Netflix Deletes All User Reviews (engadget.com)

Netflix has removed all user reviews from its site, just like they said they would in early July. Here's what Netflix now has to say about posting reviews on its site: "Netflix customers were able to leave reviews on Netflix.com until mid-2018, when reviews were removed due to declining use. To learn how Netflix suggests TV shows and movies we think you'll love, visit our Ratings & Recommendations article." Engadget reports: Netflix probably had reasons other than the section's decline in use, as well. For instance, it had to deal with issues like "review bombing" by trolls hoping to bring down a show's rating back when it used stars instead of the thumbs up-down system. Netflix might have decided that reviews don't lead to enough views to warrant spending resources on policing them. It has a "percentage match" system that suggests titles based on previous ones you've watched, after all, so there's probably very little incentive for the platform to keep the reviews section running.

Comments

Trolling

[AmiMoJo]

It's probably due to trolling. IMDB is the same, certain movies are heavily trolled, e.g. Black Panther.

Re:Trolling

[TigerPlish]

It's probably due to trolling. IMDB is the same, certain movies are heavily trolled, e.g. Black Panther.

It's the same everywhere, just about. For a good decade now, if not more, I've felt forums and comments are nothing but a wasteland.. why I waste my time in /. I'll never know.. but I do know this: I've quit reading and posting in *all* the forums of things I like / liked. /. is the last one I've not retreated from.

because now they are the target of the reviews

[nazsco]

before they had tons of dvds, they needed reviews to predict which ones to stock up.

now they control production and presentation. they will tell you what to watch and when. and you will watch and like it.

Re:because now they are the target of the reviews

[omnichad]

They haven't? It doesn't show in most UIs anymore. I can only give a thumbs up or down rating.

Re:because now they are the target of the reviews

[rh2600]

The cynicism is strong with this one.

When they had DVDs they had to keep physical inventory, and ship physical inventory, so predicting demand was important to their logistics planning.

Now they have unlimited inventory, and shipping is essentially instant and with zero marginal cost - so in that regard, demand prediction is less important.

Here is your answer

[Ol Olsoc]

Mindy Kaling, on negative reviews of all female Ocean's 11: "If I had to base my career on what white men wanted I would be very unsuccessful,” said Kaling in an interview with Yahoo.

“And the thing about so much of what this movie is, I think white men, critics would enjoy it, would enjoy my work, but often I think there is a critic who will damn it in a way because they don’t understand it, because they come at it at a different point of view, and they’re so powerful, Rotten Tomatoes.”

Brie Larson adds:

“What I am saying is if you make a movie that is a love letter to women of color, there is an insanely low chance a woman of color will have a chance to see your movie, and review your movie.”

Larson informs us that more than 63 percent of reviewers are white and male. (Almost the same percentage of women to men in university), and only 18 percent are both white and female

Only 4.1 percent are female and from underrepresented groups

“I don’t need a 40-year-old white dude to tell me what didn’t work about ‘A Wrinkle in Time,'” Larson added. “It wasn’t made for him. I want to know what it meant to women of color, biracial women, to teen women of color.”

Now to my thoughts There are the reasons that quasi-official sites like Netflix are removing reviews. This is a pretty big problem, and the movie industry needs positive reviews, and the trend in movies is proving a to be a little problem. The people who make such blatantly sexist movies must hear that they are good, and if people do notlike them, they must have a a target of blame. To them, The all female Ghostbusters did not fail because it wasn't funny and because it was sexist in nature, It failed because of thos fucking teenage boys. As Kaling decrees. https://www.indiewire.com/2016...!

What is amazing is that ability to scream about racism and sexism, and simultaneous replace it with sexism and racism so blatant and in your face that you can proclaim people pointing out the problem with your work is somehow racist and sexist. The worm ouroboros as it were.

But anyhow, there is the problem - White males.

Re:Here is your answer

[AmiMoJo]

Making a movie for women isn't sexist. It doesn't hurt men.

And the problem isn't white males. You even quoted the damn explanation of the problem but somehow saw the phrase "white male" and had some kind of Pavlovian response.

The problem is movies being reviewed almost exclusively by people who are not the target audience and who don't understand them.

Geeks should understand this very well. How often do critics slate great sci-fi movies that we love and which become cult classics? The views of sci-fi fan critics get buried by the ones who thought LaLa Land was better.

Re:Here is your answer

[ooloorie]

Making a movie for women isn't sexist. It doesn't hurt men. The problem is movies being reviewed almost exclusively by people who are not the target audience and who don't understand them.

The people making these movies deliberately took movies targeted at male audiences and then put in an all-female cast. I think it's not surprising that "the wrong" audience watches them and then gives them a low rating.

Furthermore, not being in the target audience doesn't mean that people have nothing to say about it. The Birth of a Nation was targeted at (and a favorite of) white males like Woodrow Wilson, but African Americans certainly had every right to comment on it and criticize it.