I went to get a new phone plan and one of the plans I looked at has Netflix included. Am I counted as a subscriber if it comes bundled with something else I need, but never use Netflix?
I got this same deal from T-Mobile a while back, it gave Netflix with two screens.
Eventually my Dad went and got an upgrade and they raised his price.
He asked to join my plan so we split the bill.
Easy, two screens two accounts, we each had our own login through Netflix family.
I have since moved away for a job, and now he can’t use Netflix because we have different addresses. We can’t use a license we rightfully own as it was originally sold to us.
I wish they offered another video service instead. I’d rather swap to it and not even use it just to spite the hasty cash grab Netflix made.
Yep. I used to share my account with my family before Netflix’s password sharing crackdown. When they did it, I deleted my account day 1.
My dad and my sister just resubscribed separately. Unfortunately, a net win for them. Efectively +1 user. Just one example, but I’m betting this worked for many more of their users.
I understand wanting them to go bankrupt (or be punished some other way) for their business practices, but they still produce a handful of good shows per year, so is it so bad that someone pays them for it? Be glad that enough people are throwing their money away so that you can pick their fruits.
Maybe some day it’s too expensive for your dad and sister and then you are there to show them a better way.
Yep. If you judge how Netflix is doing by Lemmy/Reddit comments alone, you’d think they’d be hemorrhaging subscriptions. But nah. They’re pulling records of money with these policy changes and price hikes. Turns out people just pay up.
Which is good, they still produce a few good shows per year, so be glad that enough people are throwing their money away so that you can pick their fruits.
You’re not gonna like this but that is voting with your wallet! They are voting yes since they are paying for it.
The truth is, we are in the minority. The majority still finds Netflix affordable.
I get that “enshitification” is the hot new buzzword but cold we please give it a rest. Reading this community you start to think that people can’t express that the Internet is not to their liking in any other way.
“Enshitification” does not mean “I don’t like it”. It is specifically about platforms that start out looking too good to be true and turn to shit when the user base is locked in. The term is generally used for cases where the decline in quality was pre-planned and not due to external factors. Using the same term each time is, in my opinion, an appropriate way to point out just how common this pattern is.
I think Dr CD outlined a specific arc that companies follow, but the term has been co-opted to mean any process that drives out competition before turning the screws on their customers. Did Netflix follow the three steps?
Netflix was certainly good to its subscribers 15 years ago.
Were they then good to their business customers (studios) at the cost of the users? I don’t think they were ever good to studios.
Have they now clawed back surpluses for themselves? Abso-fuckin-lutely.
I think step 2 is the key to the original definition, and the one commenters often ignore. All companies burn cash to get started. All companies try to become a monopoly, and monetize everything once they do.
Step 2 is doubly true. Because not only did they steal the studios users, and dent their profit margins being competitive, they also went out and became their own studio.
Out of survival in a way, but their brand is so strong they keep most of users despite any conversion rate Netflix’s competitors have.
Aha I see what you’re saying. It’s possible that dr CD considered the second part to be crucial, but it doesn’t seem that people who listened to his message felt the same way, myself included. I probably speak for a lot of people when I say we hadn’t realized just how much these platforms are “subsidized” and how much damage that does to the entire market. So that part ended up being associated in our minds with the term enshittification.
“Enshitification” means a service getting worse in order to charge their customers extra for a service similar to their previously good one. If we’re using the word too much, it’s because it’s happening too much.
I’m fully aware of what the word means, but I’m sick of it being used so often. There are plenty of other words in the English language to describe the situation.
It’s a specific word for a specific situation. If you’re seeing it too often for your liking, I suggest the problem is that there’s too much enshitification.
I never had Netflix. Or any streaming subscription. I considered it once, several years ago, but I couldn’t justify it at prices then, and I sure as shit won’t waste my money now. I’ll help them save their bandwidth.
I didn’t mind the small increase to 11.99, but the way they’re doing this just rubs me the wrong way.
They’re not only increasing the sub price, but tinkering with the display quality too AND laying people off… Netflix just doesn’t deserve my cash when I can access most of this content via other means.
I got rid of a bunch of subs at the beginning of the year, getting rid of NF too.
I had Netflix and Hulu about 10 years ago and it was worth it. Then I dropped Netflix and got Prime. Dropped Prime and Hulu then did Disney+ bundle…that was good but now I sail the seas with friends. So much better. So many movies and shows I would have missed out on.
For a streaming platform to be actually useful it needs to be a almost monopoly like steam. Netflix had a chance but missed the spot, due to the greed of Studios. So it’s back to fractured marked until someone comes with a fresh idea of how to distribute video.
I’m not sure why there are always monopoly apologists popping up in these. You know Netflix isn’t any less greedy than the studios, right? A private monopoly isn’t a good thing.
Most times. But for media, people want to have all their media in one place for a cheap price - so far only monopolistic or oligopolistic services were able to provide that. It worked quite well for games and in some form for music (you will often have single right management companies in the music industry - like BMI in USA or GEMA in Germany). But in general, I would agree that monopolies (outside natural monopolies and those should be run by the state) are unfavorable for the customer.
There’s an alternative. Because of exclusivity deals, you think a monopoly would be good for users, but with a monopoly then the company could charge $200/month because customers literally have nowhere else to go. A better system would be significantly reduced exclusivity so that 1st party media is the only exclusive content. This way, there would be more than 1 or 2 options, but way fewer than what we currently have, and the 5 or so companies remaining would compete based on their own original content, customer service, quality of service, and UI. Streaming apps with only one or two interesting pieces of original content could license out to all of the remaining few streamers and shut down their dead app. I know the quality dropped like a fucking rock, but a few years back people were excited to be subscribed to Disney+ for Wandavision and The Mandalorian. 5 years ago, people were excited to be subscribed to Netflix for Stranger Things and Orange is the New Black.
I was frustrated af a few nights ago trying to find X-Men First Class. Days of Future Past is on Max. X-Men, X-Men: The Last Stand, the 3 Wolverine movies, X-Men Apocalypse, and X-Men: Dark Phoenix are all on Disney+. So where the fuck are X-Men 2 and X-Men: First Class?! To watch the X-Men movies (which are all from the same studios), paying for 2 streaming services isn’t enough?!
and the 5 or so companies remaining would compete based on their own original content
I don’t see how this is any better, since if you want a specific show produced by a specific company you would still need to subscribe to their service, kind of the same problem we having right now.
Again, I’m not arguing for monopolies in general. But with media it’s what customers want - a single service they can access all the media they want, with reasonable prices or a subscription model.
I have two possible solutions then, each with their own drawback.
Solution 1 is to nationalize media. The closest realistic thing is something we already have: libraries. The drawback is that content is massively limited and it’s pretty inconvenient, but the cost is bundled in with other nationalized services like firefighters and the postal service.
Solution 2 is piracy. The drawback is that it’s illegal and you risk prison time and huge fines, but the cost is either free or relatively cheap in exchange for less chance of getting caught, and the selection of content is damn near everything. There is quite a bit of work at the onset, but it is reasonably convenient to enjoy.
