Wish Netflix would send me “We just added a movie you’ll probably hate” emails

[Chew Toy McCoy]

Then I can see if they are as off as they are with movies they think I’d like. It also seems the more the movie cost to produce the more they think I’d like it.

 

[Edd]

Their algorithm seems to be throwing darts at a wall, for recommendations. Never understood how it could be so inaccurate.

 

[lizkat]

Then I can see if they are as off as they are with movies they think I’d like. It also seems the more the movie cost to produce the more they think I’d like it.

Their algorithm seems to be throwing darts at a wall, for recommendations. Never understood how it could be so inaccurate.

So it's not just me their emailed reccos manage to miss the mark with most of the time. Good to know.

 

[Pumbaa]

Then I can see if they are as off as they are with movies they think I’d like. It also seems the more the movie cost to produce the more they think I’d like it.

Is there some privacy stuff you’ve decided to opt out of or something?

Their algorithm seems to be throwing darts at a wall, for recommendations. Never understood how it could be so inaccurate.

Could be too many people sharing accounts making it a mess for data-driven recommendations. Like back in the early days when I group ordered from Amazon.com to save on shipping and fees, the recommendations went from excellent to ridiculously confused.

Or maybe people are just random or indifferent and watch whatever Netflix puts up as recommended.

 

[shadow puppet]

So it's not just me their emailed reccos manage to miss the mark with most of the time. Good to know.

Nope. Most definitely not. For the record, I don't share my account so no clue where they are getting the suggestions for me they're sending. They might as well be pulling rocks out of their butt.

 

[Pumbaa]

Nope. Most definitely not. For the record, I don't share my account so no clue where they are getting the suggestions for me they're sending. They might as well be pulling rocks out of their butt.

I would expect them to sort of crowdsource the recommendations and recommend what other accounts with a similar watch history watched next or expressed interest in. Messes up the recommendations for everyone that way, not just the accounts doing the sharing.

They could also be doing some sort of stupidly designed controlled experiment. Give one group of users random recommendations and other groups each a competing algorithm.

 

[lizkat]

Nope. Most definitely not. For the record, I don't share my account so no clue where they are getting the suggestions for me they're sending. They might as well be pulling rocks out of their butt.

Aside from teenage boys, a lot of people have eclectic tastes anyway, or at least ones that could seem so, because even if they prefer certain genres of filmmaking in general, maybe they're fond of an actor or an ensemble of actors, sometimes they'll watch anything once by a certain director, maybe they'll half-watch something their mother in law said YOU HAVE TO WATCH THIS for the 3rd time, maybe a pal talks them into a series pilot or a biopic outside their usual interests... I'm a long time fan of James Cromwell and he likes to work so he takes even small parts across assorted genres and I'll watch anything once that he's taken a role in .

Not sure how any usual movie watching algorithm is going to sort all that out. They'd have to spend more money per subscriber than it's probably worth to take a best guess or just to pitch whatever they contracted to exhibit this month that isn't picking up enough eyeballs to warrant the pick.

And THAT's the calculation that matters to Netflix. What did they pay to exhibit a film and did it help keep subs on board or not? Something a little more complicated when it's their original production, I'd imagine, because they have more dough at stake.

All I know for sure is that the ones labeled "what people are watching in your area" go right in the trashbin. I have read them and concluded that everyone else in my area is definitely a teenage boy.

 

[Alli]

I think they use the same algorithm as Amazon. Amazon always recommends whatever product I’ve just purchased. Netflix always recommends whatever I’ve just watched.

 

[lizkat]

I think they use the same algorithm as Amazon. Amazon always recommends whatever product I’ve just purchased. Netflix always recommends whatever I’ve just watched.

Tonight I was surfing through some back issues online of Ploughshares, and as I read each piece was wondering how THEY decide to stick in a sidebar a picture of this or that other back issue and some piece in it which "You might like also"...

[ gimme a break, I sub to the whole archive for an annual price and the authors just get one-off payments upon publication, so.... ??]


Back to netflix: they always pester me to supply a rating. Ever since they went to thumbs-up or thumbs-down, I often skip it but then they invariably send an email asking how I liked it. If I don't even like it enough to finish watching, they assume I just forgot and mail a reminder. Sometimes I have to count to ten not to cancel my sub.

 

[User.45]

Their algorithm seems to be throwing darts at a wall, for recommendations. Never understood how it could be so inaccurate.

On purpose...sadly....


Before the thumb up/down system the 5-star system's prediction accuracy was almost creepy.
The original system's intention was prediction and recommendation of movies you'd like.
The new system's intention is to try to influence what you watch based on their portfolio.

 

[lizkat]

Speaking of Netflix, not sure they'd really be proud of some other company's ad that I bumped into while reading a piece in the Washington Post today. The ad touts some newish alternative method of acquiring equivalent of a master's degree in business administration.

​

I was appalled, not at Netflix but at an advertiser's apparently reductive approach to acquiring something like an MBA degree. We might be farther down the road to the next Dark Age than I had figured. I always knew that untrammeled capitalism could get us there, but hadn't realized that capitalistic perversions of higher education would eventually show up to speed the rate of our decline.

 

[Joe]

I cancelled my Netflix like 3 or 4 months ago because I just wasn't watching much on it and they bombard me with "Come back" emails lol

I have Hulu, Prime, Disney+, HBOMax, ESPN+ - I can always find something to watch on them. I don't watch much tv anyway.

