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Some Netflix Users Have Rated 50,000 Shows

Posted by timothy on from the suckling-at-the-boob-tube dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Netflix has released some statistics about its users, showing that more than one percent of its customer base has rated 5,000 shows or more, and a few hundred users have rated over 50,000. A reporter for The Atlantic tracked down a few of those extreme users to find out why they do it. Mike Reilly, a producer, heard about the Netflix prize, and wanted to test the limits of the movie recommendation algorithm. Lorraine Hopping Egan has rated about 6,500 movies, but she still uses word of mouth when trying to decide what to watch."

9 of 134 comments (clear)

  1. Evidence by Sonny+Yatsen · · Score: 5, Funny

    FTA:

    Several hundred Netflix members have rated more than 50,000 filmed entertainment programs. 50,000! To watch all those at a pace of one movie or TV show per day, it would take 136 years.

    More evidence that Immortals walk among us.

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    1. Re:Evidence by pablodiazgutierrez · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Or watching more than one show per day. Or having watched them in the past, long before Netflix was around, and rating them in their system.

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      To do list for Windows
    2. Re:Evidence by idontgno · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Or botting the whole stinking thing.

      That's my odds-on favorite theory on how you can rate 50k items.

      --
      Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
  2. 50,000 or 5,000? by fiannaFailMan · · Score: 4, Informative

    To end the confusion, here's what TFAhas to say about it:

    Several hundred Netflix members have rated more than 50,000 filmed entertainment programs. 50,000! To watch all those at a pace of one movie or TV show per day, it would take 136 years.

    But those users are just the extreme end of a broader behavioral pattern. About a tenth of one percent (0.07%) of Netflix users -- more than 10,000 people -- have rated more than 20,000 items. And a full one percent, or nearly 150,000 Netflixers, have rated more than 5,000 movies. By contrast, only 60 percent of Netflix users rate any movies at all, and the typical person only gives out 200 starred grades.

    --
    Drill baby drill - on Mars
  3. Nothing new here, move along... by ZDRuX · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is typical where you give people the choice of rating something. Same goes for music. People on a music torrent tracker rate every single torrent uploaded, even without ever downloading it - just because they don't like the artist,. and make sure nobody else does either.

    Or they do the opposite and rate every single song by his "best" artist a 5/5, even if the song is total shite.

    This is more of an internal social conflict rather than some mathematical dillema, it's just people being people (and by people, I mean dicks).

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  4. Re:stuff that matters? by geekoid · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I suggest you go through the archive. /. really hasn't changed that much in the 11-12 years I've been here.

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    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  5. Re:stuff that matters? by spun · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sure Slashdot has changed. Back then, people wondered when Slashdot would publish some news for nerds and stuff that matters. Now people wonder when Slashdot stopped publishing news for nerds and stuff that matters. Totally different.

    --
    - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
  6. Some people do watch at lot but... by falken0905 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I have rated 2223 items at Netflix, 99% feature length movies. Since becoming a member I have received and watched 1034 movies. I own a little over 2000 dvds and Blu-Rays. Yes, I watch a lot of movies (and obviously have no life). But, that is my main entertainment; I do not subscribe to cable or satellite tv, I am over 60 years old, and have seen a -lot- of film over the years. And no, I won't tell you where I live or how the alarm system works. So yeah, I suppose I can see how someone could have rated -maybe- 5000 movies/shows. But, 50,000? I can not quite fathom that. Perhaps someone with even less of a life than mine spends all day compulsively rating movies based entirely on their descriptions and cast lists? Robots? The studios and/or MPAA? As a side note, Netflix recommendation engine seems to have no clue whatsoever what I am likely to enjoy, probably due to my wide range of preferences. I am constantly amused at some of the stuff they suggest and have noticed that the old pre-contest engine, for my tastes, was much more likely find stuff I like and potentially rent.

  7. Slashdot has a ratings system, too by blair1q · · Score: 4, Informative

    Slashdot has a ratings system, too.

    You go to http://slashdot.org/firehose and look at the articles by clicking on their titles, maybe follow the links they contain to see if the summary is correct and the links work and aren't a trap or anything, then you click the + or the - and pick a category for your reasoning from the inadequate list.

    The idea is that when stories like this one come up that are (a) dull, and (b) poorly written, and (c) so is the summary, you can have a voice in saying whether it's forced upon the rest of /. or just scrolls off the bottom of the Firehose, never to be seen again until the inevitable dupe is posted.

    But clearly, that ratings system isn't doing a bit of good, because, dayum...