Little unfair to say they “missed” anything when they can’t control what studios do with their licenses.
I still see people occasionally complain that Netflix “got rid” of stuff, like the Office. There’s a lot of shitty things you can blame Netflix for, but that isn’t one of them.
It’s also not new. HBO, Showtime, Stars, etc all had rotating on-demand catalogs for years before Netflix, with content appearing briefly before being removed, and no one thought that was odd. I never once heard anyone suggest HBO was shit because Austin Powers or whatever was taken off it. It came with the understanding this content was not permanently available.
Part of it is that people had a bad understanding of what Netflix was, and assumed it would be a permanent replacement for a personal collection. That was always a foolish mindset.
It’s called Radarr, Sonarr, Jellyfin and a big fuck-off hard drive, and they won’t like it.
But yeah, if there was a service with everything in high quality (up to 4K Blu-ray quality for those with the bandwidth) for like £30 a month (with no ads ever, and configurable UI that doesn’t try playing the next episode the millisecond the last one finishes), then they’d get paid for it. The longer they wait, the more entrenched into my setup I’ll be, and harder to wean off it.
It’s so damn great to just be able to power on the TV and instantly start watching what I want.
No navigating through a mess of a menu. No pre roll ads. No “recommended” content all over my stuff. No thinking of which service has what. It’s also a bit faster since I can stream locally.
Netflix started out as a blessing. That’s why I bought a subscribtion intially. Nowadays they’ve been screwed over as much as I have and they suck as much as every other service, but I’m sticking with Netflix. It is the most convenient method for my kids to watch their stupid cartoons and I also get to enjoy something every once in a while. I’ve tried others, but it’s not worth it.
I’m fine with subscription models for audio and video, since the goal is a continuous flow of new entertainment
Not for software. I want to own my software. These days it’s mostly operate since so many are too difficult to own (you want me to subscribe to Office? LoL, I “own” LibreOffice)
Or many service providers competing on price, quality of service and features, not competing on exclusivity like they do now.
Like grocery stores. Imagine if only one chain has the exclusive rights to sell potatoes and another one has rights to pasta. They can ask whatever price they want, because what you gonna do? Go to another store to get your 'taters cheaper? Hah, you’ll cry and you’ll pay what we ask! (BTW, growing your own potatos and sharing them with your neighbor infringes on our rights and is illegal. We’ll sue you to oblivion if we catch you doing it.)
Does not work for media, since media is a good that you need a specific version of. You don’t really care what potatoes you buy (simplification) but if you want to watch a specific show, movie or play a game -you can’t really subsidize it with another. So exclusivity does not work for potatoes but works for media. We would need a global overhaul of copyright to work this one out.
Yet Disney found a pretty creative work around. But that might be a good idea that distribution and production should be separated entities - if well implemented well could solve the problem. Haven’t thought about it.
It totally works for media. Just need a law that says, if a work is published, anyone can distribute it for the same fair licensing fee. That’s the way “cover” music works - any cover band can play any other musician’s work. Nobody can refuse them that right. Then the venue where they perform pays a flat fee to an agency for the license. This doesn’t work great in music, but we could create a better model for streaming. it’s not impossible.
Musik industry has an extra layer of rights management companies that deal with exactly that issue. So I agree, we could create a legal framework or even an industry self regulating system to work that problem out. But I kind of said that already:
We would need a global overhaul of copyright to work this one out.
I think a better example is just physical media sales. Retailers generally all carried the same physical stock. You would occasionally see special editions or something that might only be available at certain stores, but it was extremely rare to only be able to buy certain titles at certain retailers.
Or the prime example: movie theaters. We passed regulations to prevent movie theaters from being bought by studios and used as exclusive avenues for the distribution of certain media. You had a movie, you released it to all movie theaters that wanted it, you couldn’t just make a deal or buy out Regal or Cinemark, or make your own theater. It ensured a level playing field.
One of the biggest problems with streaming that we have simply refused to acknowledge is that the safeguards necessary to create a healthy market, the safeguards we’ve used previously with other distribution models, were never put in place. And we’re seeing the fallout of that now.
I would think in a way it’s like what happens with the music industry. Don’t get me wrong, that industry has its own problems, but for the vast majority of music, I can listen to it on Spotify, YT music, Apple Music, etc. I don’t need to sign up for Sony+ to listen to their artists, etc.
However what about the counter example of car dealerships? Isn’t that the same model as theaters separate from studios? Yet car dealerships have degenerated into a morass of sleazy scam artists who most of us would do better to avoid. I’m a Tesla fan partly because I don’t have to deal with a dealership. How do we either fix car dealerships or prevent theaters or streaming providers from going down this path?
If Gabe cares he also has to open source it. A foundation alone is not really a guarantee, considering it’d be below what Mozilla is doing and they have lots of complaints.
Absolutely. I don’t think Steam is exactly malicious (particularly when compared with publicly traded corporations,) but that said the framework is firmly in place to screw over the vast majority of non-console gamers with a snap of the fingers or a meeting of the board.
The community is slow walking into horse armor (or paid mods if one prefers,) again.
I’ve been thinking about that. It’s the one walled garden I don’t mind, I’ve poured shameful amounts into it but the thought is always there in the background that it can’t go on like this forever.
At the end of the day I don’t mind too much and just try to enjoy it while it lasts, since worst comes to worst I’ll just have to sacrifice some convenience and dive back into full-time piracy to regain access to the vast majority of the content anyway. The wonders of an open platform!
Good point, I think it might have to do with the way music is differently licensed. You will often have a “monopolistic” rights management organization like BMI in USA whereas rights for video and games the rights management lies more with the overarching productions companies.
After seeing this post a couple times (which speaks to its relevance) it got me thinking that enshittification (of the world) will definitely continue until our morale improves, as in until we make them stop. Are there any online collectives that work together to stop this tomfoolery?
Are there any online collectives that work together to stop this tomfoolery?
Same as it has been for the last 100 years: Vote with your money. If you don’t like the product/service, don’t buy it. Stop thinking you can force them to change their offering.
The crackhead down the road wasting away in his own piss and shit isn’t equally “valuable” to me or anybody that contributes to society in a positive manner. I don’t care how you spin it
It basically is saying that if you have more money then you have more “votes”.
That’s simply true. It doesn’t do anyone any good to disregard the facts.
Or to put it in another way: If you have more money you matter more.
That abstraction doesn’t help much. And first of all, it’s more accurate to derive the statement “If you have more money then you have more influence”.
It’s still a shitty status quo, but it is what it is. The worse thing you can do is tell people not to boycott shit products on the basis of rejecting reality. It’d be like telling people not to vote in elections because their vote is a drop in the ocean.
Some people vote for democrats, then they cancel their own vote by getting their internet service from Spectrum, buying fuel from Chevron for their car, shipping their packages using FedEx, getting their phone service from AT&T, banking at PNC Bank, flying on Boeing planes, shopping on Amazon, doing their web searches on a Microsoft syndicate’s site (e.g. DDG), buying Sony devices… etc. They either have no clue that most of their voting is actually for the republicans, or they think that drop-in-the-ocean vote that comes once in 4 years somehow carries more weight than the daily votes they cast with reckless disregard.
