Well, after the intense posts of the past week, everything else just feels mundane. I've not seen 300+ comments before on a blogpost - is that normal? (And not just little snipes, but often well-considered essays!)
Alright. I'm VERY interested in your first and continued impressions of the FAVES functions and what is working/not working here. Today's release is a complex set of new elements and as much as i hate to say it, there are likely to be some edge cases that are buggy. Any help you can provide as to what might not be smooth yet would help us out (remember for bugs: OS and browser info).
It's rolling out now, and should be everyone's experience in about an hour.
167 comments:
First off, about the blog comments: I would say no, it's not normal. And the reason has already been mentioned: a blog response page is not at all the ideal medium for a conversation (let alone a serious one). Not saying that the blog should go away (it's great), but a Netflix user forum for discussions of all kinds (movie and/or site related) would be GREAT.
On to the new changes - I like them, and they seem to be working fine. I was able to add a couple faves, see them appear on my Friends/Faves page, browse my Faves' info (including -gasp- their friends and faves), etc. Rank seems to be working OK, and of course I'm developing a complex over how low mine is (kidding). I did notice that some people didn't have a rank - maybe it was a temp glitch during rollout, or maybe they don't have enough data to compute a rank? If you've already answered that question in an earlier post, please disregard.
The new "flag review" changes look OK as well. I even tracked down an inappropriate review to try it, and it seemed to work OK.
Nice work Michael.
Great job, Michael et al! I've been messing around with all the new features and haven't seen any bugs or glitches. Can't wait to start finding and adding new users to my faves!
If the blog attracts a lot of readers you must expect a lot of comments. But even if that is not the case, controversial topics always have far more posts than ordinary topics. You haven't seen nothin' if you think this has been excessive, especially as compared to longer established commercial blogs.
I agree with Shawn that a forum might be useful eventually, assuming you guys have someone to moderate, which could become more than a full time job when everyone who might be interested finds it. (even a small percentage of 6million can be quite a lot of people)
Where did the page to set movies to private go? I can't find it.
What kind of activity will I be seeing from faves under “Your Friends’ and Faves’ Activity” on the Community Home page? (I already know about the friends part)
Clarification and more detail on how ranking and some of this other stuff works would be helpful even if it is scattered and hidden in other posts on the blog.
Thanks,
Becky :)
And like right now, I’ve been using another guy’s five star ratings (%76 sim to me, near 1500 rank) to find movies I haven’t yet rated. Does he get a little credit for helping me find and rate the movies I haven’t been able to find using my old method of finding and rating the movies I’ve seen?
And then there’s this… I found him in that little (four person) sim-to-you box on my community home page? How do people get into that box? I think someone asked before but I don’t remember seeing that answer.
Becky
Where did the page to set movies to private go? I can't find it.
Click Community Tab up top, then click Friends & Faves on the right, then Movie Privacy up top under Community.
What kind of activity will I be seeing from faves under “Your Friends’ and Faves’ Activity” on the Community Home page? (I already know about the friends part)
Under the Friends part, there will be headers for Your Favorites and Your Fans, once you have some.
@ Becky -
First, the Movie Privacy stuff, and inviting Friends stuff, is all now in the subnav when you're looking at your Friends & Faves page. The Preferences page for changing Friend's names is gone.
About the rank: i'll talk more about this soon. But quickly, people don't get "points" for you co-rating along side them, but they do get points for you adding movies to your Queue, a little bit. The get more points if that movie actually SHIPS to you. If you save them as one of your Faves, that gives them more points than if you don't.
IF someone has no rank, they are past the multimillion point, or they don't have enough data to get counted... AND REMEMBER: rank is only calculated every week, not every day. Have fun.
This will probably get asked by someone soon: How do I remove a Friend or Fave?
Go to their profile page and on the right under their icon will be a button for Remove Friend, in the place you would normally see Add to Faves.
I've added a couple Faves (about 30 minutes ago), but I do not show up on their Friends/Fans/Faves page yet. I have already started seeing my Fans showing on my page though.
OS X, Safari 3.0 Beta if it matters.
Not intending to thread hijack, but... I'm trying to change my profile picture and it's not working. I figured I would mention it in case the feature is misbehaving.
Windows XP, Firefox 2.0.0.6
And then there’s this… I found him in that little (four person) sim-to-you box on my community home page? How do people get into that box? I think someone asked before but I don’t remember seeing that answer.
Those are 4 random people that are 65+ Sim%. You can reload the Community page every 10 minutes or so to see a new group of people there.
S'looking good, Michael & NF Team, and all working as promised on Mac/Foxfire in NYC. Congrats and many thanks for your great efforts! My only beef is that #1 is precisely who I suspected it would be (don't worry, no spoilers here), rather than someone who you don't see on every other movie page, as you assured us! But Lord knows he/she has earned it!!
