The Clickbaitification of Netflix • Hacker News Board

Re: The Clickbaitification of Netflix

#241

Post by meowface » Thu, Aug 26, 2021, 4:31 PM UTC

Semaphor wrote: post #84

dannyr wrote: post #30

YouTube is pretty much like this but it's the creators selecting the thumbnails. The most common thumbnail I see is a picture of someone looks like they are blown away with their hands on their head and their mouth wide open.

The Clickbait remover chooses a random thumbnail instead. I rarely go to youtube, but when I do, this makes it more bearable. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/clickbait-rem...

In case anyone else initially misinterpreted it like I did: it replaces the thumbnail with a random frame from the video.

Re: The Clickbaitification of Netflix

#242

Post by mrVentures » Thu, Aug 26, 2021, 4:32 PM UTC

mojuba wrote: post #177

mlac wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was driving to work (a foreign experience) and Joe Walsh was singing about a Maserati. And it made me thing “man, if you grew up in middle America, hearing about a Maserati, you might not even know what it was, let alone that it existed”. Now you can hit Google and see millions of pictures, join the fan club, watch hours of videos and reviews, and become an arm chair Maserati expert. Which is cool, but if sort of t…

> I think peoples tastes have shifted to quality in more areas, I'm genuinely curious if there's any data or research to support this. Because in my view the tastes remain more or less the same, just the information noise around us is now bigger.

More people believe the earth is flat now than did 100 years ago. That's an impact.

Re: The Clickbaitification of Netflix

#243

Post by stonemetal12 » Thu, Aug 26, 2021, 4:35 PM UTC

m12k wrote: post #197

stonemetal12 wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that more because of what they are optimizing for than the fact that they are optimizing? To continue the food analogy engagement is blood sugar levels and they are seeing how high they can crank it. If they optimized for "happier and healthier in the long run" then they would probably loose short term engagement spikes, but have fewer people quitting for health reasons. Basically they could be broccoli if they…

Well, yes, they could certainly try. But "happier and healthier in the long run" is much harder for them to measure than "has responded to instant gratification". It's much harder to A/B test effectively at longer time scales and make the ML model reinforce the right things. But also, "healthier" might involve creating less engagement "content" for them to feed to others, lowering the network effects of the whole pla…

While it is harder, it isn't impossible. They have done QOL studies to find out what kind of posts make people feel depressed and what not.

Totally agree with that second paragraph though. Leaving openings for competitors is how you get killed by competitors. Not sure where the line between compelling but not evilly so is.

Re: The Clickbaitification of Netflix

#244

Post by bingohbangoh » Thu, Aug 26, 2021, 4:42 PM UTC

Spellman wrote: post #188

dannyr wrote: post #30

YouTube is pretty much like this but it's the creators selecting the thumbnails. The most common thumbnail I see is a picture of someone looks like they are blown away with their hands on their head and their mouth wide open.

Luckily they can't send different thumbnails to different viewers. Yet. Veritasium actually did an interesting episode recently about how the major YouTubers optimize their titles and thumbnails using real time data now to figure out what works to go more viral. And apparently there's a convergence on "shocked" face. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2xHZPH5Sng

LinusTechTips had mentioned that he did an A/B test with "no YouTube face" and "with YouTube face" finding it had a significant impact on the number of viewers.

I suppose we're hard wired to look for shocked expressions.

Re: The Clickbaitification of Netflix

#245

Post by ggggtez » Thu, Aug 26, 2021, 4:43 PM UTC

dannyr wrote: post #30

YouTube is pretty much like this but it's the creators selecting the thumbnails. The most common thumbnail I see is a picture of someone looks like they are blown away with their hands on their head and their mouth wide open.

The fact that Netflix can adaptively adjust their clickbait to suit each user is pretty stunning though. That's definitely a step beyond "one thumbnail to rule them all".

Re: The Clickbaitification of Netflix

#246

Post by noisy_boy » Thu, Aug 26, 2021, 4:43 PM UTC

I think I know why Netflix keeps showing movies that we have already seen. There is just not enough high quality movies that we haven't already seen (speaking for avid movie watchers). So if they skip all the good ones that we have probably already seen, it'll be a sea of mediocre ones with an occasional unwatched gem. Then we will say Netflix has mostly B-grade junk. And they can't have that truth out in plain sight.

Re: The Clickbaitification of Netflix

#247

Post by ggggtez » Thu, Aug 26, 2021, 4:46 PM UTC

Semaphor wrote: post #84

dannyr wrote: post #30

YouTube is pretty much like this but it's the creators selecting the thumbnails. The most common thumbnail I see is a picture of someone looks like they are blown away with their hands on their head and their mouth wide open.

The Clickbait remover chooses a random thumbnail instead. I rarely go to youtube, but when I do, this makes it more bearable. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/clickbait-rem...

Interesting, I wasn't sure at first how it was adjusting the title, but it seems like it lower cases it. Interesting demo, but I think you could do better by just aggressively not clicking on videos like that to begin with. I never see that style of click bait anymore, as long as I'm logged in.

Re: The Clickbaitification of Netflix

#248

Post by hindsightbias » Thu, Aug 26, 2021, 4:50 PM UTC

protomyth wrote: post #227

mlac wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was driving to work (a foreign experience) and Joe Walsh was singing about a Maserati. And it made me thing “man, if you grew up in middle America, hearing about a Maserati, you might not even know what it was, let alone that it existed”. Now you can hit Google and see millions of pictures, join the fan club, watch hours of videos and reviews, and become an arm chair Maserati expert. Which is cool, but if sort of t…

“man, if you grew up in middle America, hearing about a Maserati, you might not even know what it was, let alone that it existed” I assure you that even a rural kid like me knew what a Maserati was. We had movies, TV, and car magazines. People's assumptions about information delivery pre-internet are horribly warped.

Kids actually read Car & Driver or Guitar World cover to cover!

Re: The Clickbaitification of Netflix

#249

Post by dcow » Thu, Aug 26, 2021, 4:50 PM UTC

Here’s what I don’t understand (either about the premise of the article if incorrect or Netflix as a business if correct): why does Netflix need to drive proactive short-term engagement? They don’t make money from ads. If I’m subscribed (I’m not anymore) then their business is accounted for. I’m subscribed because they’re a better platform than TV and when I want to watch a show they have, I will. They’re getting my money regardless and they aren’t getting more if it the more I watch. Maybe they really feel pressure from other streaming platforms?

Re: The Clickbaitification of Netflix

#250

Post by ggggtez » Thu, Aug 26, 2021, 4:50 PM UTC

alistairSH wrote: post #172

xmprt wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A big issue for me is that Netflix now has so much content that everyone watching different things and there's no longer "the show" that you have to watch to talk about with your friends. Instead, there are a handful of good shows every year spread across all platforms and it's come to the point where if I'm just going to watch things on my own, I might as well just watch YouTube.

This. A few years ago, I subscribed to Netflix. That was it (no cable, no other streaming). The amount of good content was reasonable. Now, I have to cycle through Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Apple, and Amazon. I unsubscribed to most of them most of the time, and resubscribe as a show or movie comes to my attention (Dune will get me resubscribed to HBO for a month or two, etc). I still spend less on streaming than I did on c…

Maybe you should treat books like TV then: give it a half hour, and if you're not hooked, close it and find another.

I know many people say books take longer to enjoy, but a bad TV series can take ~12 hours per season. Most people can probably finish a novel in 12 hours.