Greg Abbott’s war chest is mostly fed by oil companies. If you buy fuel for a car, you help Greg Abbott and other republicans. And if you buy from Chevron, you give the greatest support to republicans (Chevron is an ALEC member).
Same as it has been for the last 100 years: Vote with your money. If you don’t like the product/service, don’t buy it. Stop thinking you can force them to change their offering.
Long term, this is probably the consequence. But to delete a giant tree (or tumour, decide your own mental image) you have to cut it back, then cut it down, then rip out the roots, one after the other.
You can also rip it out at once but you need giant machines and will cause tons of damage to the environment and leave a giant crater.
I dont think capitalism is even the whole tree. Its actually greed and selfishness which needs to go.
People who miss the basic empathy to take from others just because they can need to be educated and - if needed - contained and pathologized as to keep them from winning against the fair and „gullible“. This will be insanely complex and long to eradicate that.
But step one is joining a collective to change things. All positive change came from collectives, never from individuals. Individuals are easy to beat, to intimidate, to silence. But groups are very hard to do this to.
Doing something to lift the dread off your heart and getting change going is the most sane approach imo.
I dont think capitalism is even the whole tree. Its actually greed and selfishness which needs to go.
This is because capitalism glorifies greed and selfishness and considers it the primary driver or human behaviour. Which it isn’t for everyone. Many of us leftists vote left despite it not being in our personal financial beat interests. Sharing is caring etc.
Unfortunately the system is so damn rigged in favour of the multi billionaires.
I think capitalism favors greed and selfishness because greedy, selfish people have corrupted an otherwise useful idea. I dont think the original iteration was bad. We just left the door to the machine room ajar and a bunch of trolls laid some cables to steal power from our generator. Actually a very fitting metaphor. The sad part is that we‘re still trying to agree on the fact that someone is stealing energy.
If you have seen lord of the rings, society is the ents, discussing endlessly if the hobbits are actually hobbits or orcs while their forest is being cut down en masse. Thats how I view humanity atm.
I don’t agree. Capitalism is and has always been about greed. It’s why people invest, to get maximum profits and externalise all the negative side-effects.
I think capitalism works if it’s balanced with socialism and strongly restricted by law as we used to do in the Netherlands and some EU countries still do. Unfortunately the Netherlands was lost to the neoliberals and now to the fascists :( But luckily I don’t live there anymore.
I can see how you arrive at this conclusion. Not sure I necessarily follow it since I invest (and always have) in things I believe in. Buying additional plates is an investment in having guests over for example.
But I‘m also neurologically different from most peeps. The folks that invest without empathy fall into two categories in my head: the ignorant and the evil. The ignorant need to be educated, by force if necessary. The evil need to be stopped.
Still, I can see that capitalism has become corrupted and needs to go. It’s too complicated for everyone to understand its side effects. Maybe even for me. But I still think its people born or raised without a conscience that will corrupt anything we build. Those need to be stopped as well.
Ending capitalism is not the /only/ way. Within a capitalistic system, you can boycott shit. Most consumers are pushovers but it doesn’t have to be that way. I’m boycotting hundreds of shitty companies. Off the top of my head:
Amazon
Cloudflare
Microsoft
Facebook
Google
Apple
(surveillance advertisers in general)
(all closed-source s/w)
HP
Proctor & Gamble
Unilever
all ALEC members (American Express, Anheuser Busch, Boeing, CenturyLink, Charter Communications, Chevron, FedEx, Motorola, PNC bank, Sony, TimeWarner)
A surprising amount of people still ask questions about µTorrent and assume it’s still popular. Apparently there was a lot of value in that brand name. But yeah it’s an utter disaster.
qBittorrent is my choice as well. Deluge is also great, along with Transmission.
And their catalog is actually super small now. My wife and I watch a bunch of horror movies, and I think there’s only like 20. They try to pad that number by pretending that foreign films are actually in English.
And they change the pictures around all the time to make you think it’s something new, when in fact you’ve seen it before. And because it’s bland as all fuck, you notice this like 45 minutes in.
I got a picture of Matt Smith on one horror movie about a black couple. He was in it for like 2 minutes. It wasn’t terrible, but they’re algorithms are basic bitch enough to just go “you white? here’s a white man”
I’ve been spending the last 2 days downloading a bunch of horror, ramping up for when I finally get rid of the rest of our subcription services. I can’t even remember when Netflix’s horror selection was even remotely good. Like they have The Ritual and Apostle, but yeah it’s mostly crap.
Yeah the foreign films coming up are the worst. I’m sure it’s great for the people who speak those languages but I don’t generally find it entertaining to watch with subtitles. It’s annoying when they keep coming up on recommended and even worse when it takes more clicks to see the language then to just start it.
Somehow Netflix thinks I speak Norwegian and I didn’t see a way to turn that off
Anyway -1 premium account, when they started down their path to enshittification
Eh, I’m personally completely fine watching content in other languages and so is pretty much everyone I know. I would never want to limit myself to content in languages I understand. Actually, I think the majority of stuff I watch is foreign content.
But to each their own of course and I guess it couldn’t hurt if they added the option, but I think expecting it as a “fundamental configuration” says more about you than about how bad Netflix is. There are much better arguments for that.
Netflix used to be famously good at suggesting films. Articles were written about it, and there was even a cash reward for anyone who could contribute to its performance. Then it just turned to shit.
And the funny thing is that it would have helped counteract the shrinking library. Sure, there would be fewer films on the platform, so you’d be less likely to find a specific title, but at least you could select a film Netflix recommended based on your past ratings and be fairly confident you’d enjoy it. Now? Absolutely not.
Well this can get quite complicated to implement I suppose. I heard letterboxd works nice for discovery if you are lazy, but I don’t know if they have a jellyfin plugin.
It’s not widely available and its only in Norwegian, sadly.
However, I will second @mkengine proposal for Letterboxd, I think it is the superior site to nerd out on. Discovery can be a challenge, depending on your own level of investment into the medium.
I’m a big ol movie-nerd, and I’m currently grateful to have access to most streaming services through friends/family/partner so I get to browse them if desired.
Apart from that my twitter algorithm is quite skewed towards movies, and I have a “list” on there (curated users you can browse, kind of like a community on here. That’s been great.
Other than that, I listed to podcast, sometimes check out our national newspapers reviews (but most of those reviewers are already in the aforementioned twitter-list) etc.
As for reading on recommender systems and the algorithm for netflix. My work was based around bias and “trust” when it comes to the recommender systems and how much it recommended/pushed “its own agenda” to users despite having differential tastes.
Good keywords I enjoyed was: recommender system bias
I also read some good articles on the spotify recommender systems. But those mostly centered around people growing attached to their algorhitms. It was a fun read.
I find the same thing with music streaming on Spotify. I used to discover lots of new music I liked on it but these days I can’t get it to generate an interesting playlist. It’s songs I already know interspersed with things that are boring. Seems like the recommendations got worse.
