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Netflix Has Deleted Every User Review Ever Posted to Its Website

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Re: Netflix Has Deleted Every User Review Ever Posted to Its Website

#31

Post by throwaway76543 »

apo wrote: post #22

It may also be the case that negative reviews of movies, TV shows, and stand-up specials did more to dissuade potential viewers than positive reviews did them to draw in; ... Netflix's bigger problem is that much of its content looks good on the surface, but on closer inspection is not worth the time. A lot of this stuff is produced by Netflix itself. Bill Nye's most recent show comes to mind, but there's a lot more.…

"Worth the time" is relative. Some people really enjoy shows which other people consider to be "junk."

I suspect Netflix realizes this. I don't mind them not being suggested, but I'd be really upset if "junk" shows became unavailable. There's a bunch of popular content which I don't enjoy and I wouldn't be surprised if a sizable portion of content I do consume is "junk" according to popular opinion.

Re: Netflix Has Deleted Every User Review Ever Posted to Its Website

#32

Post by conjectures »

amelius wrote: post #11

Offtopic: there's nothing more hilarious than to read the reviews after having watched a bad movie. However, I use IMDB for that.

Alternately to look at how bad the reviews were for titles I enjoyed, but which I suspected enjoying would brand me a philistine. I'm looking at you Valerian ;)

Re: Netflix Has Deleted Every User Review Ever Posted to Its Website

#33

Post by always_good »

apo wrote: post #22

It may also be the case that negative reviews of movies, TV shows, and stand-up specials did more to dissuade potential viewers than positive reviews did them to draw in; ... Netflix's bigger problem is that much of its content looks good on the surface, but on closer inspection is not worth the time. A lot of this stuff is produced by Netflix itself. Bill Nye's most recent show comes to mind, but there's a lot more.…

I don't see the upside for Netflix shrinking its catalog. I regularly watch Spanish junk shows to practice the language. And I like particularly bad horror movies when I want some background noise rather than wasting a good movie on background noise.

The problem of junk shows diluting the good shoes would be a UI problem.

Re: Netflix Has Deleted Every User Review Ever Posted to Its Website

#34

Post by slededit »

QasimK wrote: post #17
scarface74 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How in the world does this make sense? The entire competitive advantage of having the scale and user information that Netflix has is to be able to do personal recommendations by recommending shows based on what others with similar taste like. Heck, I know very little about big data and even I have walked through a simple sentiment analysis proof of concept demo to rate comments as positive or negative.

They are probably determining this directly on when someone is watching a show, which shows, etc.

I can only watch shows they recommend though! You get stuck in a local maxima with no way to escape. God help you if you watch a WWII documentary.

I so rarely find a title I search for that I don't bother with that anymore.

Re: Netflix Has Deleted Every User Review Ever Posted to Its Website

#35

Post by tonysdg »

ghaff wrote: post #29

It's hard for me to get too upset. Personally, it seems a bit conspiracy theory to think it's people might read negative reviews. Seems more likely it was a poorly used resource and Netflix didn't see the value in continue to support, maintain, and screen it. That aside, it points to a couple of issues. There is a lot of bad content on Netflix. It never had a good film catalog and their TV strategy has clearly evolve…

I remember reading a blog post somewhere describing the problem with modern recommendation engines being their reactive nature. Say you purchase a cell phone on Amazon -- they'll start showing you other cell phones, cell phone accessories, more electronics, etc. The problem is, you just bought a phone -- you don't need 5 more, and you max need 1 or 2 cases. So the recommendations are garbage, since the engine has no way of knowing what your current mindset is and what you actually might be interested in.

In hindsight, that's obvious, but it struck me at the time. I don't ever want to see my thoughts get read by a computer (personal choice), but until such technology exists, recommendation engines will continue to suck.

Re: Netflix Has Deleted Every User Review Ever Posted to Its Website

#36

Post by MiddleEndian »

ajmurmann wrote: post #24
apo wrote: post #22

It may also be the case that negative reviews of movies, TV shows, and stand-up specials did more to dissuade potential viewers than positive reviews did them to draw in; ... Netflix's bigger problem is that much of its content looks good on the surface, but on closer inspection is not worth the time. A lot of this stuff is produced by Netflix itself. Bill Nye's most recent show comes to mind, but there's a lot more.…

Hah, wouldn't you love it if the junk was removed and one day you log on and you just get a message telling you that you've watched all the stuff the algorithm thinks you'll like and you might as well go do something else?

The one thing I liked most about Netflix back when it was a DVD service was the recommendation system. I could rate things with stars, and Netflix could figure out, with reasonable accuracy, what movies I would consider junk and what I would consider quality, rather than the opinions of the general public.

They have some good shows but their streaming movie selection and recommendation system doesn't hold a candle to what they used to have.

Re: Netflix Has Deleted Every User Review Ever Posted to Its Website

#37

Post by scarface74 »

apo wrote: post #22

It may also be the case that negative reviews of movies, TV shows, and stand-up specials did more to dissuade potential viewers than positive reviews did them to draw in; ... Netflix's bigger problem is that much of its content looks good on the surface, but on closer inspection is not worth the time. A lot of this stuff is produced by Netflix itself. Bill Nye's most recent show comes to mind, but there's a lot more.…

Well, maybe since Netflix has viewing data, knows how often a show is watched to completion, and over 125 million paying subscribers and some sort of multiple of actual users per account, could it possibly be that they have more of an insight into what is “junk” than someone looking in from the outside?

Re: Netflix Has Deleted Every User Review Ever Posted to Its Website

#38

Post by ghaff »

mygo wrote: post #28
parent5446 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you used it, but overall few people were using it. That's why they got rid of it.

Maybe few people were using it because they made it hard / impossible to use? 70% of Netflix's viewing happens on TV. You couldn't even access user reviews on tv. 15% of Netflix's viewing happens on smart phones and tablets. You couldn't even access user reviews on mobile. So 85% of Netflix's viewers (TV, phones, tablets) couldn't even access the reviews from their viewing-devices. You could only access reviews on de…

I can believe that's all true. So people now primarily consume the content through interfaces that inherently would make it difficult to interact with reviews. (And I suspect if they did pop up a box asking you to add a review after you watched something that would really annoy everyone.)

In a lot of ways, the user reviews are mostly a vestige of when people used them while adding DVDs to their queue.

Re: Netflix Has Deleted Every User Review Ever Posted to Its Website

#39

Post by was_boring »

I'm glad they did this because: 1) I didn't realize there were written reviews; and 2) I have found Netflix's move to up or down, and a percent recommendation a good move. For instance, I'm a sucker for space movies of any sort, I just love them, and they have picked up on that and recommended me a few movies I would have never watched if I just went to rotten tomatoes. I don't need social validation to enjoy or not enjoy content.

It's not a perfect system, but it's better then anything else out there.

Re: Netflix Has Deleted Every User Review Ever Posted to Its Website

#40

Post by jjoonathan »

scarface74 wrote: post #37
apo wrote: post #22

It may also be the case that negative reviews of movies, TV shows, and stand-up specials did more to dissuade potential viewers than positive reviews did them to draw in; ... Netflix's bigger problem is that much of its content looks good on the surface, but on closer inspection is not worth the time. A lot of this stuff is produced by Netflix itself. Bill Nye's most recent show comes to mind, but there's a lot more.…

Well, maybe since Netflix has viewing data, knows how often a show is watched to completion, and over 125 million paying subscribers and some sort of multiple of actual users per account, could it possibly be that they have more of an insight into what is “junk” than someone looking in from the outside?

Of course they do, but the post you replied to did not accuse them of ignorance.
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