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Netflix To Eliminate Profiles Feature

Posted by samzenpus on from the no-profile-for-you dept.

Donald Burr of Borg writes "One of my favorite features of Netflix, the video-rental-by-mail service, is 'profiles.' Profiles lets you create 'sub-accounts' for your friends/family, so that they can share in the video rental love. Each profile gets his/her own Netflix queue that he/she can manage with their own login/password. You can divide up how many movies get sent to you vs. the other profiles under your account. E.g. if you have a 6-out-at-once plan, you can choose to get 3 movies at a time, and have 3 other profiles each receive 1 movie. Unfortunately, the fun stops September 1, at which point Netflix is, for unknown reasons, going to terminate this feature. Why? To '...help us to continue to improve the Netflix website for all our customers.' Improvement indeed."

13 of 508 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Yes, I received the same notice. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    And everyone knows that every time you burn a DVD, your dead uncle is watching you. You know, that creepy one who always asked if you wanted your back rubbed when you took a bath. Apparently, he gets off on DVD ripping, too. So, you know, don't rip DVDs. It's bad for your soul, and pervy uncles like it.

  2. Now I get it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I just called Netflix customer service to ask for clarification on how this helps improve the web site. The rep responded that they needed to free up programming space for better features, and that it's really a tiny, tiny percentage of people that use profiles to separate queues. (Slashdot and Gizmodo, the two sites I checked for reactions to this, are apparently chock full of tiny, tiny percentages.)

    When I told her that I'm a programmer and I don't understand what it means to free up programming space, she was quiet for a moment and then said, "This is really a decision that they've already made, so it's not like they're going to change their minds."

    I'm all for freeing up programming space. Statistics show that programming space will be all used up in the next 10 years if we don't start conserving it.

    1. Re:Now I get it by Dog-Cow · · Score: 2, Funny

      Have we reached peak programming space already?!

    2. Re:Now I get it by TooMuchToDo · · Score: 4, Funny

      Netflix, 2008 -- "One profile should be enough for anyone"

  3. My Email to Netflix by Scyber · · Score: 2, Funny

    "I just wanted to share that I am extremely disappointed to see Profiles going away. Profiles have allowed my wife and I to share a netflix account without any marital discord. Now I will have to navigate the horrors of balancing my wife's desire for romantic comedies with my desire for action & sci-fi movies. I will be sure to forward you the transcripts of our arguments so you too can join in the discomfort."

  4. Re:Yes, I received the same notice. by Hal_Porter · · Score: 1, Funny

    I do not understand what cost savings Netflix would achieve by this reduction in service. FEAR. Customer relations is about causing FEAR in the customer. Confident customers will call the hotline all day and whine about shit. Scared customers will be grateful that some feature they like hasn't been DELETED, that the service is up and their credit card information hasn't been posted on a Russian credit card scammers mailing list.

    By deleting features, FEAR is inspired in the customers. FEAR makes them easier to handle. It's the same at home. My dog used to bark all the time and shit in the house but since I started beating it ruthless whenever I get snake eyes on my daily dice roll or see a SIGN in the shape of the clouds, it's been all sweetness and light. It's FEAR that made it better. FEAR that a fickle, heartless being with Godlike power will punish it.

    As the firedemon Machiavelli said when he was in foul human form "Let them hate, so long as they FEAR". Or the Dark Lord himself in the Language of Dark Power "Xsasoqdwho ascasfwef fhhdjso wewadsfaafop asoasocdszzzzzzzz...." I can't make the sounds in this puny human body. How I wish to be back amongst creatures of my own order.

    Hal "YHWH" Porter
    Customer Relations Manager
    Verizon
    --
    echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
  5. Re:Yes, I received the same notice. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    > I smoked pot once. But I DID NOT inhale. Will you hire me?

    No. You'd probably do all your work but never save it.

  6. Problem: recommendations by Insightfill · · Score: 1, Funny
    In our house, my wife, I and my children each have 'sub-accounts'. Recommendations from Netflix have been pretty intelligent. Under the new plan, all of our viewing habits will be lumped together, with the result that we'll start getting recommendations for hospital drama/scifi/children shows. What will that leave us? Poor recommendations. Darn: it was just starting to flush out the children recommendations from my sub-account from way back a long time ago when they were combined.

    Well, at least my Tivo doesn't think I'm gay.

  7. Re:The so-called reason by Thornburg · · Score: 2, Funny

    Does your computer even have a mouse? Are you using some utterly complicated command-line version of Netflix? Come now, this is Slashdot, you should know that nearly any task that can be performed on a command-line will be faster that way than with a GUI, if you know what you are doing. The only exception I can think of would visually-based artistic things like drawing or creating a complicated 3D rendering.

    I assure you that if there were a CLI version of Netflix, it would take less time to type:

    netflix /add "Die Hard" p=1

    than it does to load the GUI page and click on the "send to top" button. And certainly placing items at a specific location on the list would be much faster.

    GUI is more intuitive, and that is great, but CLI is faster and more powerful (with a very small number of exceptions).
  8. Re:Yes, I received the same notice. by j00r0m4nc3r · · Score: 3, Funny

    Boiled peas?? Luxury! When I was young we got boiled SAND on airplanes. And we were thankful!

  9. Recommendations for you both by quokkapox · · Score: 2, Funny
    • Little Shop of Horrors
    • Rocky Horror Picture Show
    • The Crow

    Should I keep going? Okay, I cheated and got The Crow from Google Sets :p

    --
    it's a blue bright blue Saturday hey hey
  10. Re:Yes, I received the same notice. by zippthorne · · Score: 4, Funny

    Psah. We had to bring our own sand. Hot. And bags were strictly banned from flights, so you carried your sand in your hands.

    And that's the way we likes'd it.

    --
    Can you be Even More Awesome?!
  11. Re:Yes, I received the same notice. by Hognoxious · · Score: 4, Funny

    "In order to provide a better service to you, our valued customer...", immediately I recoil, 'cause I know I'm just about to be hit with some sort of diminished service.
    Come on, that's a sweeping generalisation.

    They might just be going to charge you more.
    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."