I quit Spotify when the “New Library Experience” completely fucked the music library side of the app. If you mostly use playlists, it was a lateral change. If you used it to collect some songs here, and album there, and keep them all sorted, it’s like it dumped your entire collection on the floor and expected a thank-you for the new organization system.
My guess, as others have mentioned, is that Spotify tries to squeeze more profits by pushing certain songs, whether because they get paid to promote them, or the royalties are lower. That’s easier to do with their playlists and recommendations, so they pushed people to that side of the app by making everything else dogshit. And now, apparently, the curated side took it too far and is awful, too.
I still use Apple Music, which is one of like two services that actually let you organize your music in a sensible way outside of playlists. That said, after I cut cords with video streaming services and set up my own library, I think I might do the same with music.
Discovery was always the thing that made streaming services better than buying recordings individually. If these services stop being good for finding new music, then there’s not much reason to keep using them.
Hell, I remember when they had ‘Max’ back when I watched on my PS3. I absolutely loved that it would ask me a bunch of questions and then give me a movie to watch. I’m surprised I haven’t seen that more around, that was an amazing feature.
Movies and TV are some peoples’ hobbies. I have a co-worker who used to spend $300/mo on a cable bill because she had all the movie channels and stuff. She watched tons of movies and shows. At first I thought she was weird for watching so much TV, but then I thought about how much gaming I do, and realized “Oh, that’s just her hobby like gaming is mine.” Granted, I’m not spending $300/mo on gaming, but people do tend to spend money on hobbies. Sometimes even more than $300/mo.
Anyway, I’ve been letting her use my Netflix account – surprisingly neither of us have seen anything from Netflix about it – for the last several years. She recently (finally) got a Smart TV so she cancelled her crazy-ass cable package and I think pays for YouTube TV now. I’m sure she’s watching just as much as TV and movies as ever, but at least she’s saving some money.
You might let her know that she can borrow DVDs from the public library at no cost. Another little-known gratis option is freesat and terrestrial broadcast. I recently started using MythTV as a PVR to record broadcast TV and was pleasantly surprised to find no commercial interruptions (but if there are commercials in her region, MythTV can cut them out).
Uh that makes sense. I guess my original comment is more out of jealousy: I have so many movies that I want to watch, but I have never find the time and energy to do so. After work, dinner, chat, duolingo, and lunch prep for my wife, I barely find any time during my night, and it is kind of frustrating for me.
Last year, I have only finished like less than 5 from like 50 titles.
I am glad people are enjoying their hobby. I personally would not be on Netflix anymore as most of the movie I want to watch is not on there, but I can now kind of see it might be worth it for others.
It also surprises me that this large amount of the population takes movie and TV as a hobby.
Honestly, I was surprised too. I guess given how ubiquitous movies and television are, it never really occurred to me that it could be a hobby. And I bet most people don’t think of it as a hobby, either. When I think of a hobby related to TV/Movies, I think more like “film snobs” (for lack of a better term). Maybe people who watch the AFI 100 or whatever and know all about film and cinematography. But not people just watching TV like anyone else. But by definition, it’s a hobby. It’s “a pursuit outside one’s regular occupation engaged in especially for relaxation.”
For my coworker, she’s single and childless. So she has tons of time to watch movies and shows outside of work. I’m the same, but I devote it mainly towards gaming. Though I could certainly stand to devote less time to my hobby. Or pick up some new ones at least!
Hope you’ll be able to find some more time to watch the movies and show you want!
Ahaha, dang I got so excited before google pointed out I’m an idiot and meant season 4. (But on the other hand, did find out it was renewed for a 4th, so that’s groovy!)
What they don’t advertise is how many of those “new” subscribers are actually from their “emerging” markets such as India, where a subscription price is peanuts. Also, im fairly certain these numbers are intentionally skewed to paint a better picture as they lump in all the “free” accounts people get with their other subscriptions.
I get Paramount+ free with Walmart+.
I get Hulu/Netflix/AppleTV with Tmobile Mobile.
I get Max with ATT Fiber.
I’m sure that these streaming companies have more new subscribers when they literally give it away and simultaneously strangling their existing consumers. It’s more of a question of how long is it sustainable for them to raise prices every time they’re not going to have a record quarter.
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Why is 2018 and 2021 skipped over?
Do you really think these years existed?
Granted, my memory isn’t great. But I think so. Maybe? I’m not sure any more.
They didn’t fit the agenda so they had to be removed.
Their subscriber rate goes up anyway, so they dont care.
Most of the people are to lazy or dont care enough to vote with their wallet unfortunately
I went to get a new phone plan and one of the plans I looked at has Netflix included. Am I counted as a subscriber if it comes bundled with something else I need, but never use Netflix?
yes you are because the plan has some sort of arrangement with netflix whwre they probably get a reduced price, but still counts you as a subscriber
I got this same deal from T-Mobile a while back, it gave Netflix with two screens.
Eventually my Dad went and got an upgrade and they raised his price. He asked to join my plan so we split the bill.
Easy, two screens two accounts, we each had our own login through Netflix family.
I have since moved away for a job, and now he can’t use Netflix because we have different addresses. We can’t use a license we rightfully own as it was originally sold to us.
I wish they offered another video service instead. I’d rather swap to it and not even use it just to spite the hasty cash grab Netflix made.
Yep. I used to share my account with my family before Netflix’s password sharing crackdown. When they did it, I deleted my account day 1.
My dad and my sister just resubscribed separately. Unfortunately, a net win for them. Efectively +1 user. Just one example, but I’m betting this worked for many more of their users.
I actually went out and got Chromecasts + a VPN to my network. Now I just threw it out altogether and set up jellyfin instead.
I understand wanting them to go bankrupt (or be punished some other way) for their business practices, but they still produce a handful of good shows per year, so is it so bad that someone pays them for it? Be glad that enough people are throwing their money away so that you can pick their fruits. Maybe some day it’s too expensive for your dad and sister and then you are there to show them a better way.
Yep. If you judge how Netflix is doing by Lemmy/Reddit comments alone, you’d think they’d be hemorrhaging subscriptions. But nah. They’re pulling records of money with these policy changes and price hikes. Turns out people just pay up.
Which is good, they still produce a few good shows per year, so be glad that enough people are throwing their money away so that you can pick their fruits.
You’re not gonna like this but that is voting with your wallet! They are voting yes since they are paying for it. The truth is, we are in the minority. The majority still finds Netflix affordable.
But is that so bad? Someone has to pay for the content they produce. Just not me.
Nothing bad about it. I’m a big proponent of voting with ya wallet. I usually vote no :p
Today they probably groan and attribute it to inflation tbh
This chart should show the inverse correlation of the length of their series.
I get that “enshitification” is the hot new buzzword but cold we please give it a rest. Reading this community you start to think that people can’t express that the Internet is not to their liking in any other way.
I might finally add it to my blocklist, I get why some people reach for it but it’s way overused
“Enshitification” does not mean “I don’t like it”. It is specifically about platforms that start out looking too good to be true and turn to shit when the user base is locked in. The term is generally used for cases where the decline in quality was pre-planned and not due to external factors. Using the same term each time is, in my opinion, an appropriate way to point out just how common this pattern is.