Can we have an "Ask Baff" thread too, please. Not that we really need one with him fielding every ball like this! Thanks for your great and selfless service to the community ;)
Subnav of ‘Friends and Faves’ from the floatie side-bar thingie…
Thanks Michael, found the ‘movie privacy’ tab again.
That’s some cool factors in the rankings calculation there. I’m looking forward to more detail.
I’ll have to read more of the guys reviews before I add him as a favorite. (he’s got a lot of them) Which is why I want to know what activity of his I’ll be seeing if I do. Will I see if he rates a new movie or only if he reviews one. I assume I’m not going to see what he queues or actually watches as with my friends. I’m also concerned with my friends activity being pushed off the list with all my faves activity. I’ve kinda been using that little activity box on the community home page more than the friends page lately so I wondered. I’m sure following this guy’s reviews might be useful, but I still know my friends better, and even with that 79% he’s reviewed a lot of movies I’m just not interested in.
Becky
PS: Random sims (10 min update)… Thanks Baff :)
becky glass said:
Will I see if he rates a new movie or only if he reviews one. I assume I’m not going to see what he queues or actually watches as with my friends. I’m also concerned with my friends activity being pushed off the list with all my faves activity. I’ve kinda been using that little activity box on the community home page more than the friends page lately so I wondered. I’m sure following this guy’s reviews might be useful, but I still know my friends better
I second this concern.
Also, I'll probably feel dumb for asking this, but... where exactly are you guys able to see who's at the top of the rankings? I feel like Michael mentioned this somewhere in a previous post, but heck if I can find it. A little help, baff? :)
Will I see if he rates a new movie or only if he reviews one.
Fave's Reviews and Ratings show in the Friends & Faves Activity list.
Can we have an "Ask Baff" thread too, please.
Heh, only if they start paying me. Though then it becomes 'work' and a lot less fun.
where exactly are you guys able to see who's at the top of the rankings?
As far as I know, there isn't a page that shows everyone's rank. The only way to see someone's rank is to go to their profile page and see it next to their icon on the right. If you go to a few movie pages and look for those people with "870 of 930 people found this review helpful", it probably won't be too hard to find the top 10.
On a side note, I didn't expect my rank to be anywhere near what it is. Must be the 2 lists I made, since I have only reviewed 5 movies.
You do realize this blog is featured on Blogger's "Blogs of Note" section on the homepage... right?
Hence the increase in traffic. Congrats! :)
I haven’t yet seen a top-list where rank is concerned. The individual rank is there with our ‘member since’ and nickname info. My guess is the guy just suspected who might be in number one position and clicked on his profile to confirm his guess. If there is a top-list yet. I don’t know where it is.
Becky
PS: I was much higher than I expected too. If it's weighted toward lists then I'll be dropping next week for sure then. I just deleted all mine so I can restyle them. Decided I could make them better... just seemed easier to start from scratch.
If it's weighted toward lists then I'll be dropping next week for sure then.
I've seen some people with lots of lists that had low ranking. Probably more accurate to say its weighted toward useful and well-named lists. Whatever gets people to come take a look at your list and then decide to add movies from it.
For any who might care, I added a link to my Netflix profile page on my Blogger profile page (accessible by clicking on my name up above). I'm actually quite pleased to find out that people have found my 2 lists useful.
Michael and Baff, how did the 1 vs 5 Thunderdome extravaganza shake out? Is there a full page of sims% in the works? That would make this exploration all the more fun.
Michael and Baff, how did the 1 vs 5 Thunderdome extravaganza shake out? Is there a full page of sims% in the works?
Heh, those would be questions just for Michael. I don't work for Netflix, I just try to answer some of the easier questions so Michael can focus on questions like yours.
Well... I'm liking the new stuff so far. Great job, Michael!
The 500 queue limit is becoming more frustrating than ever with all these new movies I'm discovering due to the Community additions. ;)
Like others have mentioned, I'll look forward to the ability to view multiple "pages" of Recent Friends & Favs activities. I know I asked about this a while back when that Community block was first added and you suggested that the Recent Activities events might get rolled into the Notebook. Any report on how this is (or isn't) developing?
Baff, that was a great idea adding your Netflix profile link to your Blogger profile. I have done the same. I hope that in this scenario you feel that imitation is a form of flattery. :)
If you go to a few movie pages and look for those people with "870 of 930 people found this review helpful", it probably won't be too hard to find the top 10.
I seem to be wrong about this. I took a look at a bunch of such reviewers and none of them even had a higher rank than I have. The only person I have found so far with a higher rank I found because they had a high Sim%. They had also rated over 10k movies.
Anyone found a better way of finding the influential people yet?
I hope that in this scenario you feel that imitation is a form of flattery. :)
Nope, sorry. I decided to take it as a mortal insult instead ;P
"I don't work for Netflix"
I know, Baff. Was just teasing you since you'd become the go-to-guy on this thread ;) . But it's great that you and many others help answer any questions that you can.
How can you tell, if at all, if someone has added you to their faves?
Anyone found a better way of finding the influential people yet?
