Hey, Netflix, you don’t take *away* features from customers at Tobias Buckell Online

Journal Entry

Hey, Netflix, you don’t take away features from customers

July 1st 2008 at 5:31 am

Since Emily and I have different DVD watching tastes we maintain two different queues in Netflix, this way the recommendation system isn’t all confused by our tastes (you liked Shoot Everything That Moves with Big Explosions and Hugh Grant and Some Other Leading Hollywood Chick Misunderstand Each Other At First then Fall in Love at the Last Second… let us recommend… bzzztt… no meaningful result).

Since it was helpful, Netflix is doing away with it, of course, this September.

Blockbuster is 15 miles up the road and I’ve been resisting their efforts for a while. Time to rethink.

update: yeah, I just heard this morning that Netflix will NOT be doing this, enough upset customers have weighed in.

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11 Responses so far

1. Christopher on Jul 1st, 2008 at 7:10 am

I got an e-mail last night that said they’ve back off that decision, actually.
2. John Joseph Adams on Jul 1st, 2008 at 7:15 am

They WERE doing to do away with it, but because so many folks like yourself (and me!) enjoyed that feature (who complained) they’ve rethought the maneuver and are now going to keep them. Too lazy to find a link, but it was reported yesterday.
3. Bill on Jul 1st, 2008 at 7:21 am

Link here:
http://consumerist.com/tag/netflix/?i=5020844&t=netflix-profiles-to-stay
4. Philip Brewer on Jul 1st, 2008 at 7:47 am

Good to see JJA’s response….

I was going to say, though, that you’re missing the boat as far as Netflix figuring out what you’re going to like–their software for that is awesome! Much better than you’re giving it credit for.

I suggest this trick (assuming the multiple profiles feature is kept): Create yet another additional profile and seed it with the ratings you and your wife have given the movies you’ve already rated. Give movies the higher of the ratings that the two of you provided, except if one of you gave it 1 or 2 stars, don’t go above 4. (That’s basically what Jackie and I do–give each movie a consensus rating, but we give it a high-ish rating if either one of us really liked it, but not 5 stars unless both of us liked it at least somewhat.)

The result (which I predict that you’ll see as well), is that Netflix recommends an incredible list of movies that we both like. I conjecture that there are a lot of couples who watch movies together and rate movies together, and that has given Netflix a lot of data–enough to produce the “meaningful result” that you’re just assuming does not exist.

Try it. I predict you’ll be surprised and pleased.
5. Celia on Jul 1st, 2008 at 8:39 am

Actually, Netflix handles the fact that I gave both Shoot ‘em Up and Two Week’s Notice 5 stars each easily. It helps that when they tell me they think I’ll like a movie, they also tell me *why*, since they do sometimes fail with their reasoning when they link it it a person I liked the movie despite, not because of.
6. Larc on Jul 1st, 2008 at 8:42 am

http://blog.netflix.com/2008/06/profiles-feature-not-going-away.html
Here’s the link
7. Joe Sherry on Jul 1st, 2008 at 8:56 am

Check the community blog link at the bottom of the Netflix front page for the announcement of the queues sticking around.

The post about taking away the profiles had over 1300 comments in complaint.
8. Fred Kiesche on Jul 1st, 2008 at 11:20 am

I don’t use Netflix, but my wife buys me DVD’s. Sometimes it is a DVD for me, sometimes it is for her. For example, she just gave me “The Wedding Banquet”.

“Oh, a movie for you,” was my reaction when I opened it.

“No, it was on your wishlist!” she replied.

“Sure, but there was a note there saying ‘Keep an eye out for Liz’!” I replied.
9. Rachel Heslin on Jul 1st, 2008 at 11:32 am

Oh, thank goodness they’ve changed their mind. Among other things, whenever someone recommends a movie, I automatically add it to my (currently non-shipping) queue, and it would be a real pain to lose that.
10. Randy Henderson on Jul 1st, 2008 at 12:58 pm

What I find annoying is that everytime I come to the site they’ve added a ton of new features or functions … and yet the site still only works with IE? WTF? Their business is entirely web-run, yet they only support one web browser? Way to go, geniuses.
11. Joe Sherry on Jul 3rd, 2008 at 3:16 pm

Randy: Netflix works fine on Firefox, except perhaps that feature about watching the movies online (which I don’t use anyway)