Netflix to Replace Star Ratings With Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down

[MacRumors]

Netflix announced yesterday that it will replace star-based user reviews in its content library with binary thumbs up and thumbs down ratings over the coming weeks.

Previous star ratings given by users will be used to personalize their Netflix profiles, but the ability to rate a TV series or movie by awarding stars is set to disappear altogether, according to Variety.

Image via Variety​

Netflix VP of Product Todd Yellin told journalists on Thursday during a press briefing at the company's headquarters in Los Gatos, Calif., that the company had tested the new thumbs up and down ratings with hundred of thousands of members in 2016. "We are addicted to the methodology of A/B testing," Yellin said. The result was that thumbs got 200% more ratings than the traditional star-rating feature.

According to Netflix, at one point subscribers had awarded over 10 billion 5-star ratings and more than half of all members had rated more than 50 titles. However, the company eventually concluded that star ratings had become less relevant, with some users giving documentaries 5 stars and silly movies just 3 stars, even though they would watch the silly movies more often than the highly rated documentaries.

"We made ratings less important because the implicit signal of your behavior is more important," Yellin told journalists.

In addition to the binary rating scheme, Netflix is also bringing a new percent-match feature to its interface that shows how good a match any given show or movie is for an individual subscriber. If a movie or TV show fits very closely with a user's taste, it may get a high percentage match, although shows with less than a 50 percent match won't show a match rating.

Netflix said the changes will roll out globally within the next month or so.

Article Link: Netflix to Replace Star Ratings With Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down

 

[fitshaced]

Ah come on. Proper news please

 

[Three141]

I got to use this quote.

"We made ratings less important because the implicit signal of your behavior is more important," Yellin told journalists."

 

[itsmilo]

good, i dont think anyone fully understood those star rating anyway. It took me years to realize that those star ratings are based on what you watched before / your taste and not the overall rating from the whole user base

 

[Telos101]

Makes sense. Most people don't bother to think about what star rating a piece of content really deserves anyway. I only ever check star ratings on rotten tomatoes, where you get insightful write-ups too.

 

[adamneer]

Great, another avenue for displaying what's most popular, rather than what's best. That's the key reason a ****** comedy would be viewed more than an award winning documentary and yet receive less stars. It's really not that hard to figure out.

 

[gixxerfool]

good, i dont think anyone fully understood those star rating anyway. It took me years to realize that those star ratings are based on what you watched before / your taste and not the overall rating from the whole user base

Well, that clears up a lot of questions I've had over the years. Thank you for that.

 

[smacrumon]

Thanks for rating Netflix, Smacrumon!

[doublepost=1489748283][/doublepost]

Makes sense. Most people don't bother to think about what star rating a piece of content really deserves anyway. I only ever check star ratings on rotten tomatoes, where you get insightful write-ups too.

Most people actually do know how to offer an opinion on a scale of 1-5, 1 being very poor, 5 being very great. People know exactly how to use star ratings. Star ratings are nuanced whether or not it is accompanied with write ups.

 

[Baumi]

Great, another avenue for displaying what's most popular, rather than what's best. That's the key reason a ****** comedy would be viewed more than an award winning documentary and yet receive less stars. It's really not that hard to figure out.

Netflix' displayed ratings are customized for each user anyway, based on their viewing and rating activity. So, if these people watch more silly comedies, Netflix will them rank higher for them. If they watch more, documentaries, those will rank higher.

That sounds pretty much like the way to go for me, unless you'd prefer Netflix to force feed certain types of content to their users.

 

[itsmilo]

Great, another avenue for displaying what's most popular, rather than what's best. That's the key reason a ****** comedy would be viewed more than an award winning documentary and yet receive less stars. It's really not that hard to figure out.

Thats not how the star rating works on Netflix anyway. Hence my post above

 

[thisisnotmyname]

And yet my recommended for you category continues to have many one and one and a half star movies. If you've determined it would be one star for me why are you recommending it to me?

 

[nwcs]

I wonder if this will lead to improved recommendations. Their recommendations for me tend to be pretty useless and they love to push their own programs into every category of recommendations. What peeves me is that they keep moving "My List" from top to middle to bottom to top day to day.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Honestly, who cares. Internet reviews are a joke (at best) no matter how they are scored.

 

[zohaali146]

I like it, because it makes it difficult when something is just average, I got confuse whether to give it a thumbs up or a thumps down.

 

[cube]

Thumbs down.
[doublepost=1489756113][/doublepost]

Honestly, who cares. Internet reviews are a joke (at best) no matter how they are scored.

I understand the red stars Netflix shows you are personalized based on what you have watched and how you have rated previously.

 

[Fattytail]

Well, that clears up a lot of questions I've had over the years. Thank you for that.

Exactly! Didn't know that one up until about three seconds ago.

 

[Return Zero]

Netflix is going completely downhill in my book. I don't want more original content. I want access to the great content that already exists which I haven't seen yet. I don't want personalized suggestions. I want the popular new releases from existing major studios and networks. How dare they have something available on their DVD-by-mail service but not available to stream. Make it happen, netflix, or I'm cutting the cord that was supposed to enable me to cut the cord.

 

[cube]

Let's just thumb down everything.

 

[ralphdaily]

Too bad. I thought the stars were useful. Sure, I consulted Rotten Tomatoes, IMDB, etc. but the stars were good. I do like the increase in Netflix Originals, particularly the foreign language TV shows.

 

[Juicy Box]

the company eventually concluded that star ratings had become less relevant, with some users giving documentaries 5 stars and silly movies just 3 stars, even though they would watch the silly movies more often than the highly rated documentaries.

This is pretty dumb, and I think Netflix is missing the point of a rating system.
There are plenty of great movies that were well acted, directed, written, and edited that I will only watch once. Movies like The Road, or Leaving Las Vegas are great 5 star movies, but hard to watch more than once, well at least for me.

Compare them to guilty pleasure movies that are not necessarily good, but are easily re-watchable. Some that come to mind is Rush Hour, Bad Boys, Anything with Steven Seagal, Van Damme, or Jason Statham. I am not saying these are good movies, but very re-watchable movies.

Although, Netflix star rating can be miss-leading. I watched a near 5-star rated show Sense8, and it was horrible. It visually looked nice, but the dialog, acting, and storyline was so silly. Compare that to the show Legend, which has a 3-star rating, I feel like that show, while lower budgeted, is a much better quality show.

Most people don't bother to think about what star rating a piece of content really deserves anyway.

Is a start rating system really that hard?

 

[cube]

Let's reverse up and down.

 

[JeffDM]

I've always understood the ratings as data points to find people with similar ratings to see what else gives it.

Above all else, what I really want is a signal that says "don't show this to me anymore". Lots of stuff I don't want to see and they still show it to me.

 

[cube]

Let's flip a coin.

 

[Carlanga]

Is Amy schummer that sour about her comedy special?

 

[SoN1NjA]

Thanks for rating Netflix, Smacrumon!

[doublepost=1489748283][/doublepost]
Most people actually do know how to offer an opinion on a scale of 1-5, 1 being very poor, 5 being very great. People know exactly how to use star ratings. Star ratings are nuanced whether or not it is accompanied with write ups.

how did you get a high resolution emoji like that?