I don't know of a fool-proof way of finding them yet, but I do remember Michael saying something about that those who rate and write reviews of rare movies will get higher points. That might be clue anyway.
How can you tell, if at all, if someone has added you to their faves?
Go to the Community page then click the Friends & Faves tab on the right.
Below Your Friends will be a Your Favorites section, and below that will be Your Fans if you have any.
There doesn't currently seem to be a way to see other people's fans. Michael said they would be mixed in with our Faves and Friends on our public page. Maybe Michael changed his mind, or its a bug, or maybe they only get added once per day?
Emergency! Even with only 5 'Friends and Faves' my activity box is pretty much unreadable. At the very least 'Unique in Nowheresville' should be booted to provide more space, but better still give it its own page. Already part of the Master Plan, perhaps?
#1 is the first reviewer on the movie The Method review page
With 4000 ratings, 1643 reviews and 0 lists.
First things first, the blog link being at the bottom of the page sucks. I guess you're trying to force me to bookmark you.
I just saw my ranking. I still think it's the silliest concept and a complete & utter waste, but if it makes you happy wth. Mine made me giggle. I think I'll play it in the lottery.
So far friends/faves gets a thumbs up from me. I like seeing my friend's friends. I often been curious about them. Adding a fave is simple. I like how the user pic link is at the bottom. It's easy to see them. I like not having their real names. I'm happy that there's only a link and photo as well. My friends know who I am because my friends KNOW who I am. I was not happy with the idea of random strangers knowing my full name or having to go private.
The best part of this feature is linking from person to person to person. I don't see a problem with it. I don't see an issue with privacy. (I have worked for a utility during deregulation and in the ins./medical industry so I know privacy. This is no big deal.) It's not like we can search users. I think when people see the information they can actually see, they'll calm down.
I also have agree with Shaun. When it comes to discussion, a forum would be much more beneficial.
Heya folks. Some user notes (that will find their way to a posting once i organize my thoughts):
1) yes, it's a bug that your fans aren't mixed into the outward facing Friends & Faves page. We'll see about restoring them.
2) The Friends & Faves Activity block. When you only have Friends there are only 10 slots here for info. Once you add a Fave, you have 10 more slots here. 10 are dedicated to Friends, so even if you have 100 faves, they won't force out what you used to see for the 10 datapoints on your Friends. All your Faves jockey for the 10 Faves slots. So, yes, if you have lots of Faves, this could be a little awkward. If someone is proving to be un-useful, just remove them as a Fave. The point is that they remain useful.
3) I'd like to revise the Notebook page to be a history of the Activity block, along with note details. It is not on the short-list of fixes and features, but it's in mind and i'll let you know how it rises to the top of priorities.
4) Sounds like you found #1. I'm not sure he/she/they even knows they're #1. (It is sort of the point that none of us can bug him/her... and disrupt that great productivity. I can tell you that the #2 reviewer is pretty far from #1, and the pair of them are way ahead of the pack. On the list of things to get to is a "leaderboard" of sorts -- the most influential folks here. But in the meantime, yea, you just will stumble across them.
Am i missing anything big?
Michael, it would be nice if all the prefs and options were accessible from one place, like the account page maybe.
dw
Hey! This may be a, "NO? Duh!" situation but I just noticed I deleted that auto-list they gave me with all my five star picks when I deleted all my other lists. Fantastic! I hated that thing.
Baff,
73% sim to me… however…
I’ve only rated just under 2k in much less than a year… 18k+?
That’s going to take awhile…
AngelMonkey
75% sim to me…
Pretty much agree on Mirror Mask… Took my breath away that one did…
(like being crushed to death by a very big but very interesting looking sculpture would take my breath away)
Philly,
(on privacy) Still an issue… but I’ll leave that discussion back on the privacy thread, it’s all there anyway.
Michael,
Glad to see I keep 10 slots for my friends, now I can safely go find some faves.
“3) I'd like to revise the Notebook page to be a history of the Activity block, along with note details. It is not on the short-list of fixes and features, but it's in mind and i'll let you know how it rises to the top of priorities.”
Could be useful… Would that include friends and faves both? The whole Activity block? If so I think I’d prefer that information segregated as well.
Thanks,
Becky
Boy, for a 'private person', you sure are a sharer, Ms Becky! I still slightly resent the 'influence meter', like I went to see a show to relax and enjoy myself, only to discover that my every response had been recorded and relayed to the public without a release waiver. But, like everyone else, I can now laugh if it's low and feel gratified if it's high. So, all in all, a very interesting day. And with Michael shaking things (and us) up every couple of weeks, I'm sure there'll be plenty more ahead.......
Well, after rating over 1600 movies and tv shows and having Netflix tell me they have 0 suggestions for me, I can see how top ten lists, similarity percentages and friends and faves activities will be able to help me find some new movies to watch.
