Netflix Ditches Five-Star Ratings in Favor of a Thumbs-Up

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Struggling to decide whether to give Iron Fist one star or two stars? Netflix is making these decisions easier for you in the near future, as they will be implementing a much simpler thumbs-up or thumbs-down system. The company is also introducing a button that will let you skip the opening credits of shows. (Those negative reviews for the latest Marvel show are total bunk, by the way—I am a couple of episodes in and it is definitely watchable.)

Netflix will soon be changing its ratings system for the first time in several years, switching from a traditional five-star rating to a thumbs-up / thumbs-down system, Netflix vice president of product Todd Yellin said in a press briefing today. “Five stars feels very yesterday now,” Yellin said. “We’re spending many billions of dollars on the titles we’re producing and licensing, and with these big catalogs, that just adds a challenge.” He added that “bubbling up the stuff people actually want to watch is super important.” Yellin said the change will happen in April, and will roll out globally.
 
In other words,
You now have the less options for rating Netflix original series.
Even Amy Schumers latest special would get some thumbs up even though it's currently panned as 1 star.
 
Shame that they can't handle something more granular. There is a difference between a good movie and an amazing movie, like 6.5 vs 8.5 as rated by IMDB, but both of those would be the exact same "thumbs up" on Netflix now.
 
isn't the iron fist character suppose to be asian?

instead this guy looks like justin timberlake.
 
To be honest, I've found ratings on Netflix to be pointless compared to Ebert and IMDB. There have been many movies and TV shows that I have enjoyed on Netflix that if I had gone with the Netflix ratings I never would have watched. Remember, any mouth-breathing, knuckledragger can vote. But, yes, I think Netflix reviews should be stars, not a binary system.

Point is: Do your own research. Before you waste your time on a movie or a TV series, do some research.

Netflix is still pretty awesome, IMHO. NF, Amazon Prime, I'm good.
 
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I love Amy Schumer. I have nothing but respect for her. And I think she's a great comedienne.

We need people like her right now, more than ever.
 
Makaveli@BETA said:
isn't the iron fist character suppose to be asian?

instead this guy looks like justin timberlake.
Click to expand...

No. Danny Rand has always been a white dude.

Ifult.jpg
 
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GotNoRice said:
Shame that they can't handle something more granular. There is a difference between a good movie and an amazing movie, like 6.5 vs 8.5 as rated by IMDB, but both of those would be the exact same "thumbs up" on Netflix now.
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Well sounds like a script can be created to average out the amount of thumbs up vs thumbs down giving you an idea of how bad it is.
 
This isn't tied to Iron Fist at all, as Netflix introduced this only after Amy Schumer's special received what could charitably be called a tsunami of poor reviews (Which was well before Iron Fist was released). I myself did try to watch it, but only made it about ten minutes in, as it was, to me, simply not funny.
 
I think it's a worse system, but I can understand why.

“What’s more powerful: you telling me you would give five stars to the documentary about unrest in the Ukraine; that you’d give three stars to the latest Adam Sandler movie; or that you’d watch the Adam Sandler movie 10 times more frequently?” Yellin said. “What you do versus what you say you like are different things.”
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I'm a big believer in that actions speak louder than words. And I believe that most people don't consciously know what they really like and dislike. We like to believe that we're more superior, either morally, intellectually, etc., but often our actions say otherwise. In the end, if you learn from watching The Lion King more than you'd learn from Hamlet, isn't that a good thing? Why should we have to pretend that boring is good, when we're not going to watch anyway?
 
Ducman69 said:
Nobody's laughing now!
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Judging by this last Netflix special, you're right. She was far better early in career, and has gotten too many free passes for using other peoples material repeatedly.

PeaKr said:
Amy made the fatal career mistake of bringing politics into the mix.
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Political comedy isn't some taboo, but it has to be done correctly and not just thrown out there because it's cool to be anti-establishment now. Comedians on their game right now know that, so they just sprinkle it in instead of going all-in.

I think she's started to believe in the hype and is unfortunately mailing it in now. Netflix pays a lot of money for these stand-up specials for someone of her "fame" for lack of a better word and they're not happy it's getting trashed. The whole one-star review of her special is not solely due to the performance or quality of it, but anyone that thinks that it was even remotely good is a comedy shut-in or some rose colored ideologue.
 
Seems like a huge step backwards to me. I think with the new system I will be far less likely to rate things.
 
SticKx911 said:
Poor choice of words when talking about a comedian. :)
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I think he was making a pun and poking fun at her himself. I watched 10 minutes of it and was like "I could write better @#%$# than this."
 
Wyodiver said:
About Amy Schumer: She does bring up politics. If you are easily offended by her, and many other comedians, opinions on Trump, just ignore them. Go elsewhere for entertainment.

Those of you who are offended are probably only aware of her because of Fox News, and alt-right websites.

http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/03/amy-schumer-trolls-netflix-special
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You understand there is a difference between being offended by a comedian, and simply finding them unfunny, right? Especially when said comedian increasingly establishes a habit of joke-stealing.

My favorite comedians in history are Kinison, Carlin, Pryor, Murphy, Izzard, Dangerfield, and Norton. You can't offend me except by labeling me some sort of bigot for not finding you funny. Comedians who do that are objectively unfunny.
 
AMY:

at this point in time there is enough political difference that a smart comedian would leave it out of the act and they would probably, even if they were mediocre, be more successful than others.
 
Wyodiver said:
To be honest, I've found ratings on Netflix to be pointless compared to Ebert and IMDB. There have been many movies and TV shows that I have enjoyed on Netflix that if I had gone with the Netflix ratings I never would have watched. Remember, any mouth-breathing, knuckledragger can vote. But, yes, I think Netflix reviews should be stars, not a binary system.

