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Comment by byron_fast | Hacker News Reader

Netflix's interface was best when they still shipped DVDs in boxes. Ever since they stopped that it has been a steady descent into the dark patterns of social / mobile / eyeball counting user interface fail.

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Really? I've been a Netflix user since 2013 (so after the mail service) and I think it was the best around 2014/2015. When they had great content, just gotten success with their own content, and things seemed to be booming.

Now the content is subpar; every movie I've wanted to watch in the past three months is not on the platform. Add to that, the UI is incredible tedious to navigate. Everything _has_ to be "Because you watched XYZ" - and never the kind of content I'd be willing to settle for.

Around 2008, Netflix signed a deal with Starz that brought their enormous catalog to Netflix's streaming service. It seemed there were almost no well-known movies in English that you couldn't find streaming on Netflix. That was, until the deal expired in 2012. Those were the glory days of Netflix streaming, in my opinion.

https://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/starz-ends-contra...

Yes! At one point there was a way to get all movies by score paginated in a simple HTML table without even pictures. Just nice, dense, sortable and filterable information.

The only better interface for me personally was when I used their API via Ruby and was able to sort exactly how I wanted.

That might have been helpful for you, the user, but it was likely a problem for Netflix the corporation. I remember people scraping those tables and creating websites like "Check which shows are available in your regional netflix".

Because every international Netflix variant had a much poorer selection of English-language titles compared to Netflix US, it must have hurt international adoption.

Unsurprisingly, Netflix changed their site layout so that such tables were no longer "exposed" to the end user.

When were they in boxes? I thought they always came in the envelopes. Am I not remembering far enough back?

It was always envelopes. I actually remember when their streaming was first coming out and you were limited by how many hours/shows you could watch in a given week.

I agree with the above poster that 2013 - 15 Netflix was the best. Transparent ratings systems and (to me) more relevant content with higher quality originals on average.

Envelopes, whatever. They cared more about interface and recommendations when they were an e-commerce company and not focused on pushing original content.

They still ship DVDs.

They do and their library is awesomely huge.

But a lot of the most interesting titles are stuck on “very long wait” which seems to mean they’re not planning on buying another copy to replenish their library.

> they’re not planning on buying another copy to replenish their library

Let us not discount the possibility that IP owners are not licensing to Netflix anymore.

That’s not really an issue. They can just buy a copy at Walmart, no permissions needed.

This is a pretty interesting response. I think their UI and interface is highly innovative and their contributions to JS are pretty amazing.

It's always two steps forward, one back. I've used Netflix on a half-dozen devices and the latest version on PS-4 is the worst. Some improvements, but then adds things like five-second autoplay at episode end and autoplaying ads for shows when you view the menu.

I no longer feel confident if I add something to my list that I'll be able to find it later, mainly because the interface has changed so many times that I have to remember what to do.

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