Comments on The Official Netflix Blog: "Latest Reviews"

Showing the reviewer's sim% isn't important to me ...

2007-09-10T03:45:00.000-07:00

Showing the reviewer's sim% isn't important to me because I haven't seen any with high sims who actually have the same tastes as me.

But a feature that might be kind of interesting to think about adding some time down the road would be to view random reviews by genre. Sometimes, I'll watch ten movies go by in genres that don't interest me and I get bored and stop looking.

Michael @ netflix,Personally, I love the "Latest R...

2007-09-02T12:37:00.000-07:00

Michael @ netflix,

Personally, I love the "Latest Reviews" section. It is a place for me to stumble on a film I may have dismissed or overlooked, as well as, amusing snipets from members who's taste in film is... er... um... "different" than mine. Actually the reviews (posting and reading) is the main reason I log on with such obsessive regularity. However, I have had a serious issue with getting my new reviews (approx 10 over the last 2 weeks) posted. Customer service was no help and other members, clearly, are not having the same issue. Perhaps my cust service code (892 145) could help you shed some light on this issue I am having.

JayMikey in Baltimore

It would be useful if I could display the posted r...

2007-08-27T09:09:00.000-07:00

It would be useful if I could display the posted reviews with highest percent similarity first. What I am really interested in is what the movie reviewers, who rate movies like I do, thought of the movie. Now I have to search through pages of reviews to find the reviewers with highest similarity.

This feature is annoying and unnecessary.Just beca...

2007-08-20T09:09:00.000-07:00

This feature is annoying and unnecessary.
Just because you watch a movie does not mean you have the skills to adequately write about it. Most of these reveiws are terrible and not helpful.
You should hide this feature and make it available to those who wish to view. NOT A FEATURE THAT AUTOMATICALLY POPS UP.

thank you

@Michael, from NetflixThank you for the prompt res...

2007-08-19T22:09:00.000-07:00

@Michael, from Netflix

Thank you for the prompt response! I know it's something others have pointed out before, but this one example was just the last straw for me... I like the reviews, I care about them and it ticks me off when they're not working/used the way they're intended to.

But the flags only deal with the problem after the...

2007-08-19T20:22:00.000-07:00

But the flags only deal with the problem after they've jammed up the system. As I've asked before, why not also address the problem at the source, where people write and submit their review? A note spelling out that it can't be used to report a disc problem since it won't be read by the appropriate dept, so they must use the link in their queue. In fact even if they click "See our Review Guidelines...." it's not clearly spelled out. And these nimrods... I mean... much appreciated subscribers clearly need VERY specific instructions.

@Knaldskalle,it IS ridiculous, and it should be ad...

2007-08-19T13:37:00.000-07:00

@Knaldskalle,
it IS ridiculous, and it should be addressed in an upcoming release in september. We've been tuning the FLAGS to be more responsive. I'll let you know when it's revised.

I would really like it if SOMEONE would do SOMETHI...

2007-08-19T13:04:00.000-07:00

I would really like it if SOMEONE would do SOMETHING about the totally irrelevant reviews that seem to pop up all the time. Take a look at top reviews of "An Enemy of the People" page, for instance. Not one of them have anything to do with the movie in question! One is obviously a review of the wrong movie, the other is a message to the Netflix staff and the third is a reprimand of the first review. It's ridiculous!

I have found this "community" movement displeasing...

2007-08-16T13:43:00.000-07:00

I have found this "community" movement displeasing. I've been a Netflix member since 1999 and have never been disappointed by any major website changes until now. I loved the addition of 'Friends' but I don't like the 'Community' at all. If I want the opinions of people I don't know, I'll look at them on the reviews on individual titles. I really preferred the 'Friends' tab as it was. There needs to be a way to set the community to default to friends. A user shouldn't have to bookmark another page to get to a page that was previously a top-level page. The large "latest reviews" box is rather obnoxious. I wish there was a way to dismiss it the way you can dismiss suggestion boxes on the homepage.

Ditto on mac/firefox. I just ignore the error sign...

2007-08-15T17:50:00.000-07:00

Ditto on mac/firefox. I just ignore the error sign now because the reviews seem to appear anyway.

There seem to be a few "Submit Review" buttons bro...

2007-08-15T14:56:00.000-07:00

There seem to be a few "Submit Review" buttons broken or at least not working properly on my browser (Vista)...for instance, this disc, when I click "Submit Review" always comes up saying "Review Submission Error", and I;ve tried dozens of times now: http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Lost_Treasures_of_the_Ancient_World_The_Seven_Wonders_of_the_Ancient_World/70047200?dmode=ATAGLANCE&lnkctr=mdp-backToAtAGlance&n=1&trkid=202653

"It gives me more insight to the member's personal...

2007-08-13T19:27:00.000-07:00

"It gives me more insight to the member's personality than just a user name".