I think Dr CD outlined a specific arc that companies follow, but the term has been co-opted to mean any process that drives out competition before turning the screws on their customers. Did Netflix follow the three steps?
Netflix was certainly good to its subscribers 15 years ago.
Were they then good to their business customers (studios) at the cost of the users? I don’t think they were ever good to studios.
Have they now clawed back surpluses for themselves? Abso-fuckin-lutely.
I think step 2 is the key to the original definition, and the one commenters often ignore. All companies burn cash to get started. All companies try to become a monopoly, and monetize everything once they do.
Step 2 is doubly true. Because not only did they steal the studios users, and dent their profit margins being competitive, they also went out and became their own studio.
Out of survival in a way, but their brand is so strong they keep most of users despite any conversion rate Netflix’s competitors have.
Aha I see what you’re saying. It’s possible that dr CD considered the second part to be crucial, but it doesn’t seem that people who listened to his message felt the same way, myself included. I probably speak for a lot of people when I say we hadn’t realized just how much these platforms are “subsidized” and how much damage that does to the entire market. So that part ended up being associated in our minds with the term enshittification.
Yes, it is frequently misused, but not in this case.
“Enshitification” means a service getting worse in order to charge their customers extra for a service similar to their previously good one. If we’re using the word too much, it’s because it’s happening too much.
I’m fully aware of what the word means, but I’m sick of it being used so often. There are plenty of other words in the English language to describe the situation.
If there are other single words that mean the same thing, I’d like to hear them. It’s a popular word because it’s succinct.
It’s a specific word for a specific situation. If you’re seeing it too often for your liking, I suggest the problem is that there’s too much enshitification.
The graph literally demonstrates the enshittification.
No. That is the word. It’s not a buzzword. It’s a statement.
https://youtu.be/rimtaSgGz_4
It’s very enshitification
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/rimtaSgGz_4
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
I was there!
Noice
You’re in the piracy sub. A large part of the conversation is going to be about the late-stage capitalism that is driving us to piracy.
After quitting i feel like im missing out on nothing. I sail the seas if i actually need anything, and it probably wasn’t on netflix anyway
I never had Netflix. Or any streaming subscription. I considered it once, several years ago, but I couldn’t justify it at prices then, and I sure as shit won’t waste my money now. I’ll help them save their bandwidth.
I didn’t mind the small increase to 11.99, but the way they’re doing this just rubs me the wrong way.
They’re not only increasing the sub price, but tinkering with the display quality too AND laying people off… Netflix just doesn’t deserve my cash when I can access most of this content via other means.
I got rid of a bunch of subs at the beginning of the year, getting rid of NF too.
I had Netflix and Hulu about 10 years ago and it was worth it. Then I dropped Netflix and got Prime. Dropped Prime and Hulu then did Disney+ bundle…that was good but now I sail the seas with friends. So much better. So many movies and shows I would have missed out on.
For a streaming platform to be actually useful it needs to be a almost monopoly like steam. Netflix had a chance but missed the spot, due to the greed of Studios. So it’s back to fractured marked until someone comes with a fresh idea of how to distribute video.
I’m not sure why there are always monopoly apologists popping up in these. You know Netflix isn’t any less greedy than the studios, right? A private monopoly isn’t a good thing.
Why are you that antagonizing?
Most times. But for media, people want to have all their media in one place for a cheap price - so far only monopolistic or oligopolistic services were able to provide that. It worked quite well for games and in some form for music (you will often have single right management companies in the music industry - like BMI in USA or GEMA in Germany). But in general, I would agree that monopolies (outside natural monopolies and those should be run by the state) are unfavorable for the customer.
There’s an alternative. Because of exclusivity deals, you think a monopoly would be good for users, but with a monopoly then the company could charge $200/month because customers literally have nowhere else to go. A better system would be significantly reduced exclusivity so that 1st party media is the only exclusive content. This way, there would be more than 1 or 2 options, but way fewer than what we currently have, and the 5 or so companies remaining would compete based on their own original content, customer service, quality of service, and UI. Streaming apps with only one or two interesting pieces of original content could license out to all of the remaining few streamers and shut down their dead app. I know the quality dropped like a fucking rock, but a few years back people were excited to be subscribed to Disney+ for Wandavision and The Mandalorian. 5 years ago, people were excited to be subscribed to Netflix for Stranger Things and Orange is the New Black.
I was frustrated af a few nights ago trying to find X-Men First Class. Days of Future Past is on Max. X-Men, X-Men: The Last Stand, the 3 Wolverine movies, X-Men Apocalypse, and X-Men: Dark Phoenix are all on Disney+. So where the fuck are X-Men 2 and X-Men: First Class?! To watch the X-Men movies (which are all from the same studios), paying for 2 streaming services isn’t enough?!
I don’t see how this is any better, since if you want a specific show produced by a specific company you would still need to subscribe to their service, kind of the same problem we having right now.
Again, I’m not arguing for monopolies in general. But with media it’s what customers want - a single service they can access all the media they want, with reasonable prices or a subscription model.
I have two possible solutions then, each with their own drawback.
Solution 1 is to nationalize media. The closest realistic thing is something we already have: libraries. The drawback is that content is massively limited and it’s pretty inconvenient, but the cost is bundled in with other nationalized services like firefighters and the postal service.
Solution 2 is piracy. The drawback is that it’s illegal and you risk prison time and huge fines, but the cost is either free or relatively cheap in exchange for less chance of getting caught, and the selection of content is damn near everything. There is quite a bit of work at the onset, but it is reasonably convenient to enjoy.
I like them both. But also non commercial piracy - or how we used to call it back in the days: sharing, should not be illegal in the first place.
Little unfair to say they “missed” anything when they can’t control what studios do with their licenses.
I still see people occasionally complain that Netflix “got rid” of stuff, like the Office. There’s a lot of shitty things you can blame Netflix for, but that isn’t one of them.
It’s also not new. HBO, Showtime, Stars, etc all had rotating on-demand catalogs for years before Netflix, with content appearing briefly before being removed, and no one thought that was odd. I never once heard anyone suggest HBO was shit because Austin Powers or whatever was taken off it. It came with the understanding this content was not permanently available.
Part of it is that people had a bad understanding of what Netflix was, and assumed it would be a permanent replacement for a personal collection. That was always a foolish mindset.
Little unfair of your to leave out:
Wich makes clear, I don’t blame netflix.
We have a way of doing that.
It’s called Radarr, Sonarr, Jellyfin and a big fuck-off hard drive, and they won’t like it.
But yeah, if there was a service with everything in high quality (up to 4K Blu-ray quality for those with the bandwidth) for like £30 a month (with no ads ever, and configurable UI that doesn’t try playing the next episode the millisecond the last one finishes), then they’d get paid for it. The longer they wait, the more entrenched into my setup I’ll be, and harder to wean off it.
It’s so damn great to just be able to power on the TV and instantly start watching what I want.
No navigating through a mess of a menu. No pre roll ads. No “recommended” content all over my stuff. No thinking of which service has what. It’s also a bit faster since I can stream locally.
It must be what it’s like to be rich and have Kaleidescape.