One thing that would be helpful, though (and I know it's been mentioned before)... if the "your friends loved/your friends hated" did that pop up thing that happens on other pages (like your queue). The pix are too small to see what it is that my friends loved or hated.
Very cool updates; I've been playing with the site all night long (and still no bugs or glitches!).
@Becky - I've only rated about 3500 movies. I marked about 15,000 as 'not interested'. I will eventually mark another 5-10,000 likewise. There are just a ton of music, sports events, etc that I know I will never want to watch.
Angelmonkey is 79% for me, actually added a couple movies from her lists.
Baff,
You said:
And then there’s this… I found him in that little (four person) sim-to-you box on my community home page? How do people get into that box? I think someone asked before but I don’t remember seeing that answer.
Those are 4 random people that are 65+ Sim%. You can reload the Community page every 10 minutes or so to see a new group of people there.
But mine showed:
Click on the picture to see what makes you similar
CN 760631
53%
Similar To You CB 680965
52%
Similar To You
tsv 1086354
43%
Similar To You TW 1496406
41%
Similar To You
Is the "65+ Sim%" rule working?
Michael,
This is great! I've been having a lot of fun finding faves but I do notice one glitch (?).
The number of faves on the right hand tab when I open Community is more than actual faves. 14 show on the tab but there are actually 10.
?
Michael said, re friends/faves activity : "10 [slots] are dedicated to Friends..."
But what if, like Angelmonkey, you have 25 friends? This important component of the Community page just doesn't seem to be getting the breathing space it needs and deserves. Also, maybe 'friends' and 'faves' could be differentiated one from the other by typeface or 'bold'ness?
@chawk: dare it say it, but you have 14 fans, 4 of them appear to be "private" -- and thus are invisible. We'll work on the messaging to make that clearer.
As for having 25 Friends and finding the Activity stuff a bit... insufficient... yes. That kind of thing in on some future improvement lists. But not this quarter. Sorry.
As for a visual distinction between Friends and Faves? Hmmm... that's a good idea.
Michael, great work with this rollout,
What would be the top five things to consider if one wanted to move up in ranking?
Also, by the avatar, perhaps the number of ranking could be included there, instead of just seeing it on the community page. This way, it could be viewed everywhere; i'd look at someone who has a review with a higher ranking than one with a lower one.
What's the lowest raking? So far I've seen: Rank: 3,867,287 (Mine is: Rank: 12,652)
Hee hee. This is so much fun getting to know the movie tastes of each other. =)
I actually have 21 Friends, but really only half of them actively use Netflix. But yeah, even with that, the Recent Activity list is unruly. I do look forward to improvements here, whenever that may be.
I must say, I do feel more inclined to write more reviews -- but not becuase I want to raise my rank. Rather, I want to be able to share my movie opinions with my Fans who can't see the hundreds of Mini-Reviews I've already written for my Friends. I think it would be awesome if mini-reviews were brought back and if they were visible to Fans as well Friends. Or if "Fans" were one of the checkboxes that could be selected when writing a Note. Of course, in the case of Fans, it would have to work for current and future Fans... but I think Notes should work for current and future Friends too. Also, I don't think it should send e-mails to Fans when written, but it would show up on the movie pages under a new section: "What your Favs Thought". You see, there are plenty of opinions I don't want to bother the general Community with in a full review, but which I'd like to share with someone who specifically selects me as a Fav.
@Anon - I had just assumed the cutoff was 65% because that is the lowest I had seen. Perhaps its 4 random people from the 100 (or whatever) most similar to you.
I am comforted with the thought that there is a very special place in hell reserved just for spammers.
I thought it was called Nigeria...?
Congratulations to talltale! #1 with a bullet!
AngelMonkey said:
I think it would be awesome if mini-reviews were brought back and if they were visible to Fans as well Friends. Or if "Fans" were one of the checkboxes that could be selected when writing a Note. Of course, in the case of Fans, it would have to work for current and future Fans... but I think Notes should work for current and future Friends too. Also, I don't think it should send e-mails to Fans when written, but it would show up on the movie pages under a new section: "What your Favs Thought". You see, there are plenty of opinions I don't want to bother the general Community with in a full review, but which I'd like to share with someone who specifically selects me as a Fav.
It's like she's inside my brain! I cannot stress how much I agree with this, and how much more useful I think it would make the Netflix community page...
I am wondering how I can easily access a review written by one of my "faves" when they are a prolific reviewer (200+) and the movie may also be heavily reviewed by others. Doing a keyword each through all of those pages seems too tedious. But when I receive notice that a fave of mine has posted a new review, the hotlink for the movie takes me only to the movie page, rather than directly to the review I'm interested in reading. Any way around this?
Don’t have faves yet so I don’t know if there is an easy work-around.
The following thoughts are sorta related in that they have to do with easily getting at a reviewers reviews.
It is a task to get through someone’s ‘more reviews by’ list when they have hundreds of reviews. Some collapsed form of an alphabetical list might be help. Smaller images, or none maybe. Title and reviewers ratings ofc. The ability to expand and collapse reviews individually or by full list for those who prefer browsing through on ‘all expanded.’