Point is: Do your own research. Before you waste your time on a movie or a TV series, do some research.

Netflix is still pretty awesome, IMHO. NF, Amazon Prime, I'm good.
Click to expand...

The Netflix ratings you see are not so much what others have rated, but what the algorithm thinks you're going to rate it. I think they may mix in the global opinion, but it's weighted towards your tastes (and rating history).

They badly need to add a global rating somewhere on the page for a lot of the apps.

I think that's where this change might be coming from. It's harder for the system to assign a rating value on what it perceives you'll rate it than it is for the system to assign a "you'll like this."

They also need to up the other apps ease-to-rate a title. On Roku, you have to find the title and scroll down. It'd be way more useful (and used) if it prompted you to rate it.
 
This brings up another complaint about Netflix. I went to look up what the rating on Rubber currently was.....and it's not even on Netflix anymore....why? It's not like they are going to sell like hot cakes at Best Buy. The whole reason we watched it was because it had like a 3.5 stars at the time a couple years ago.....that gives you some insight into the movie....it's not great, but people found it of interest and didn't trash it like a true crap movie. Good B-movies are not BAD or GOOD. They are in between.

42596_m1300736082.jpg
 
GotNoRice said:
Shame that they can't handle something more granular. There is a difference between a good movie and an amazing movie, like 6.5 vs 8.5 as rated by IMDB, but both of those would be the exact same "thumbs up" on Netflix now.
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It's not like you can't check out the ratings or even reviews of a movie on imdb before watching it on netflix.
 
I hate when companies do this... basically any system that runs for a few years or more "needs to be updated" despite it being a perfectly fine system. In this case, I'd argue it's much better than "good" or "bad" as it allows for more nuanced ratings. Apparently some marketing-side exec feels the pressure to justify his job or raise so... somethings gotta change.
 
PeaKr said:
Amy made the fatal career mistake of bringing politics into the mix.
Click to expand...

Politics and comedy are nothing new. The issue arises when you only attack one political spectrum while ignoring the stupidity of the other. George Carlin attacked all spectrums of politics...and the dude was spot on. More importantly, he was funny. Amy Schumer....she's painfully not funny, regardless of her politics.
 
Netflix going thumbs up or thumbs down is stupid by the way. Are they going to do a side thumb for movies that are just meh? How will I determine what will be useful background noise when I'm coding?
 
Hooray for more dumbing down. Star system worked fine. Made it easier to tell what was crap. Generally 1.5 stars is almost without fail compete shit.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
Hooray for more dumbing down. Star system worked fine. Made it easier to tell what was crap. Generally 1.5 stars is almost without fail compete shit.
Click to expand...

Eh, Netflix ratings aren't too great. I love horror movies, and they're constantly rated 1-2 stars for me by Netflix. I stated I'm not interested in romance movies, and half their suggestions for me are romance movies.
 
Makaveli@BETA said:
isn't the iron fist character suppose to be asian?

instead this guy looks like justin timberlake.
Click to expand...

it depends on what era of ironfist you look at.. they picked the era of the comic where ironfist was a westerner, before and after that ironfist was an asian. while people aren't happy about it it's the only ironfist that actually has a legitimate origin story line they can use, the other ironfist's don't.. basically ironfist follows the same concept that deadpool does where the hero isn't the same person over it's history, deadpool dies and comes back multiple times as different people and ironfist is the same. but besides that they actually did a really good job with the show and it's definitely worth watching whether or not some ones mad about the main character race choice.

as far as the rating thing goes i'm fine with it, i've always used IMDB to check actually ratings since i'm not a fan of the 5 star rating system.. far to easy for really bad shows/movies and ok'ish ones to all end up clumped up in a 3 star rating. the other problem you had is people 1 star rating things to keep those type of movies from being suggested to them even though the movies were actually good.

Ducman69 said:
I'm tired of everyone poking fun at Amy Schumer. She had a tough life, and everyone laughed at her when she said she wanted to be a comedian. Nobody's laughing now!
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i have no problem with her wanting to be a comedian and going out and doing it, congrats to her for doing it. i just personally don't find her style of comedy funny.
 
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To me a 4 or 5 out of 5 would rate a thumbs up. 3 and below a thumbs down. Going forward, movies and shows that would normally pull a mediocre rating of 3, are now going to be getting a thumbs down instead from me. It's their platform.
 
Netflix should partner with IMDB, or Rotten Tomatoes rating, and include that as well as their own rating system, so you can use either or both to decide. That way the trolls can't win. ;)
 
westrock2000 said:
This brings up another complaint about Netflix. I went to look up what the rating on Rubber currently was.....and it's not even on Netflix anymore....why? It's not like they are going to sell like hot cakes at Best Buy. The whole reason we watched it was because it had like a 3.5 stars at the time a couple years ago.....that gives you some insight into the movie....it's not great, but people found it of interest and didn't trash it like a true crap movie. Good B-movies are not BAD or GOOD. They are in between.

42596_m1300736082.jpg
Click to expand...

Lol I remember watching that like 8 years ago
 
Wyodiver said:
About Amy Schumer: She does bring up politics. If you are easily offended by her, and many other comedians, opinions on Trump, just ignore them. Go elsewhere for entertainment.
Those of you who are offended are probably only aware of her because of Fox News, and alt-right websites.
http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/03/amy-schumer-trolls-netflix-special
Click to expand...
This^
Prior to the misogynistic maelstrom of amateur criticism, The Leather Special was largely given average to very positive reviews by a handful of critics.
 
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