Comments on The Official Netflix Blog: Your Profile Page

Netflix is fucked up. They appear to sort comment...

2008-09-05T20:53:00.000-07:00

Netflix is fucked up. They appear to sort comments based on whether or not you approve of a movie. If you don't approve, they bump your review to the end of the list. Since many movies have 8-9 pages of reviews, being at the end of the list means your review essentially DOES NOT EXIST, because no one will ever see it. Is it so hard to have a fair review system?

Is ther a way to comment on or connect with (someo...

2008-08-04T02:08:00.000-07:00

Is ther a way to comment on or connect with (someones) review?
Nikka.be@hotmail.com

Why are profiles going away?

2008-06-18T17:40:00.000-07:00

Why are profiles going away?

Paul,They're not ignoring you. Fact of the matter ...

2007-11-09T17:17:00.000-08:00

Paul,

They're not ignoring you. Fact of the matter is that movie studios require copyright protection on all streamed/downloaded content (currently in the form of Digital Rights Management or DRM). Microsoft was willing to license their DRM, Apple was not.

If you really want to use Instant Watch on a Mac, use Boot Camp and install a MS OS. Or give Apple a call and voice your displeasure directly to the source.

I think it is shameful for Netflix to be ignoring ...

2007-11-05T14:50:00.000-08:00

I think it is shameful for Netflix to be ignoring all the Mac users wishing to use "watch Instantly". They should give serious consideration to all of us that elected to use a better computer; MAC OS 10.5 on Intel can do anything. Only the lack of foresight and consideration could possibly explain ignoring us.

It has been mentioned that 'most watched actors' s...

2007-11-01T14:44:00.000-07:00

It has been mentioned that 'most watched actors' stat tends to favor actors that are in a lot of movies. I have a suggestion:

Instead of counting the raw number of films staring an actor seen by the user, why not tally a percentage of that actors movies seen by the user. Thus, if I see 25/28 Jason Lee movies, and 30/55 Tom Hanks movies, its clear I'm a bigger fan of Lee (89%) than Hanks (55%).

Of course, it may be wise to throw in a minimum of maybe 5 movies to enter consideration. Otherwise people who are only in 1-2 movies will often rank highly just by coincidence.

This is cool, and I've been looking for "my" profi...

2007-10-31T12:11:00.000-07:00

This is cool, and I've been looking for "my" profile page, but I can't seem to access it. When I go to the tab marked "profile" it just gives me all the options, not the page itself.

@ML - I don't work for Netflix, I am just a helpfu...

2007-10-30T10:06:00.000-07:00

@ML - I don't work for Netflix, I am just a helpful reader here. Michael gets every post as an email though, so I'm sure he saw it.

I'm going to redo my profile description soon, think I will add my rating scale and star percentages to it. My 5-stars are about 10%. My 1-stars are about 1%. I've seen a lot more 1-star movies than that, I just don't remember their titles (I tend to remember the ones I paid to see rather than the tons I saw on TV over the years).

I think that is a great point, ML. I think it is ...

2007-10-26T10:22:00.000-07:00

I think that is a great point, ML. I think it is important to be able to see if the reviewer is an "easy grader." In my case less than 3% of the films I rate are 5 stars.

One thing I would like to see added to profiles is...

2007-10-23T13:39:00.000-07:00

One thing I would like to see added to profiles is the percentage of movies rated 1 star, 2 stars, etc.
So if I see that 30% of a person's ratings are 5-star, then I know that that person is an "easy grader".

ML in Orlando

Baff, I hope you’re still reading this topic. I di...

2007-10-23T13:29:00.000-07:00

Baff,
I hope you’re still reading this topic. I didn’t want to post this “off topic” and this is the best place I could find. I’m posting this not because I’m cynical, and no, I don’t follow all of these practices. I am posting this to help address problems with showing people their reviewer ranking, and with the ranking system itself. I don’t consider all of the points below to be “bad”, but like many good things, they can be misused.
How to increase your “Reviewer Rank”:
1) Always give a positive review.
a. Netflix gives points for reading a review, then adding the movie to a queue. If you write a negative review, and the reader doesn’t add the movie to his/her queue you get nothing.
b. People click on a movie because they’re interested. A positive review confirms their choice, and they find it more “helpful”.
2) Don’t review controversial movies.
a. No matter what you say about a Michael Moore movie, half the readers will find it “not helpful” because they disagree.
3) Don’t disagree.
a. This goes back to point number 1. No matter how eloquently you write, if you give a bad review to a popular movie, everyone will find it “not helpful”.
4) Tell people this movie is “the best”.
a. For some reason, stating that a movie is the “best” comedy, documentary, Matt Damon movie, etc. really raises your “helpfuls”.
5) Review movies before anyone (including you) sees them.
a. This puts your review at the top of the list. More people will see it, hence more influence.
b. Watch the “New Releases” area for movies you can review first.
6) Review unknown movies.
a. You have little influence when you’re 1 of 1436 people who reviewed the movie “300”. But if you’re the only person to review “Interkosmos” you have more influence. Be sure to give it a positive, “Best”, “must see” review. See Nos. 1 & 4.