Ordered by date written only helps when you want to see their most recent stuff regardless of what it is. Perhaps a choice of how they are ordered? Date written or title?
I was wondering if we could have a little button or link marked ‘review’ when going through a reviewer’s five star rated movies. As long as I can ‘open the link/button in another window’ to read that review it would work. But better yet would be to have the review pop-up, like the movie info does, without opening another page at all.
I use other peoples rated movies to rate more of my own now, but I also add a lot of movies to my queue when I’m doing that too. It would be nice to see someone’s review as well as the movie info without leaving their 'rated page.' If I’m still undecided I can still open the movie link and read the other reviews. But this way I would have instant access to a review by a person who’s already proved themselves useful.
Becky
@Michael - I may have found a bug, though not sure why it happened. Yesterday, I added Angelmonkey as a Fave, but today she was not in my Fave list.
@Angelmonkey - Did you toggle your privacy on/off in the last day? If so, that might explain it.
M from N said - *...they do get points for you adding movies to your Queue, a little bit. They get more points if that movie actually SHIPS to you. *
The only pity of this is that it doesn't take into account the other very important function of reviews, which is to protect readers from stinkers. Bad for Netflix perhaps, but good for flixers. The 'helpfuls' can obviously reflect the 'phew!' of a bullet having been dodged, but I'm wondering if there there isn't some additional way to thank people for persuasively waving us off the occasional dogs that get recommended? Or are we being encouraged to only write-up movies we loved?
I'll give you this Michael : along with the slight discomfort that I (as one of those much vilified introverts) feel about being evaluated and then either embraced or rejected (much too curious to go into hiding) there's a definite new crackle and buzz on the site as networks (of movie opinions, not people, he quickly added!) begin to expand and interweave across the country. Excellent 'Vision Thing', Sir!
#6mill…That’s an interesting point.
It also occurred to me to wonder if a reviewer gets points taken away if we then come back and rate a movie low that we watched on their recommendation.
Becky
pst Anon, Ditto on the vision thing, still woulda worked dandy as an opt-in tho. ;)
@Baff - No, I haven't touched my privacy option. I'm still public as ever... and you're still showing up in my Fans list, so it probably is a bug. The only thing that may have changed is that I added you to my Favs last night. However, on my end it seems to be working fine -- you just show up as both a Fan and a Fav.
I've been following the site on and off and I think it's doing a great job, and this is a great resource for people. However, I have some question that have nothing to do with the current thread:
1) I can't find a link to the netflix blog on the site anymore. It used to be under Community, but I can't find it.
2) My friend is able to just click and drag his queue to rearrange them - I can't. Is this a java/flash/whatever problem that I need to upgrade?
3) We really need to be able to rate movies .5 stars. Like 3.5, 4.5, etc. If we're already able to do this I apologize, but I can't. I can only do whole stars.
Foster--read back over the blog entries from the last month...all of your points have been discussed at length (and mostly aren't settled yet).
I may have missed this, but does it affect our rating if a friend adds a movie from a Movie Note of ours?
@Forster - Let's give Baff a breather.
1. It's now at the bottom of the page (was apparently confusing people where it was, unlike now!!).
2. A recurring complaint from people. Check with customer service. They're all in Portland, OR now, hence very nice and helpful.
3. If you have a spare 1/2 hour check Todd's post on stars in the archives.
Here another concern… It relates to an old problem of mine but a new aspect didn’t occur to me till just now.
My concern is backlash. Now, with ‘friends and faves,’ and later when we will see a ‘top list’ of most influential reviewers. I’m wondering if the ability to mulit-vote on a review won’t become much, much more of a problem.
I think I mentioned before that at one point, I seemed to have had all my reviews come under attack. Movies that were highly unlikely to have anyone finding and reading them got roughly the same amount of ‘not helpful’ votes as movies that were highly likely to be seen. (as long as they remained in most recent that is)
That happened shortly after writing reviews on politically controversial titles btw. I think they just followed the review from the movie page back to my ‘reviews & lists’ page and used that to mark all my reviews ‘not helpful.’
Now, I’m afraid people might target highly influential people in the same way to reduce their rank and attempt to reduce their influence. Like people with unusual tastes, or obvious or supposed political or social leanings for example.
Has/can anything be done to keep that from happening?
What about the general practice of misusing the ‘helpful’ and ‘unhelpful’ as a means of punishing and rewarding? Can/Should anything be done to address that?
I’m not sure what any of those numbers under my reviews really mean anymore.
Becky
ps Foster,
1) The blog link moved to the very bottom of the community page.
2) Sorry, it seemed to boil down to what version of browser and what release you have. (whether you have everything fully installed that you should. It’s all buried in the other posts somewhere.
3) Half stars is a common request. No word yet as I recall on if that might be adopted.