Netflix started out as a blessing. That’s why I bought a subscribtion intially. Nowadays they’ve been screwed over as much as I have and they suck as much as every other service, but I’m sticking with Netflix. It is the most convenient method for my kids to watch their stupid cartoons and I also get to enjoy something every once in a while. I’ve tried others, but it’s not worth it.
I hate subscription models. After adobe, never again.
I’d never subscribe to Adobe. I love Figma, but if Abobe takes over Figma and applies it’s usual tactics, I’m never using Figma again.
I did, because it was convenient. But I learned my lesson, it was quite expensive.
I’m fine with subscription models for audio and video, since the goal is a continuous flow of new entertainment
Not for software. I want to own my software. These days it’s mostly operate since so many are too difficult to own (you want me to subscribe to Office? LoL, I “own” LibreOffice)
Or many service providers competing on price, quality of service and features, not competing on exclusivity like they do now.
Like grocery stores. Imagine if only one chain has the exclusive rights to sell potatoes and another one has rights to pasta. They can ask whatever price they want, because what you gonna do? Go to another store to get your 'taters cheaper? Hah, you’ll cry and you’ll pay what we ask! (BTW, growing your own potatos and sharing them with your neighbor infringes on our rights and is illegal. We’ll sue you to oblivion if we catch you doing it.)
Imagine having to pay for your potato subscription even if you’re only eating pasta this month but maybe next month will be 'tatember
Ah, my favorite month, Octato
Oh yes, I would!
Does not work for media, since media is a good that you need a specific version of. You don’t really care what potatoes you buy (simplification) but if you want to watch a specific show, movie or play a game -you can’t really subsidize it with another. So exclusivity does not work for potatoes but works for media. We would need a global overhaul of copyright to work this one out.
Studios aren’t allowed to buy specific movie theaters to force you to go to them to watch their movies. Same concept here.
Yet Disney found a pretty creative work around. But that might be a good idea that distribution and production should be separated entities - if well implemented well could solve the problem. Haven’t thought about it.
It totally works for media. Just need a law that says, if a work is published, anyone can distribute it for the same fair licensing fee. That’s the way “cover” music works - any cover band can play any other musician’s work. Nobody can refuse them that right. Then the venue where they perform pays a flat fee to an agency for the license. This doesn’t work great in music, but we could create a better model for streaming. it’s not impossible.
Musik industry has an extra layer of rights management companies that deal with exactly that issue. So I agree, we could create a legal framework or even an industry self regulating system to work that problem out. But I kind of said that already:
Not a great analogy since pasta is easy to make potatoes are easy to grow.
And movies are easy to pirate
This is the perfect comparison!
I think a better example is just physical media sales. Retailers generally all carried the same physical stock. You would occasionally see special editions or something that might only be available at certain stores, but it was extremely rare to only be able to buy certain titles at certain retailers.
Or the prime example: movie theaters. We passed regulations to prevent movie theaters from being bought by studios and used as exclusive avenues for the distribution of certain media. You had a movie, you released it to all movie theaters that wanted it, you couldn’t just make a deal or buy out Regal or Cinemark, or make your own theater. It ensured a level playing field.
One of the biggest problems with streaming that we have simply refused to acknowledge is that the safeguards necessary to create a healthy market, the safeguards we’ve used previously with other distribution models, were never put in place. And we’re seeing the fallout of that now.
This is the best take I’ve seen yet, with the benefit that it’s literally already been done.
It’d be interesting to see what would happen if they tried to mandate this now, but I’m sure it’s already too late.
I would think in a way it’s like what happens with the music industry. Don’t get me wrong, that industry has its own problems, but for the vast majority of music, I can listen to it on Spotify, YT music, Apple Music, etc. I don’t need to sign up for Sony+ to listen to their artists, etc.
Same should have happened to the movie industry.
Don’t give them ideas!
This is an excellent take and I love the idea.
However what about the counter example of car dealerships? Isn’t that the same model as theaters separate from studios? Yet car dealerships have degenerated into a morass of sleazy scam artists who most of us would do better to avoid. I’m a Tesla fan partly because I don’t have to deal with a dealership. How do we either fix car dealerships or prevent theaters or streaming providers from going down this path?
TBH Steam feels like a ticking timebomb. At some point Valve is going to get a new shite CEO or something and everyone will go “oh…”
If Gabe cares, he will make a foundation or something.
If Gabe cares he also has to open source it. A foundation alone is not really a guarantee, considering it’d be below what Mozilla is doing and they have lots of complaints.
If Gabe cares he likely already handed leadership over to allow for an interim period where he could step in and Veto any decisions he thinks are crap
Absolutely. I don’t think Steam is exactly malicious (particularly when compared with publicly traded corporations,) but that said the framework is firmly in place to screw over the vast majority of non-console gamers with a snap of the fingers or a meeting of the board.
The community is slow walking into horse armor (or paid mods if one prefers,) again.
I’ve been thinking about that. It’s the one walled garden I don’t mind, I’ve poured shameful amounts into it but the thought is always there in the background that it can’t go on like this forever.
At the end of the day I don’t mind too much and just try to enjoy it while it lasts, since worst comes to worst I’ll just have to sacrifice some convenience and dive back into full-time piracy to regain access to the vast majority of the content anyway. The wonders of an open platform!
No, it doesnt have to be. Look at Spotify vs Apple Music, vs tidal etc. full catalogues at all of them. It’s the business model that needs to change.
Good point, I think it might have to do with the way music is differently licensed. You will often have a “monopolistic” rights management organization like BMI in USA whereas rights for video and games the rights management lies more with the overarching productions companies.
I wouldn’t subscribe to Netflix if it saved their families from cancer. Stop fucking increasing your prices while you decrease service.
The only show I even care about on Netflix these days is I Think You Should Leave. I’ll just pirate the next season when it drops. 🤷🏻♂️
Well i have kind of needed a last straw… This should do it
After seeing this post a couple times (which speaks to its relevance) it got me thinking that enshittification (of the world) will definitely continue until our morale improves, as in until we make them stop. Are there any online collectives that work together to stop this tomfoolery?
Same as it has been for the last 100 years: Vote with your money. If you don’t like the product/service, don’t buy it. Stop thinking you can force them to change their offering.
I really hate this phrase. It basically is saying that if you have more money then you have more “votes”.
Or to put it in another way: If you have more money you matter more.
Exactly. Its the internalized version of our capitalistic autocracy, akin to stockholm syndrome.
But… that’s true?
Yeah it is but it just irks me either way.
Edit:
I just want to clarify I am agreeing that in our current society that if you have more money you tend to be highly valued.
I am not agreeing that this is how it should be.
The crackhead down the road wasting away in his own piss and shit isn’t equally “valuable” to me or anybody that contributes to society in a positive manner. I don’t care how you spin it
Eh, found the right guy that needs to spin an unrelated argument so he can purposefully miss and derail the point.
If you have more money, that means that society values you more. Thus you matter more. You’re just a better human being when you have more money.
That’s simply true. It doesn’t do anyone any good to disregard the facts.