 

[lizkat]

I'm thinking of cancelling Prime and keeping Netflix. I like HBOMax even more than I had thought I would, so I switched my sub to an annual billing so I could stop debating (every month!) whther to keep it.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

Speaking of Netflix, not sure they'd really be proud of some other company's ad that I bumped into while reading a piece in the Washington Post today. The ad touts some newish alternative method of acquiring equivalent of a master's degree in business administration.

View attachment 9273​

I was appalled, not at Netflix but at an advertiser's apparently reductive approach to acquiring something like an MBA degree. We might be farther down the road to the next Dark Age than I had figured. I always knew that untrammeled capitalism could get us there, but hadn't realized that capitalistic perversions of higher education would eventually show up to speed the rate of our decline.

You seem to be unaware of what qualifies you to be an "expert" guest on news media. In relationship to that ad, just watching the opening credits on a Netflix show qualifies you to be on the shortlist of who the news should call when they need an expert opinion.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

I'm thinking of cancelling Prime.

I think Amazon would get a mountain of cancellations if Prime wasn't tied to (theoretical at this point) merchandise shipping times and cost.

I've always wondered, and have no doubt Amazon is capable of this, that if you cancel Prime will they make your shipping experience substantially worse, especially now when they can also claim supply chain and worker shortage issues.

 

[SuperMatt]

I think Amazon would get a mountain of cancellations if Prime wasn't tied to (theoretical at this point) merchandise shipping times and cost.

I've always wondered, and have no doubt Amazon is capable of this, that if you cancel Prime will they make your shipping experience substantially worse, especially now when they can also claim supply chain and worker shortage issues.

Simple fix: when you cancel Prime, stop ordering from Amazon altogether. Easy. I don’t do any business with them, and I’m still a living, breathing human being. It is quite possible to survive without buying Bezos any more trips to the upper atmosphere.

 

[lizkat]

I think Amazon would get a mountain of cancellations if Prime wasn't tied to (theoretical at this point) merchandise shipping times and cost.

I've always wondered, and have no doubt Amazon is capable of this, that if you cancel Prime will they make your shipping experience substantially worse, especially now when they can also claim supply chain and worker shortage issues.

I get what you're saying, and tbh i dunno how Amazon could make my most recent shipping experiences worse if I ditched Prime. OK so I go with the flow and discount delays for Covid-related issues along the supply chain from manufacture to my house, and settle for whatever they suggest as "your Prime Day!" --- this is the boondocks so I never took "two day shipping" seriously anyway--- but even so a delivery does tend to end up on my front porch now, thanks to FedEx newbies or don't-cares, or the cans are dented if it's an order of staple goods. So some of that can be a courier issue but FedEx is THEIR courier so I regard it as an Amazon issue and have said so to both companies.

Now if I worked in the Amazon warehouses, I know I wouldn't GAF about much past surviving to the next paycheck, per what all I've read about working conditions, and I've read too much about Amazon not treating warehouse workers like human beings.

So the only thing Amazon still has going for them in my book is the couple times they sent the wrong flavor of noodle bowl or soup or whatever and I filed to return it and they gave me a returnless-refund.... plus whatever they had sent me to begin with was a) edible and b) just not my preference when I ordered.

Instacart is getting all my re-ups on that stuff now, a BJ's warehouse is on the local list and so is an Aldi's...

Simple fix: when you cancel Prime, stop ordering from Amazon altogether.

Exactly. I don't drive any more by my own choice, so I'm reliant on delivery or shipping, but Instacart came along just in time, when I was starting to rethink my then-reflexive purchasing at Amazon. Walmart is my fallback for some staples (and I like the GV brands on some things). They ship by UPS here and so far UPS still knows to bring stuff around to the back porch. And Walmart wraps cans nicely and protects liquids from breakage and spilling... usually... although once I got a message that my parcel was "destroyed in transit"... i felt bad for whoever worked that assembly line bc it involved 2 boxes of grits, some dill pickles and dish detergent. Oy, vey.

Back to Amazon: Not sure what to do about ebooks. I'm a fan, and Apple's prices are often higher. Plus Amazon has that thing where if you buy an ebook and the audiobook at the same time from their bookstore, the audio book's only 7.49 which is even less than the cost of a credit if you have an Audible annual plan. And Apple's prices on audiobooks are INVARIABLY higher.

Anyway I got an Apple Card to use for purchases I pay off monthly, and one of these days will retire my Amazon Visa Rewards card meanwhile used for that purpose. Plus I switched to using a Disco card for those forays into the bookstore, bc Oct-Dec Discover has a 5% cashback laid on for Amazon purchases. F Bezos and the stock he sits on and his rewards points too.

 

[ronntaylor]

I get what you're saying, and tbh i dunno how Amazon could make my most recent shipping experiences worse if I ditched Prime.

We only stick with Amazon for our Virginia deliveries. Prime is a crapshoot and we will ditch them as soon as we can. We recently got Instacart and it has been a godsend when we need to re-up on groceries and a few other items. Between that and Walmart online, we have already reduced our buying from Amazon. And Prime has become pretty useless the past 15+ months. We also have had a few "Our bad!" situations where we've been refunded orders and told to keep the inaccurate/damaged delivery.

 

[User.45]

Simple fix: when you cancel Prime, stop ordering from Amazon altogether. Easy. I don’t do any business with them, and I’m still a living, breathing human being. It is quite possible to survive without buying Bezos any more trips to the upper atmosphere.

I have to admit defeat here. We could definitely live without Amazon while I was working from home. But since half the time we aren't home, I don't have time to shop in person (if I need specific items), and packages are expected to be stolen within 15 minutes they leave them at our front door. So with Prime at least I can time delivery for when someone is home.