I think you have to find a better place for this blog. I was a daily blog reader, and took me more than a day to fin its new location. Seems to be almost invisible to newcomers.
@Becky. Totally agree about punishing/rewarding/gaming/etc., but it seems that the only thing NF can do is to only allow each account member to vote ONCE (as with the flag and the poll, no whatever-the-hell-that-was intended) - and I'm pretty appalled that they haven't yet got around to doing that since it's always been a glaring bug, and has been a major complaint for months now. But how could they stop someone from e-mailing everyone in their address book and telling them to "go forth and smiteth the evil Becky", pray tell?
@Angel I re-added you to my Faves as soon as I noticed you were gone. You disappeared off sometime after you added me as a Fave, because last night I saw you in both lists (Fan/Fave).
Someone else vanished off my Fave list about an hour ago, not sure who it was.
@Harry - Thanks!
j,
Don’t know… but we’re much more likely to scare up one nut-job with no life than to scare up one nut-job who also has a bunch of friends that do his bidding.
I do know that I found it discouraging. Since genuine votes roll in so slowly, my strongest incentive to continue writing reviews in the face of it, was just plane obstinance.
That’s the irony of my particular situation too.
On one hand my ‘reviews & lists’ page has been a nuisance because it allows easy access if anyone did want to attack them.
On the other hand you want that available so that people who genuinely want to read and vote on your reviews in an honest fashion are able to. (one vote per review either way I can be happy with)
In my case I get a double-whammy of irony and disincentive because I’m now private in order to keep my friends private. Anyone who wants to get to my reviews can’t easily do it anymore using ‘reviews & lists,’ whether they want to attack them, OR whether they want to honestly read/rate them.
That’s my particular Catch-22. (which is a really good movie btw)
Becky
I would be more happy to see netflex work on the delivery issues. Friends and such mean nothing if you end up with us all moving to Blockbuster. The service promised is lacking.
Perhaps you need to have Saturday service made available. Waiting to get a movie for days and days is ridiculous.
If netflex does not improve soon I will be dumping them for Blockbuster.
@anglemonkey
I couldn't agree more... bring back mini-reviews (and convert all my notes back to that format)! I've shied away from writing full-blown reviews (strike it up to longstanding writer's block incurred by too many years of graduate school in english lit.), but have lots of "two-cents" (now notes) which, frankly, are beyond brilliant. :)
I'm a 72% match with you, angel, and so you're my first fave!
Dan
sbxyq☺☺☺ Jon's brain-fart for the day! ☺☺☺
In what direction does the ranking work, ascending or descending?
Just curious if "1" is the best (or worst), doesn't really matter, I got a long way to go either way, my rank is 84837 ;-)
Regarding the link to this blog: why not put it on the secondary navigation line on the Community page? There is only one other thing there, the static text "Community Home", so there's plenty of room to insert the link to this blog there. Have it open in a new window so that even if someone gets confused, there's no harm done as the Netflix website will still be there underneath. Sticking it down on the bottom where no one is ever possibly going to find it is a big waste, and big diservice to your own blog! Doesn't really make much of a difference to me since I read the updates through your RSS feed, so it's not like I need to go searching for a bookmark, but if it's new people you want coming here rather than just the same few you always hear from, hiding the link out of plain site is not the way to attract them.
@Michael - The person that vanished from my Faves list has reappeared on it. Maybe this is similar to the bug that causes people's reviews to come and go? At a guess, I'm thinking data spread across different servers. Server A asks for data from Servers B, C & D. Server C doesn't respond fast enough, so Server A only sends me the data from B & D. I come back later to view the page and I get all the data because the load on Server C is lighter now.
@2mcabre - Yes, 1 is the most influential, 5 million (or whatever) is the least influential.
I would be more happy to see netflex work on the delivery issues. Friends and such mean nothing if you end up with us all moving to Blockbuster. The service promised is lacking.
Development of the community section does not slow down delivery. Two different departments. I get my movies on the 2nd day... like clockwork. Your lack of prompt delivery may have more to do with your proximity to a distr center.
If netflex does not improve soon I will be dumping them for Blockbuster.
Maybe you are closer to a Blockbuster Distr Center and it will indeed work better for, not to mention that it might make more movies available for the rest of us. Good luck!
Maria said : "I think you have to find a better place for this blog".
Yes. Everyone agrees except Michael; and there's insurmountable rub! Although he has been known to change his mind, haven't you, pretty please, very distinguished-looking beard, good eye-contact, etc.... (has it really come to this?) How about in both places, like 'community' is, so it's on every page PLUS where it makes sense for it to be?
Can I throw in another off-topic request? The star ratings that show for movies are currently Netflix's "Buest Guess". I would like to be able to change it so it instead shows the compiled average rating of other users.
Thanks!
I think I mentioned before that at one point, I seemed to have had all my reviews come under attack.