That abstraction doesn’t help much. And first of all, it’s more accurate to derive the statement “If you have more money then you have more influence”.
It’s still a shitty status quo, but it is what it is. The worse thing you can do is tell people not to boycott shit products on the basis of rejecting reality. It’d be like telling people not to vote in elections because their vote is a drop in the ocean.
Some people vote for democrats, then they cancel their own vote by getting their internet service from Spectrum, buying fuel from Chevron for their car, shipping their packages using FedEx, getting their phone service from AT&T, banking at PNC Bank, flying on Boeing planes, shopping on Amazon, doing their web searches on a Microsoft syndicate’s site (e.g. DDG), buying Sony devices… etc. They either have no clue that most of their voting is actually for the republicans, or they think that drop-in-the-ocean vote that comes once in 4 years somehow carries more weight than the daily votes they cast with reckless disregard.
Greg Abbott’s war chest is mostly fed by oil companies. If you buy fuel for a car, you help Greg Abbott and other republicans. And if you buy from Chevron, you give the greatest support to republicans (Chevron is an ALEC member).
I don’t like the status quo and I think it should change.
Oh yeah, it is * S.U.P.E.R * effective /sarcasm
Great idea. Next we leave countries that become autocracies.
Na fam. First the autocrats burn.
I didn’t see the OP’s pic but these groups generally work against enshitification of the world:
Notice that none of those communities are on Cloudflared instances (thus also avoid propagating the enshitified portion of the fedi).
Thats awesome! Thank you very much!
The only way to stop this is bringing down capitalism.
crony capitalism
Long term, this is probably the consequence. But to delete a giant tree (or tumour, decide your own mental image) you have to cut it back, then cut it down, then rip out the roots, one after the other.
You can also rip it out at once but you need giant machines and will cause tons of damage to the environment and leave a giant crater.
I dont think capitalism is even the whole tree. Its actually greed and selfishness which needs to go.
People who miss the basic empathy to take from others just because they can need to be educated and - if needed - contained and pathologized as to keep them from winning against the fair and „gullible“. This will be insanely complex and long to eradicate that.
But step one is joining a collective to change things. All positive change came from collectives, never from individuals. Individuals are easy to beat, to intimidate, to silence. But groups are very hard to do this to.
Doing something to lift the dread off your heart and getting change going is the most sane approach imo.
This is because capitalism glorifies greed and selfishness and considers it the primary driver or human behaviour. Which it isn’t for everyone. Many of us leftists vote left despite it not being in our personal financial beat interests. Sharing is caring etc.
Unfortunately the system is so damn rigged in favour of the multi billionaires.
I think capitalism favors greed and selfishness because greedy, selfish people have corrupted an otherwise useful idea. I dont think the original iteration was bad. We just left the door to the machine room ajar and a bunch of trolls laid some cables to steal power from our generator. Actually a very fitting metaphor. The sad part is that we‘re still trying to agree on the fact that someone is stealing energy.
If you have seen lord of the rings, society is the ents, discussing endlessly if the hobbits are actually hobbits or orcs while their forest is being cut down en masse. Thats how I view humanity atm.
I don’t agree. Capitalism is and has always been about greed. It’s why people invest, to get maximum profits and externalise all the negative side-effects.
I think capitalism works if it’s balanced with socialism and strongly restricted by law as we used to do in the Netherlands and some EU countries still do. Unfortunately the Netherlands was lost to the neoliberals and now to the fascists :( But luckily I don’t live there anymore.
I can see how you arrive at this conclusion. Not sure I necessarily follow it since I invest (and always have) in things I believe in. Buying additional plates is an investment in having guests over for example.
But I‘m also neurologically different from most peeps. The folks that invest without empathy fall into two categories in my head: the ignorant and the evil. The ignorant need to be educated, by force if necessary. The evil need to be stopped.
Still, I can see that capitalism has become corrupted and needs to go. It’s too complicated for everyone to understand its side effects. Maybe even for me. But I still think its people born or raised without a conscience that will corrupt anything we build. Those need to be stopped as well.
Or limiting it at least. Instead of the free for all big business American and Chinese version.
Ending capitalism is not the /only/ way. Within a capitalistic system, you can boycott shit. Most consumers are pushovers but it doesn’t have to be that way. I’m boycotting hundreds of shitty companies. Off the top of my head:
Those are all shitty companies that significantly worsen the world. Giving money or data to any of them contributes to enshitification of the world.
Of course it’s an option to stop supporting assholes. Become ethical. Be the change you want to see.
Can’t enshittificate our torrent clients 🤷
Utorrent moment
µTorrent would like a word
Who still uses that garbage? qBittorent is the same thing except theres no adware or spyware.
A surprising amount of people still ask questions about µTorrent and assume it’s still popular. Apparently there was a lot of value in that brand name. But yeah it’s an utter disaster.
qBittorrent is my choice as well. Deluge is also great, along with Transmission.
qBittorrent is great
Still rocking 2.2.1 Don’t think I’ll ever be able to upgrade
Here here!
And their catalog is actually super small now. My wife and I watch a bunch of horror movies, and I think there’s only like 20. They try to pad that number by pretending that foreign films are actually in English.
They do have an extensive selection of stand up. More than the others
Or they pad it with a ton of absolute garbage
And they change the pictures around all the time to make you think it’s something new, when in fact you’ve seen it before. And because it’s bland as all fuck, you notice this like 45 minutes in.
It isn’t just the cover art, they also A/B descriptions. And some of them are so different they’re basically lies.
Trailers too. Gotta love ones that tell you absolutely nothing about the movie.
The tags especially are just made up.
I got a picture of Matt Smith on one horror movie about a black couple. He was in it for like 2 minutes. It wasn’t terrible, but they’re algorithms are basic bitch enough to just go “you white? here’s a white man”
I’ve been spending the last 2 days downloading a bunch of horror, ramping up for when I finally get rid of the rest of our subcription services. I can’t even remember when Netflix’s horror selection was even remotely good. Like they have The Ritual and Apostle, but yeah it’s mostly crap.
Yeah the foreign films coming up are the worst. I’m sure it’s great for the people who speak those languages but I don’t generally find it entertaining to watch with subtitles. It’s annoying when they keep coming up on recommended and even worse when it takes more clicks to see the language then to just start it.
Somehow Netflix thinks I speak Norwegian and I didn’t see a way to turn that off
Anyway -1 premium account, when they started down their path to enshittification
I hate Netflix as much as anyone here but “how dare Netflix recommend foreign content to me” is the most American thing I’ve ever heard.
I guess, but shouldn’t it be a fundamental configuration to only see things whose language you know?
Eh, I’m personally completely fine watching content in other languages and so is pretty much everyone I know. I would never want to limit myself to content in languages I understand. Actually, I think the majority of stuff I watch is foreign content.
But to each their own of course and I guess it couldn’t hurt if they added the option, but I think expecting it as a “fundamental configuration” says more about you than about how bad Netflix is. There are much better arguments for that.
And their recommendation engine sucks.
Netflix used to be famously good at suggesting films. Articles were written about it, and there was even a cash reward for anyone who could contribute to its performance. Then it just turned to shit.