That's the problem. We either come across as dull for leaving the default one, dopey for posting our cat or pretentious for assigning ourselves the Chinese character for wisdom. I'd rather come to the review without preconceptions, including (and maybe especially) the fatal curse of a low sim%. But I seem to be TOTALLY alone in these feelings, so am clearly an idiot.

"Isn't anyone else interested in seeing this reviv...

2007-08-13T19:01:00.000-07:00

"Isn't anyone else interested in seeing this revived?"

Most people never filled it in, which is obviously why they dropped it, but I don't see the harm in providing a space for those who want to. I, like most people, it seems, would prefer to remain anonymous, but would also be curious to know a little something about the reviewer. Humans!

I like the sim%, but how about one more line of te...

2007-08-13T18:32:00.000-07:00

I like the sim%, but how about one more line of text before having to click the "read more" link? I would like to go directly to this person's reviews page to read more.

I like the avatars. It gives me more insight to the member's personality than just a user name.

How about a scroll feature to skip through the movies I don't like and stop on the ones I am interested in.

Isn't anyone else interested in seeing this revive...

2007-08-13T12:16:00.000-07:00

Isn't anyone else interested in seeing this revived?

No.

I love the avatars, so don't boot them! I like the...

2007-08-13T09:15:00.000-07:00

I love the avatars, so don't boot them! I like the sim%, although making it smaller would be fine. Having a way to scroll through all the reviews quicker would be good: A one-liner with a "read more" prompt would be fine. I liked the profile sketch that Netflix used to have. I could read a few words about the reviewer and in most cases, I knew whether I would like the same movies that he/she did. Isn't anyone else interested in seeing this revived?

With the new layout, is there any way to create a ...

2007-08-12T10:05:00.000-07:00

With the new layout, is there any way to create a placeholder for the movie picture/cover art? When I'm looking at something at the bottom of the page, the text on the page jumps up and down every time the reviews list is updated. After staring at it for a few minutes I realized it's because when it switches to a new review, the picture for the movie disappears and then reappears, causing the review itself to shrink and grow. It's really hard to concentrate on other parts of the page.

I think it's great..I love to read the comments an...

2007-08-11T20:45:00.000-07:00

I think it's great..I love to read the comments and the similarity to mine percentage..

Speaking of customer service, I have to second a c...

2007-08-11T01:08:00.000-07:00

Speaking of customer service, I have to second a complaint on another thread about the sudden loss of e-mail help. It certainly explains why so many everyday user problems are showing up in these blogs! The service was always pretty terrible - a 3 day wait, and then often a generic and unhelpful reply - but surely it would have made more sense to improve it rather than just shut it down? It's not only frustrating, but often just not possible to stay on the line for extended periods.

Just wondering if it wouldn't be worth assigning a...

2007-08-10T23:03:00.000-07:00

Just wondering if it wouldn't be worth assigning a couple of customer service personnel to monitor these threads and respond to whatever questions they can as they come up. Many of these posts can obviously be dealt with as chalk marks in column A, B, C, or D, but definitely not all, which can give one a bit of a sense of whistling in the wind.

Hello, thanks for all the proposed changes and har...

2007-08-10T21:18:00.000-07:00

Hello, thanks for all the proposed changes and hard work you must be doing. I would be happy if the reviews I wrote actually showed up. Lately its not happening at all. Its so bad I might leave netflix.

I find myself, much like M.Oron said... disagreein...

2007-08-10T18:47:00.000-07:00

I find myself, much like M.Oron said...
disagreeing with a lot of high sim%'s and agreeing with a lot of lower sim%'s , no rhyme or reason to it! I also dislike the "proposed" look more than I dislike the one we have now....
keep trying please!

Tough call, Freedom of Cluelessness an' all that....

2007-08-10T18:41:00.000-07:00

Tough call, Freedom of Cluelessness an' all that. Plus they themselves, friends or family usually give them at least one vote. Maybe 5 flags, properly adjudicated by Netflix, and you're out?

One thing that might help weed out a few reviews t...

2007-08-10T16:54:00.000-07:00

One thing that might help weed out a few reviews that clog up popluar movies is to stop showing reviews that more than 5 people have deemed "unhelpful" without anyone calling them "helpful". That way, you wouldn't have to sort through a bunch of "0 out of 10 people found this review helpful" reviews. People can always reserve the right to edit and resubmit a review.

Since the major hit of the new changes seems to be...

2007-08-10T06:22:00.000-07:00

Since the major hit of the new changes seems to be the high sim%, why not, as some have suggested, just post the top 25, 50, 100,... (depending on the brain-drain involved) ? I sometimes see the spinning circles 'thinking' just to get 4 (or 1, 2 or 3!), so the list could obviously only be updated once every 24 hrs instead of constantly. I know it's rather prosaic compared to this playful spin-the-bottle approach, but I think that's what people REALLY want : a good old fashioned list of like minded movie-mates. Thanks.