Becky, I hear you. And Katie bar the door should you ever give a negative review to a fanboy film. Try ripping a Superhero or Comic Book or Jackass film and watch your influence free-fall. I think I remember reading something from Michael a few weeks back that addresses this.
re: Mini-reviews
I'm not sure what everyone is talking about; they were gone before I even found about them (through this blog). But I recently commented in the "Killing Movie Notes' Email" post about being able to leave a note about a movie that I watched that my friends (or strangers) can look at if they're interested, but that isn't emailed to them specifically. Is that what everyone means by "mini-reveiws"? If so, add me to the list of those who want it back!
PS: Baff and AngelMonkey are showing up as 85% and 86% similar to me; that's better than the four in the "Members with similar tastes to you" box!
@Becky. I'm sure both scenarios apply. I only suggested the e-mail because the other day I had 25 helpfuls and no unhelpfuls on a movie (and thanks to you all), and suddenly the next day I had 27+ and 18-, suggesting that the word had gone out to demote my review; maybe if every voter's home phone # was revealed....? Oh well, they must be pretty miserable people to be that bitter and punishing about something so innocuous as a movie review, poor things. The trick is not to take it personally -- Michael taught me that, unphazed as he is by criticism, as long as it's well-argued criticism, supported by quotes and examples!
YES, BigRig! The averaged stars are much more dependable; and of course show up when you trigger the description pop-up. I actually brought this up the other day, and Michael seemed a bit surprised 'since Todd works very hard on those star estimates' (to paraphrase), but he said he'd talk to Todd about it. Maybe we need one or two more 'ME TOOs' on this blog and via 'suggestions' on the 'contact us' page. Any other shoulders to the wheel on this?
@ang - Before Notes existed, there were "Two-cent Mini-Reviews." Just like Notes, they were a small blurb you could write on each film. The differences were:
1) You couldn't specify the recipient(s) of the mini-reveiws... all your Friends would see them.
2) E-mails were not sent out when you wrote a mini-review.
3) New Friends would be able to see all mini-reviews you had written prior to them becoming your Netflix Friend.
When mini-reviews were replaced by Notes, all our already written mini-reviews were converted into Notes... so now whenever we add a new Friend, they can't see all our old Notes. The core difference from an engineering standpoint, is that each Note seems to be tied to each person you "send" the Note to, rather than being tied to the movie the Note is about. The intention for the change, I believe, was so that Friends could have one-on-one "conversations" about a movie through Notes. But from what I've heard on this blog, it seems that most people just use them the same way they used to use mini-reviews by selecting to send every Note to "All Friends."
Unfortunately, Notes is awkward at best when used in this manner. So many of us are really hoping that Michael decides to either bring back the mini-reviews or at the very least "fix" Notes so that new Friends (and now Fans) can benefit from all the work we've already done writing them.
I fear that the poll but the final nail in that mini-review coffin. Partly because, in the absence of this excellent description, lots of people didn't know or remember how they worked.
@harry - I fear that a bit as well, but I certainly hope that's not the case. I think the poll was misleading for a few reasons. First of all, many people on this blog never experienced mini-reviews, so they didn't know what they were missing or that bringing back mini-reviews would allow most of the functionality of Notes to remain intact. If I was a new member and didn't know what had been, I probably would have voted to "keep Notes" too because I like the functionality it provides (not knowing that I can get the same desired funtionality out of mini-reviews).
Also, there was an additional choice for the poll that was something like "modified reviews that could be as long as full reviews, but would only be viewable by Friends." So basically... the same as mini-reviews, but not restricted by length. So I think that the votes from the mini-review supporters were split between the "mini-review" choice and this "new review type" choice. And if you added the percents together for those two choices, it actually beat out the "Notes as they currently exist" choice... but only by a couple percent.
"The intention for the change, I believe, was so that Friends could have one-on-one "conversations" about a movie through Notes."
I've only ever used Notes for conversations, never for reviews. I didn't vote on that poll though, since its not a big feature to me.
@mini-reviews
All of my friends lament the change from two-cent reviews to notes, as do I. That's the only poll I'm aware of... if someone can point me to another, I'll cast my vote (unless of course it's too late).
dan
Note on the Average Rating stars-these are still available if you go to the movie page or in the little square that pops up when you hover over the title/box picture. It is just underneath what Netflix thinks you would rate the movie.
Yes Dan, too late. And, just as AngelMonkey said, the confusing maxi-review option really split the vote. Let's just hope that our belovéd Team were smart enough (and of course they were) to add-up the mini and maxi-review votes and listen to the irrefutable lamentations of the people.
Delivery issues-That is more likely due to your area than Netflix not getting your movies out fast enough. I usually get my movies within 1 day, 2 or 3 tops. I've noticed that different places also return them at different time periods-so perhaps it has to do with where you are dropping them off or your mailman. Blockbuster doesn't even come close to Netflix-never did like them-your loss i spose!
@cynder66. Re : "Note on the Average Rating stars-these are still available if you go to the movie page or in the little square that pops up when you hover over the title/box picture."