And the funny thing is that it would have helped counteract the shrinking library. Sure, there would be fewer films on the platform, so you’d be less likely to find a specific title, but at least you could select a film Netflix recommended based on your past ratings and be fairly confident you’d enjoy it. Now? Absolutely not.
My bachelors thesis was basically about recommender systems like this. Netflix truly is a sunken ship.
How do we read it?
If you are just interested in Netflix recommendation algorithms, you could start here
Thanks.
I am in the process of setting up a jellyfin server and was wondering how I would deal with discovery.
Well this can get quite complicated to implement I suppose. I heard letterboxd works nice for discovery if you are lazy, but I don’t know if they have a jellyfin plugin.
I will look into them thanks.
It’s not widely available and its only in Norwegian, sadly.
However, I will second @mkengine proposal for Letterboxd, I think it is the superior site to nerd out on. Discovery can be a challenge, depending on your own level of investment into the medium. I’m a big ol movie-nerd, and I’m currently grateful to have access to most streaming services through friends/family/partner so I get to browse them if desired.
Apart from that my twitter algorithm is quite skewed towards movies, and I have a “list” on there (curated users you can browse, kind of like a community on here. That’s been great.
Other than that, I listed to podcast, sometimes check out our national newspapers reviews (but most of those reviewers are already in the aforementioned twitter-list) etc.
As for reading on recommender systems and the algorithm for netflix. My work was based around bias and “trust” when it comes to the recommender systems and how much it recommended/pushed “its own agenda” to users despite having differential tastes.
Good keywords I enjoyed was: recommender system bias I also read some good articles on the spotify recommender systems. But those mostly centered around people growing attached to their algorhitms. It was a fun read.
I find the same thing with music streaming on Spotify. I used to discover lots of new music I liked on it but these days I can’t get it to generate an interesting playlist. It’s songs I already know interspersed with things that are boring. Seems like the recommendations got worse.
I quit Spotify when the “New Library Experience” completely fucked the music library side of the app. If you mostly use playlists, it was a lateral change. If you used it to collect some songs here, and album there, and keep them all sorted, it’s like it dumped your entire collection on the floor and expected a thank-you for the new organization system.
My guess, as others have mentioned, is that Spotify tries to squeeze more profits by pushing certain songs, whether because they get paid to promote them, or the royalties are lower. That’s easier to do with their playlists and recommendations, so they pushed people to that side of the app by making everything else dogshit. And now, apparently, the curated side took it too far and is awful, too.
I still use Apple Music, which is one of like two services that actually let you organize your music in a sensible way outside of playlists. That said, after I cut cords with video streaming services and set up my own library, I think I might do the same with music.
Discovery was always the thing that made streaming services better than buying recordings individually. If these services stop being good for finding new music, then there’s not much reason to keep using them.
They probably discovered that they can get paid to promote certain songs.
So now what you have is the same as FM radio, except you pay for it now.
I think they have always done that, but maybe they’re just doing more of that now. It seems harder now to find interesting artists I don’t know.
Hell, I remember when they had ‘Max’ back when I watched on my PS3. I absolutely loved that it would ask me a bunch of questions and then give me a movie to watch. I’m surprised I haven’t seen that more around, that was an amazing feature.
Even then I’ll still pirate
And yet, they got 13 million new subscribers last 3 months
Gross or net?
We moved from paying for a premium family plan to just using the free ads-based netflix plan provided by the T-Mobile.
Why can’t people live without Netflix? Don’t they have a job, a family, OR a hobby?
I am honestly confused…
Same reason people can’t get off Twitter and other social platforms.
Movies and TV are some peoples’ hobbies. I have a co-worker who used to spend $300/mo on a cable bill because she had all the movie channels and stuff. She watched tons of movies and shows. At first I thought she was weird for watching so much TV, but then I thought about how much gaming I do, and realized “Oh, that’s just her hobby like gaming is mine.” Granted, I’m not spending $300/mo on gaming, but people do tend to spend money on hobbies. Sometimes even more than $300/mo.
Anyway, I’ve been letting her use my Netflix account – surprisingly neither of us have seen anything from Netflix about it – for the last several years. She recently (finally) got a Smart TV so she cancelled her crazy-ass cable package and I think pays for YouTube TV now. I’m sure she’s watching just as much as TV and movies as ever, but at least she’s saving some money.
You might let her know that she can borrow DVDs from the public library at no cost. Another little-known gratis option is freesat and terrestrial broadcast. I recently started using MythTV as a PVR to record broadcast TV and was pleasantly surprised to find no commercial interruptions (but if there are commercials in her region, MythTV can cut them out).
Uh that makes sense. I guess my original comment is more out of jealousy: I have so many movies that I want to watch, but I have never find the time and energy to do so. After work, dinner, chat, duolingo, and lunch prep for my wife, I barely find any time during my night, and it is kind of frustrating for me.
Last year, I have only finished like less than 5 from like 50 titles.
I am glad people are enjoying their hobby. I personally would not be on Netflix anymore as most of the movie I want to watch is not on there, but I can now kind of see it might be worth it for others.
It also surprises me that this large amount of the population takes movie and TV as a hobby.
Gotcha, apologies for the misread!
Honestly, I was surprised too. I guess given how ubiquitous movies and television are, it never really occurred to me that it could be a hobby. And I bet most people don’t think of it as a hobby, either. When I think of a hobby related to TV/Movies, I think more like “film snobs” (for lack of a better term). Maybe people who watch the AFI 100 or whatever and know all about film and cinematography. But not people just watching TV like anyone else. But by definition, it’s a hobby. It’s “a pursuit outside one’s regular occupation engaged in especially for relaxation.”
For my coworker, she’s single and childless. So she has tons of time to watch movies and shows outside of work. I’m the same, but I devote it mainly towards gaming. Though I could certainly stand to devote less time to my hobby. Or pick up some new ones at least!
Hope you’ll be able to find some more time to watch the movies and show you want!
I think of it like those people are subsidizing my free content.
If no one subscribes, we don’t get Love, Death and Robots season
34!Ooh boy, do I have some good news for you!
Ahaha, dang I got so excited before google pointed out I’m an idiot and meant season 4. (But on the other hand, did find out it was renewed for a 4th, so that’s groovy!)
Does Netflix still do the “free trial period” and “get free months if a friend sent you” thing?
Are there any numbers about how many unsubscribers to compare to the subscribers? That’d be a juicy number.
What they don’t advertise is how many of those “new” subscribers are actually from their “emerging” markets such as India, where a subscription price is peanuts. Also, im fairly certain these numbers are intentionally skewed to paint a better picture as they lump in all the “free” accounts people get with their other subscriptions.
I get Paramount+ free with Walmart+. I get Hulu/Netflix/AppleTV with Tmobile Mobile. I get Max with ATT Fiber.
I’m sure that these streaming companies have more new subscribers when they literally give it away and simultaneously strangling their existing consumers. It’s more of a question of how long is it sustainable for them to raise prices every time they’re not going to have a record quarter.
standard stayed the same price for a whole year so i guess that it’s due for a price hike