Quote:
Originally Posted by PartyGirlUK
Totally incorrect for me anyway (I'd like to see general stats). I'd like to the ability to rate Arrested Development 3 stars - I don't hate but I don't love it either (even though "someone like me" "should" love it) - rating it 3 stars would be pretty valuable imo. Regardless I found the old recommendations scary good, e.g
Slow West - Little known drama starring Fassbender with good reviews - I was convinced Netflix would think I'd love it, wrongly since I saw it in the cinema and absolutely hated it - Netflix thought I'd rate it 2/5.
The Forty Year Old Virgin - thought I'd hate it based on the title + general perception it was a crude gross out movie - Netflix thought I'd rate it 4.5/5 so I watched & really liked it.
Netflix's old algorithm was scarily accurate. Now it's telling me I'll like Fifty Shades (previous 1 star), I really don't want to watch Fifty Shades just to confirm my suspicion the new rating system is garbage. The new system will improve with tweaks & as more people add ratings but right now its recommendations are pretty worthless.
Doesn't matter what you did, if 95% of people use 1 of 5 your ratings are meaningless. On top of that you and I might not have the same criteria for a three star show. Thus you were getting no actual benefit from rating things in that way. Plus if you gave a show three stars how should Netflix treat that when deciding to offer content. Some might treat it as ok, some good, some not good.
By the way Netflix was never telling you what it thought you would rate something. That is not how it worked. It showed the rating of what other people who had similar interests as you rated the movie. Even this is problematic for a five star system in determining compability with other users.
When YouTube switched years ago they had well over 95% using only two ratings and it is similar for Netflix. Now you can rate thumbs up / thumbs down or not at all. So basically all they did was remove the 2 and 4 from the rating system. And now you see a percentage of people who liked a show who have similar interests to you.