#2Movie posters have used salacious and sensational words and imagery for as long as they've existed. If anything, Netflix titles have been slowly working toward parity to that standard, as opposed to devolving to actual clickbait.
Re: The Clickbaitification of Netflix
#3Would Netflix have to do this if it actually had content people wanted to watch? It's just sad watching it double down on this pulp because every other copyright holder took their ball and went home.
Re: The Clickbaitification of Netflix
#4It’s also due to a lack of content from the lockdown, however this trend will continue, people will learn to navigate it. For me, I’m going with the dude.
Re: The Clickbaitification of Netflix
#5After reading the article on my phone and hitting the back button to get back here, I'm instead presented with a screen showing more content and pleading me to stay on the site (Keep on reading!). Talk about the kettle calling the pot black.
Re: The Clickbaitification of Netflix
#6I believe Netflix has talked about thumbnail experimentation at length in some of their engineering blogs [1]. To me, it seems perhaps Netflix has figured out a running theme in the author's viewing habits... perhaps the scandalous, soapy stuff is what they keep clicking.
Same kind of reaction I get when a guy friend tells me they keep getting ads for women's bikinis or women's underwear in their Instagram ads. It isn't sexualization of Instagram... it is a reflection of your interaction with the platform!
[1: https://netflixtechblog.com/selecting-the-best-artwork-for-v...]
Re: The Clickbaitification of Netflix
#7I worked at Facebook for some time, and did a bunch of data work. We had this culture of building something, looking at the results between the experiment groups, and then choosing the statistically more successful one -- i.e. a newsfeed algorithm that had better engagement.
This sounds great at first, and certainly is straightforward if you want a promotion. But behind the scenes some of us had this thought that our observations only amounted to short-term gains. Although we had small long-term experiment holdout groups, the truth is they were rarely reviewed because it was unsexy.
My current thinking is that features like the echo chamber effects from Facebook's algorithms, Snapchat's snap streaks, and clickbait like this, all serve to optimize short-term engagement. Yeah, I want to watch that sexy new show or keep my streak going or have my opinions validated. But there's a diminishing return on clickbait, hollow articles isn't there? I can only fill up so much time with garbage like that before I'm bored. I can only like so many posts before I feel like they're all the same. And once my snap streak is broken I hate snapping.
The data/engineering/product loops at tech companies favor boosting short-term metrics; The employees are incentivized to do so and this is what they measure, so this is what they build. That's why we end up with features like this. That's why Snapchat fell off. That's why Facebook fell off. And that's why Netflix feels increasingly stale (despite there being a lot of quality content if you dig).
Re: The Clickbaitification of Netflix
#8I worked at Facebook for some time, and did a bunch of data work. We had this culture of building something, looking at the results between the experiment groups, and then choosing the statistically more successful one -- i.e. a newsfeed algorithm that had better engagement. This sounds great at first, and certainly is straightforward if you want a promotion. But behind the scenes some of us had this thought that our…
They don't seem to have fallen off, are still the most widely used platforms in the world with billions of users in total. It is popular to think that A/B testing leaves you in local maxima, but what about alternatives? The only thing I've seen work is something like Pixar's brain trust - you do testing but you also rely on the good judgement of a small group of people with a strong sense of vision. Judging good judgement is pretty hard though, and you won't know if they're just full of it or winging it unless you try and trust. And so everyone does A/B testing which to be honest sounds much better than your average PM making decisions that are pulled out of their ass.
Re: The Clickbaitification of Netflix
#9It kind of works for me when I'm tired at the end of the day and I don't want to make choices. So yeah, I'll watch that Caitlyn Jenner documentary or whatever, fine.
It feels harder to find stuff on Netflix when I'm actively looking for something decent, though.
Re: The Clickbaitification of Netflix
#10I worked at Facebook for some time, and did a bunch of data work. We had this culture of building something, looking at the results between the experiment groups, and then choosing the statistically more successful one -- i.e. a newsfeed algorithm that had better engagement. This sounds great at first, and certainly is straightforward if you want a promotion. But behind the scenes some of us had this thought that our…
They don't seem to have fallen off, are still the most widely used platforms in the world with billions of users in total. It is popular to think that A/B testing leaves you in local maxima, but what about alternatives? The only thing I've seen work is something like Pixar's brain trust - you do testing but you also rely on the good judgement of a small group of people with a strong sense of vision. Judging good judg…
[deleted]