Very true, but it's really annoying having to open the pop-up or the movie page for every movie, since many of us find the averaged stars a much more useful guide that the computer estimate of what we might possibly, but not necessarily, rate a movie. I'd just propose reversing it, so that everyone sees the same member average vote (which effectively eliminates the highest and lowest votes) throughout the site, but can see their computed rating on the pop-up and movie page.
@AngelMonkey... thanks for the explanation about notes/mini-reviews. I think "two-cent mini-reviews" are exactly what I was wishing we could have. Can I change my vote? I want a recount! :)
So far a fascinating cyber-social experiment. The only part that doesn't seem to add anything to the mix is the ranking system, which is at best amusing, and at worse anxiety-provoking. And may your good-hearted and fair-minded members across the land prove me wrong, but I'd be really interested to know how many helpful votes and movie additions #'s 1 through 10 got today, who'll inevitably become targets to 'knock off his/her pedestal' even though they never submitted their names for this crowning. And what I can be absolutely sure of is that even if you're at 3,674 there's little or no incentive to claw you're way to 3,623 by writing reviews and lists through the night for the next 6 months. In a word : Gameshowzeitgeist. And I know that you're classier than that.
Hey. I'm heading out to the movies, but i wanted to say one thing: Why do you want the blog link back in the subnav? You all know where it is, so it must be because you want others to find it. I want others to find it too, but not at the expense of people doing what they came to netflix to do, and that's to find some movies. The blog is a distraction to that. I'm glad it's available - a link on every page of the site. I think that's a move up, frankly. Yes it was great having it in the subnav, but we have the greater good to think of, and in spite of your honest attempts to convince me of ways to present this site without being confusing, i'm sorry. it is to a lot of people. you're special. face it. if you can convince me somehow of the value of this blog (and i say this honestly: there are thousands of people who read this, but we have MILLIONS of members); I'll bet that most people are fine with being able to find it once they have heard of it.) But please: explain why it should be up there. I'm interested. Should I make a new posting?
Michael, simply so more people can find it, whether they're looking for it or stumbling across it, which adds to the diversity of voices (no offense guys). If you were to send out a mass mailing to let every member know where it is you'd never hear a peep out of us again, but you seem very resistant to doing that as well. You're a very hard man to persuade. And probably just as well or this site would be changing by the minute rather than by the week!
Michael, there's a big ole honking SPAM post on the Netflix Privacy thread. It's been there quite a while so I thought I'd point it out. Don't want him to benefit from posting it there.
If this blog is such a bothersome distraction, then why not just do away with it? If it is informative or helpful in any way, why not make it easier to find by putting the link back in the subnav?
Seriously, people who want to find movies will find them and still have time to read/post here. We are not so narrow slow that it's one or the other, and I don't mean just the people who have already found the blog.
From your comments over the weeks I've gotten the impression that you really don't think much of the intelligence or common sence level of Netflix members in general.
Have a little faith. We might surprise you.
I agree with Michael, I don't think the vast majority of people have any real interest in reading this blog and certainly not slogging through all our debates. Most the people who are really interested have found it.
What I think a lot more people would be interested in is a "Future Netflix Features" page. Something simple like:
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Here are some of the features we are working to add to the Netflix website over the next few months:
** Instant Watching for Mac & Linux!
** Half star ratings!
** Mini-reviews for Friends & Faves!
For more details and a chance to give us feedback on these features (and other possible future features), come check out our blog!
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Its simple, direct, only needs to be updated every month or 2, and in 1 minute customers can get a rough idea of what's coming. If they want to know more, they just click the link to the blog.
Blog-link:
Not only do light Flix users not want to see this blog in my experience, they get pissed even knowing it exists. None of my friends want to do anything other than easily and quickly, find, rent, and watch movies. And I even had one of them get angry just hearing me talking about this blog and the community stuff.
“What don’t they get! All I want to do is rent movies!” I’m serious, I was fielding flack for Netflix this past Sunday.
They resent anything at all that complicates their doing just that. Move something, make them have to run a new maze to do the same thing they already knew how to do, and they are right to be angry, to consider it stolen time. ‘Zip-zip my queue is full, on to the next thing.’ That’s how I suspect the vast majority really want it. They do not like clicking a link and finding themselves in unfamiliar territory. And it’s not that they are stupid, they may be smarter than us actually, it’s because they just don’t want to spend the time.
It makes sense to me that Michael would make the link easy to find but not easy to stumble into. This is a pretty ugly and unwieldy thing going on here. As useful (hopefully) as it maybe, it’s not pretty. You hang your washing out back, not out front. I’m with Michael on this. Make it too obvious and a lot of confused, angry people are going to show up making it even more unwieldy. They will use it to try and report broken discs and such. The only people really interested in this kind of thing are the kind of people that will find and follow a link that shows up at the bottom of the pages anyway.
BTW Michael:
Is that a serious number, for real? Thousands reading this blog? That should be eno