Hacker News Reader

Comment by bluntfang | Hacker News Reader

When I watch netflix, I use the stars as a measure of if I would enjoy something. I don't think most people use stars as a measure of "quality" because when they browse movies, they are looking for something they enjoy, not something that's high quality that they might not enjoy.

View on HN

This seems like pure difficulty for me. When I think of thumbs up / down metrics I think in terms of "would I endorse this?"

A movie like "Suicide Squad" was (to me at least) highly enjoyable, though I thought it objectively had many problems with plot and delivery. I would probably give it 3 stars, which is relatively neutral for me (or leave it altogether unrated). If it were thumbs up/down, I would probably have to leave it unrated completely.

Maybe that's an improvement, but the more discussion I see around this, the more I realize the futility of single-axis metrics for things like this, until and unless you're asking a single question "Did you enjoy this movie" is a much different question from "is this a good movie" -- and I don't really know which one I've been answering on Netflix all these years past.

I think you are an anomalous user. I'm not sure why you're OK with rating 1-5 stars but not a thumbsup or down. I think you're just upset because they are changing.

I like giving weight to my vote.

3 stars = "not a bad movie, but wouldn't recommend"

4 starts = "decent movie, would recommend"

5 stars = "great movie, would definitely recommend"

A binary choice doesn't have any weight to it.

I don't think there's a need for weight since there are many reviewers. The weight is the percentage of people who thumbed it up.

How does weight have anything to do with amount of reviewers? Those are completely unrelated metrics.

The current suggested rating is influenced by your history of rating, with weight given to how highly you rated it. There are shows that are suggested at 4 stars for my wife but at 2 stars for me.

This. And based on my history of rating, Netflix had been pretty good at guessing if something will be 3+ stars. If they think it is 3 stars, I consider watching. If they think it is 4+, I tend to really enjoy the suggestion. Though, nearly every Netflix original is suggested at 5 stars, lol.

I agree. I even want a couple more increments between 2,3, and 4. There are a lot of movies I see that I think are better or worse than a 3 rating but don't justify a 2 or a 4. I feel there's a lot of room for nuance around the middle area.

Lets say a movie previously would have shown 3 out of 5 stars. Where does that fit in with the binary thumbs up/down? I think they are just doing this because recently some actors movies are being attacked with 1 star ratings for being politically vocal.

> I think you're just upset because they are changing.

This is actually rude of you, bordering on ridicule. He explained very clearly why he is dissatisfied.

I've had this argument with my (tending towards elderly) parents while introducing them to Netflix. They don't understand rating for enjoyment, and keep rating for "quality". They'll watch a show, absolutely hate it, but give it a 4 or 5 star rating because "it was well produced and the camera work was good, but it isn't the sort of thing I personally like to watch".

I'm worried about the thumbs up/down, as Netflix has increasingly recommended shows I do not like this year, and I don't think the thumbs solves the "rating for perceived quality" issue. I've been using Movielens for recommendations a lot instead, and it seems more accurate for me... and it has enough stats to show that on their site, most rating is not binary, much closer to a normal curve for average movies or a linear graph on really good movies. (It lets you see the distribution curve on individual movies, and other metrics.)

interesting. I always rated for enjoyment.

I thought that Neflix made it pretty clear that the ratings were used to choose which content to show me. So I should only rate based on what I'd actually like to see.

I think a lot of people look at the stars as a measure of enjoyment when trying to find something to watch, but when actually rating something, as a measure of quality.

I use the stars to signal quality as a means of determining if I'd enjoy it. 5 stars? This is likely to be high-quality and enjoyable. 3 stars? This is going to be lower quality and I may not enjoy it. 1 star? This is likely shit quality, and I'll regret playing—or it's a cult classic and all the haters don't get it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com