Some Reasons That Netflix Community Features Suck

This post is a rant against the Netflix "Friends" feature... I mean the "Community" feature... I mean the "Friends & Community" feature. Have they changed the name again yet? I guess that Netflix is trying to be all "Web 2.0" and "social" but their services in this regard just plain suck. Netflix must be making some money; can't they hire somebody with some clue about building a Web community?

If you want the short version of the rant, it's "Let Me Customize What Information I Get!" Here's the longer version, with a diagram to illustrate:

1. The "Let your friends know what you thought about" section. This tool allows me to leave notes to specific friends and tell them what I thought of a movie. It occupies the most prominent (top left) position on the page.

But, I've already submitted a "review" of this movie, in which I shared what I thought about it. Why don't my friends just have access to that review? Why do I have to submit a separate "note" for my friends? And if I choose not to do so (preferring instead to submit just the single review for anyone to read), why can't I get rid of this "Let your friends know" box? Annoying!

2. The "Your friends' activity" section. This is really what I am most interested in - what movies are my friends queueing, watching, rating. However, I am only allowed to see the most recent 10 entries here - why is that? Why can't I see all of them? Why can't I get this information in an RSS feed? I'd like to see links to all of my friends and a QUICK way to get to their movies. This tiny snippet of friends' activities is IRRITATING!

3. A display of three movies that "my friends loved" and three that "my friends hated." My friends often have different tastes in movies, and my tastes are often different from theirs. How useful is this section? Not Very Useful. Maybe if I knew how it was being calculated, I'd like it better - like if it displayed the average rating of my friends or something. But as it is, like all the other parts of this page, Netflix just tells me to trust their calculations and sit back and consume what they decide I should see.

4. Latest Member Reviews... a constantly scrolling set of reviews from random jackoffs across the country. Great. Like I give a rat's ass what FuBar999 (who rates movies 20% similar to me) thought about their latest rental. Can I customize this section, to only show people with similar histories? Nope. Can I have it just show my friends? Nope! Can I remove the section altogether? Nope! Just keep reading reviews you don't care about, Scott, that's the Netflix way!

5. Members' Top 10 Lists. Again, why would I spend my time browsing "top ten" lists from random Netflix subscribers?? I have seen enough reviews and comments and lists on various sites to know that most of them are crap. Again, can I filter these in any way? Nope! Just swallow what Netflix spoons out! Your preferences, O valued subscriber, are irrelavent to us. GRRR!

6. Friends' Quiz. Which movie did my friend and Roger Ebert disagree about? WTF? Who freaking cares? I disagre with my friends on movies about 50% of the time, and I disagree with Roger Ebert about 50% of the time. I don't care about how well my friend aligns with Ebert. Can I remove this section? Ha! Keep dreaming.

7. Unique in [my town]. What does this even mean? Unique? My town is the only place these are rented? I doubt it. And again, why should I care what random people in my town are renting? And why these four movies? Netflix just vomits up all this random information that is 99% uninteresting to me, and gives me no options to customize it or remove it from my page.

8. Members With Similar Tastes to You. In theory, I find this a bit interesting. In practice, though, it fails to impress. I don't think I've ever seen a rating higher than about 75%; am I that unusual in my tastes? Of course, clicking a user here just gives you a long list of "favorite genres". You look for a minute or two, and then close the page.

OK, that's it for now. I've got to go calm down. I really like Netflix overall, mainly for the convenience of choosing, receiving and returning movies. But their website is a complete pain in the ass, and you'd think that it would be a more enjoyable experience. Do you agree? Disagree? Leave a comment.

Single serving sites

In addition to the many useful websites out there, there are also some that are, shall we say, more limited in their usefulness. A post at kottke.org refers to sites like these generally as "single serving sites" and lists a whole bunch of them if you want to explore some more.

What are single serving sites? Here are some examples. If you need to know whether the upcoming episode of Lost is a repeat, you can consult Is Lost a Repeat?, or if you need to know whether or not it is currently Tuesday, try Is It Tuesday? If you have just sneezed, you might consider visiting You Sneezed, and if you would like to know whether or not you are awesome, check out Am I Awesome?

For information about what Barack Obama has done for you, pay a visit to Barack Obama Is Your New Bicycle.

What did people with too much time on their hands do before the Internet?

Me! A Librarian!

