• OpenStars@piefed.social
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    8 days ago

    A LONG time ago back when Netflix first started its rating system was its major speak. I recall articles saying that even if you did not pay for the service, you should make an account just simply to use its rating system to decide your next watch (and then go get them at Blockbuster or something:-P). My, how things have changed in the meantime…

      • OpenStars@piefed.social
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        7 days ago

        I remember finding a list of the top 100 movies of all time - stuff like Schindler’s List - and perhaps other lists of like most popular in a given year, and only 2 of those were offered via their streaming service at the time (the others only available from their DVD mailing service). Hancock was one, to give you an idea of what that looked like. There is a reason people started calling it “Shitflix”. 🤣

        • 14th_cylon@lemmy.zip
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          5 days ago

          There is a reason people started calling it “Shitflix”. 🤣

          is the reason “teenagers who can’t separate their mouth from their ass wanted to sound edgy, but ended up sounding like a clown instead”?

          you do understand that netflix is not a movie archive of all humanity and it is unreasonable to expect it will have all movies from a list spanning across centuries, cultures, regions and genres… right?

          • OpenStars@piefed.social
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            4 days ago

            Actually, originally I think it was tongue-in-cheek, as Netflix originally intentionally focused on the long-tail part of the distribution. Also the wording was journalists writing articles iirc, even if emulating edgelords (or possibly spreading it after having read on the likes of 4chan:-P).

            And then as its selection went down - tbf that had little to do with Netflix and more with other companies trying to copy its success, like Disney Plus for their content, and Paramount Plus for theirs, and so on - it started more and more to ring true. Especially as it started showing “ads”, like at the end of a series it would start auto-playing some previews of some other show. They always walked each such decision back, but at first when they released each one there was no way to turn it off, and then after a month or so it would become possible to log into a computer browser (on a totally separate device) and change the default setting, which would affect your TV also.

            I’ve had Netflix since before it offered streaming, and I am always perpetually pissed off at it and thinking of cancelling after each decision to push forward the enshittification. Again, some of which is not its fault.

            Netflix is just an enormously controversial company. Usually I get people pissed off at me for saying that I even so much as use it, while you seem to be offering the opposite thought. Regardless, it’s a company that people tend to have strong feelings about:-P.

    • samus12345@sh.itjust.works
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      8 days ago

      That seems counter-productive, since Netflix was far cheaper than paying per movie at Blockbuster. I used to use Blockbuster the opposite way, going there to browse for movies to order from Netflix. I do miss being able to browse at a physical store.

      • whynotzoidberg@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        The real ones had blockbuster deliver by mail, then returned those discs in store same day so to prompt the next delivery. I think it was a buck cheaper than Netflix at the time, too. Yargh

      • OpenStars@piefed.social
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        7 days ago

        But, before Blockbuster started its own mailing service, you would have to wait several days for your video choice to arrive. Plus there’s the convenience of having it mailed directly to you, especially if you lived further away from a Blockbuster store I guess. Back when Netflix had virtually nothing to watch (as opposed to later when it merely has nothing WORTH watching, hehe🤪), it wasn’t so bad to have like one season of an old Star Trek mailed to you, even if you went to Blockbuster for actual movie titles.

        More realistically, the article I am half recalling was probably trying to drum up subscriber numbers when Netflix was young and first starting out.

        Anyway the point was that at one point in time their ratings system was actually considered quite GOOD, back before they got into pushing crap that they would rather you watch instead of stuff that you might actually enjoy.