Clearly there's no accounting for taste. The Netflix has no idea of The context when I sit down to watch a movie. Such as am I watching my geeky Friends or am I watching with my girlfriend.
Netflix and the Napoleon Dynamite Problem (2008)
51–57 of 57 posts
Re: Netflix and the Napoleon Dynamite Problem (2008)
#52All those hours and millions of dollars into perfecting their recommendation system, and Popcorn Time still has a better UI for viewing movies than Netflix does. Just show me all the top movies and let me pick one, why partition them into drama/comedy and filter out the one's you don't think I'll like? it makes the experience worse.
Or you know, just let me use scrollbars instead of having to wait for your stupid javascript to SLOOOOOWLY pan the movie list. And then I have to hover and usually click through to get details about a movie. What's wrong with vertical lists with relevant information next to the picture? Something like every shopping interface ever? Using Netflix is like going to a grocery store, deciding that you want some canned cor…
They've parted ways from your described UI quite a few weeks ago on my PC anyway. Still using a carousel but at least its fully paginated now (click > new page, no slow scroll).
The performance is abysmal though, lots of CSS3 hover transitions that seem to slow things to a crawl on scroll
Re: Netflix and the Napoleon Dynamite Problem (2008)
#53"If you use a computerized system based on ratings, you will tend to get very relevant but safe answers"... I call this my "Radiohead metric": for a given music recommendation system, how long do I have to use it before it tries to recommend me Radiohead. One of the problems I find in music algorithms is they can't know how I've changed - suggesting music based on what I play or input - but that's stuff I liked in mi…
> I call this my "Radiohead metric" I don't use Pandora very much any more but when I did I'd just create a station based on a single artist and then usually listen to it without further interaction. All my stations would converge on Radiohead within ten - twenty tracks regardless of starting point: Joy Division? You must like Radiohead. Passion Pit? Radiohead. Billy Holiday? Radiohead. It was amusing but also more t…
So.... do you like Radiohead?
Re: Netflix and the Napoleon Dynamite Problem (2008)
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
Applying weight to each rating based on its age seems like such an obvious fix that someone must have tried it and realized that it makes things worse.
Maybe, but I'd think you'd have to take the age weight with a pinch of salt. The are 14 year olds who are obsessed with jazz and blues, while some 70 year olds only listen to hardcore punk and deathgrind
Age of the vote, not age of the voter.
Re: Netflix and the Napoleon Dynamite Problem (2008)
#55I'm not sure there's a reasonable way past the "Napoleon Dynamite Problem". They mentioned, in the article, other movies where it's difficult to predict if someone would like them or not. The list was “I Heart Huckabees,” “Lost in Translation,” “Fahrenheit 9/11,” “The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou,” “Kill Bill: Volume 1” and “Sideways.” Personally, the common thread I see across those is that the viewer would be mor…
Yea, a user's expectations surely plays a role here. I am unsure how computers would be able to notice someone "gets it" while someone else just stumbled upon the movie.
Re: Netflix and the Napoleon Dynamite Problem (2008)
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
The point of any system should never be to choose for a person, but rather, to improve the quality of available choices.
In that case, aren't you, in effect, choosing for me the set of choices available to me for selection, based upon a preconceived notion of "quality"? The Underground Man goes on to say, “I agree that two times two makes four is an excellent thing; but if we are dispensing praise, then two times two makes five is sometimes a most charming little thing as well.” Would two times two makes five be included in a set of hi…
Such curation does not exclude alternative choices. The mind works by narrowing the field of possibilities down to a manageable bandwith. We make tools to help us do this. But the choice is always still our own. And we can choose anything we can imagine.
Re: Netflix and the Napoleon Dynamite Problem (2008)
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Things I've already seen" is the worst part of it for me, and is making me more and more likely to cancel the service out of (possibly misplaced) anger at feeling like Netflix is just regurgitating the same content at me to hide lack of a fuller back catalog.
On the other hand, rewatching is probably 90% of my usage and that's very helpful. I suspect that's why they leave it there: a lot of the audience uses Netflix like TV and they just want something familiar on in the background.
>a lot of the audience uses Netflix like TV and they just want something familiar on in the background
That's exactly how I use it and their "Watch it again" section is very helpful.