As those who follow my exploits as a raconteur and man-about-town are aware, I started a new job last month. My new office came with an assortment of (relatively unimpressive) furniture, one piece of which was a tall metal filing cabinet.

Inside one of the drawers of the filing cabinet was a stack of identical pamphlets entitled "Me! A Librarian!" which apparently were created with the purpose in mind of enticing students to explore the exciting career of librarianship.

The text inside suggests that if you "enjoy books, like working with people, like computers, and want to know the answers," then you should "check out a career as a Librarian/Information Specialist."

I've been a librarian for a while now, and no one's ever told me "the answers." Maybe that's coming later on. I also wonder if a career is really something that you can "check out."

Hey Frank, I hear you're an astronaut! No, I'm just checking it out.

Also, can't we as a profession come up with a better title than "Information Specialist"? Isn't everyone, in a sense, an information specialist of one sort or another?

An aside: the radio station that I listen to in the mornings has periodic reports from a "traffic specialist." I wonder what professional body awards that designation.

Anyway, in the section of the pamphlet called "What Do You Need?" there is a list of the qualifications for becoming a librarian (or information specialist). These qualifications are:

• good communication skills
• computer skills, especially keyboard skills [my emphasis]
• "courses in high school which will help you get a college degree. Librarians have a four-year college degree in any field (usually liberal arts), plus a master's degree in Library and Information Science."
  
  

Okay, so it's looking like this pamphlet must be aimed at high school students. But seriously, keyboard skills? What about a familiarity with information resources, or the ability to critically evaluate those sources? I can think of a number of things that a high school student might do if he or she wanted to pursue a career as a librarian, but developing typing skills would not necessarily be high on the list. I mean, it can't hurt to know how to type well, but come on.

My favorite part of the pamphlet, however, recommends that someone who is interested in this career should get experience working with the public, for example, "working in a library, fast food restaurant, or retail store." So a good first step on the road to becoming a librarian is to work in a fast food restaurant. Right. Maybe they'll let you catalog the frozen meat patties or classify the various bits of debris floating in the mop water.

And of course, on the back cover, there's a photo of a woman making a "shush" gesture. Because that's what librarians do.

Also in the file cabinet was a VHS tape to accompany the pamphlets. I haven't watched the video yet, but if it's similarly comical, I'll share it with you.

Incidentally, the ALA's "Me, a Librarian?" page (which I think punctuates the expression more calmly and appropriately) is not bad, and includes some more reasonable reasons why a young person might want to explore this career.

My cruddy morning

I was dreaming about something involving the display on my alarm clock, but then I woke up in the dark. I felt tired and groggy, but I wasn't sure what time it was, so I reached over to flip the switch on the clock that would illuminate the numbers. Flipping the switch had no effect.

Slowly, sleepily, I realized that the electricity was out, although I thought I could hear a distant rhythmic thump, thump, thump that must have been a neighbor's washing machine. I pulled a pillow over my head to try and shut out the noise so I could go back to sleep, but my mind was already active, wondering what time it was (2am? 6am?) and how would I wake up for work if the alarm clock was not working, and how cold was it going to get in there with no heat.

So I sort of had to get up. I fetched my cell phone from the other room (turns out it was a little after 6am) and I also discovered that the thumping sound was in fact coming from my computer speakers as they struggled with the unexpected lack of power. I unplugged the speakers, set the alarm on my phone for a little later, and crawled back into bed. My stomach hurt.

After lying in bed for an hour or so, not sleeping, I got up and started getting ready for work. Shaving and showering by flashlight in the cold kinda sucked. I got dressed and went out to the car, which was covered by a layer of ice. It was at this point that I remembered that there is a hotline I can call to find out if the university is closed due to inclement weather, so I called and learned that campus would open at 9:30.

Well, at this point I was already dressed and out at the car, so I decided not to go back into the cold, dark apartment for another hour. I scraped the ice off of the car and drove in to campus. The walk from the parking lot to my building was cold and rainy. I found when I reached the building that the area that includes my office was locked.

I found a public Web terminal and checked e-mail. My 9:00 meeting had been moved to 9:30. Well, that's good, I guess. I bought a cup of coffee and sat down at a table. The paper coffee cup had a leak.

So now I'm standing at this terminal, telling the world about my kinda crappy morning. I'd really like to go home, sleep a little more, and start over, but I guess that's not an option. My stomach still hurts.

tap, tap ... is this thing on?

This is just a test for now. I'm trying to see if this thing still works.