ML in Orlando
Reviewer Rank 597

"Is there an easy way to find those whose similari...

2007-10-21T21:31:00.000-07:00

"Is there an easy way to find those whose similarity is the closest to my own?"

Not exactly 1-click easy, but... On the bottom of the community page is a box with 4 similar people to you. It randomly displays 4 from the 50 (or whatever) most similar to you. You can reload the page every 10 minutes or so to get a new set of 4 people. I have marked the most similar to me as faves so I can easily find them again.

"Also, I am ranked 2,422 as a reviewer - how can I see the top reviewers?"

You can't...yet. Michael has said that they are working on some sort of list.

Is there an easy way to find those whose similarit...

2007-10-21T11:04:00.000-07:00

Is there an easy way to find those whose similarity is the closest to my own?

Also, I am ranked 2,422 as a reviewer - how can I see the top reviewers?

FEEDBACK: What I want is the ability to pull in m...

2007-10-21T08:18:00.000-07:00

FEEDBACK: What I want is the ability to pull in my existing contacts from GMail, Hotmail, Outlook, etc and like the other community sites, (FaceBook, et al) is to find out which of them is already a subscriber and to have the option of adding them as a friend. SO LONG AS NETFLIX does NOT abuse this information by spamming my contacts with invites. But it would help me interact with my friends and family more.

More of a Good Samaritan, I'd say. And having done...

2007-10-14T08:31:00.000-07:00

More of a Good Samaritan, I'd say. And having done a bit more research I'm sure you're right about the site. Guess I'm just rather naive, and there are just too many of them to shut down. But I'm surprised that Google wouldn't police their listing better since this was on page 1 of another search I was doing. Let's hope Michael erases this whole exchange before anyone gets arrested by the FCC!

No, I'm just some guy with too much time on his ha...

2007-10-13T23:25:00.000-07:00

No, I'm just some guy with too much time on his hands.

Don't you think that an overtly pirating website (...

2007-10-13T20:49:00.000-07:00

Don't you think that an overtly pirating website (with a pirate as a logo, which I assumed to be ironic) would be shut down by the studios within the first hour of operation?

Incidentally, every other post on these threads seems to be your's, Baff. Are you the official Netflix blog custodian?

Of course, this is a great example of why its so s...

2007-10-13T20:35:00.000-07:00

Of course, this is a great example of why its so silly that Mac users don't have Watch Now access due to lack of a DRM that won't even slow down pirates anyway.

The first section is a list of movies not yet on d...

2007-10-13T20:29:00.000-07:00

The first section is a list of movies not yet on dvd, and a lot of the movies have pirate icons added to them in the upper left corner. Anything is possible, but I'm guessing few (if any) of them are posted legally.

If they're indeed pirated, I really apologize, and...

2007-10-13T19:57:00.000-07:00

If they're indeed pirated, I really apologize, and would be happy for Michael to erase my post. But I read the 'terms of use' very carefully, which suggested that they had all the necessary permissions, as long as it was just for personal use.

Not sure this is the best place to put a link to p...

2007-10-13T19:41:00.000-07:00

Not sure this is the best place to put a link to pirated movies.

Yes, as long as this just remains a voluntary cond...

2007-10-12T14:09:00.000-07:00

Yes, as long as this just remains a voluntary conduit to the outside world (which many people seem to want) and no-one can come knocking on the door of those of us that want to remain anonymous, it seems like a reasonable compromise. Thanks for the response.

Fair enough, Tom. But still, the fact that Netflix...

2007-10-12T13:36:00.000-07:00

Fair enough, Tom. But still, the fact that Netflix would respect people's right and ability to hook up is different from providing (or improving) the hook up tools on our site. If you link your Netflix-self to your far more accessible Facebook-self, all the power to you. But I stand by my assertion that the Netflix site is about finding movies.

Michael said : "I had wanted to provide a place fo...

2007-10-12T13:30:00.000-07:00

Michael said : "I had wanted to provide a place for you to post a link to your outside blog, website, myspace page, etc..."

I was amused to read on your excellent Droid blog that one of your interests is 'social networking on the internet'. Because once people can link their Netflix profile to their social profile, won't that last degree of separation between those that want to hook-up - whether in the real or the virtual world - be gone, despite your assertions that all these new features are solely about finding movies?

Please allow us some way to invite other Netflix u...

2007-10-11T10:41:00.000-07:00

Please allow us some way to invite other Netflix users to become Friends.

At least allow us to choose whether we can be contacted by other Netflix members.

I have several Faves at 80+% that I would LOVE to have as Friends.