Profiles going away!?
Did everyone else get this e-mail from Netflix:
" We wanted to let you know we will be eliminating Profiles, the feature that allowed you to set up separate DVD Queues under one account, effective September 1, 2008."
Why?
"While it may be disappointing to see Profiles go away, this change will help us continue to improve the Netflix website for all our customers."
Okay, how does Profiles going away improve Netflix? Am I the only one in household with multiple people each of whom want a different queue for tracking, rating, reviews, etc. Furthermore, according to the FAQ, there's no way to even transfer a Profile to a new separate account. So that means if you spent time rating tons of movies under one profile, all of that is lost! This seems like a huge disruption of service. In what way is this good? And there's not even any way I can see to match the equivalent functionality once they go away.
This to me is a huge negative change to the service for no visible reason.
Ernie
" We wanted to let you know we will be eliminating Profiles, the feature that allowed you to set up separate DVD Queues under one account, effective September 1, 2008."
Why?
"While it may be disappointing to see Profiles go away, this change will help us continue to improve the Netflix website for all our customers."
Okay, how does Profiles going away improve Netflix? Am I the only one in household with multiple people each of whom want a different queue for tracking, rating, reviews, etc. Furthermore, according to the FAQ, there's no way to even transfer a Profile to a new separate account. So that means if you spent time rating tons of movies under one profile, all of that is lost! This seems like a huge disruption of service. In what way is this good? And there's not even any way I can see to match the equivalent functionality once they go away.
This to me is a huge negative change to the service for no visible reason.
Ernie
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jason on -
In 2006 I enthusiastically canceled DirecTV b/c they decided to launch a "better" non-Tivo DVR. It was a horrible move in the name of "progress" that alienated many of their most passionate customers. This is another one of those moments for me. Netflix apparently did it's cost/benefit analysis and decided that the multitude of users paying $5/month are more important than households like mine paying $17/month.
In the seven years that I have been a member, I have successfully recruited two households into Netflix, away from Blockbuster, by explaining the profile feature to them. Had Netflix bothered to promote the feature, they'd easily find that more than 1% of accounts could benefit from it. It's a feature that makes obvious sense for every multi-member household. I've already read one response on the boards from someone who never used it, didn't know about, but loves the idea of it... and is now pissed that it's going away.
By killing it, they will alienate every member of this household, not just the account owner. And they will loose a vocal supporter. Could you imaging Amazon trying this stunt on customers? "Thanks for seven loyal years... Now go screw yourself but feel free to print out all of your history in case, you know, you want to make a scrapbook." My wife has seven years worth of reviews that you are about to trash... Perhaps this is a prime opportunity for Blockbuster.
I knew that eventually I'd end up getting all my content via Amazon Unbox or Apple iTV. I knew that this whole mail order DVD business model was dying. I just didn't know that Netflix was in such a hurry to kill it off for me and my family...
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Permalink Reply by ewd76 on -
In 2006 I enthusiastically canceled DirecTV b/c they decided to launch a "better" non-Tivo DVR.
Was it not better? If not, why?
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Permalink Reply by Bill on -
In 2006 I enthusiastically canceled DirecTV b/c they decided to launch a "better" non-Tivo DVR. It was a horrible move in the name of "progress" that alienated many of their most passionate customers.
Like the previous poster, I'm curious to that answer also.
I've long considered the jump to satellite, however the answers I've gotten from the various providers in regards to DVR's have either been too vague or unacceptable overall. I have a Tivo for which I paid a lifetime subscription. I'll be damned if I'm going to pay twice for it like DirecTV suggests I have to. Not to mention having entertainment PC's whereby Microsoft nor my cable company charge DVR fees.
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Permalink Reply by Laur on -
I have a DirecTV DVR (love my DirecTV, love my DVR) but don't pay more for it. Is it the box you were told you had to pay more for or service for using the features of it?
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Permalink Reply by Bill on
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I was told I'd have to pay $5.99 (I think that was the cost) per month to use their DVR service on my already owned box.
I told them that was absurd, considering I already paid $299 (or something like that) a few years ago to TiVo for a lifetime subscription.
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Permalink Reply by Laur on
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I see, it’s a good way to squeeze a few extra pennies out of you for not using their branded DVR. I agree, it’s ridiculous for TiVo subscribers who sunk all of that money into it.
Sounds to me like they were able to strike a beneficial deal with the NFL and ESPN-U but not TiVo. Go figure.
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Permalink Reply by Spindaddydad on -
I have a DirecTV DVR (love my DirecTV, love my DVR)
Me too! I especially love the new feature they recently released whereby you can log into the DirecTV website and schedule a program to record on your DVR... remotely via the web. Very convenient while you're away or at work and hear of a good program you don't want to miss.
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Permalink Reply by Laur on
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I know! I'd been waiting for that to come along, and then it did and I haven't even used it yet.
Very convenient while you're away or at work and hear of a good program you don't want to miss.
Especially while at work wasting time on the internet.
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Permalink Reply by Bill on
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Especially while at work wasting time on the internet.
Isn't work a waste of time in and of itself?
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Permalink Reply by droidmaker on -
I don't believe for a second that these multiple profiles cause a slowdown, especially if it's just 1% of the users that use it. The implementation must be all kinds of wonky if that's truly the case -- a feature that's merely a duplicate of the core functionality inherent to said program, used by 1% of the users, should hardly affect preformance at all if properly implemented... I can't fathom a way of implementing a feature like that that would cause such an excuse to be valid. Of course, I can't see the code in front of me, but I can't think of any technical reasons why it should be valid -- that just sounds like poor implementation.
Adrian and others have NOT said that the feature affects system performance (in a way you can experience); what they said is that the feature makes it difficult and slow for netflix to make changes and improvements to the site.
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Permalink Reply by C on -
The problem is that profiles were grafted on to the existing codebase in a kludgey way that makes it hard to add new features.
The solution to that problem is to implement profiles correctly in a way that does not make it hard to add new features. Hiding internals and building relatively independent features is what software engineers do, and their engineers should be able to make it work and hide the details of profiles from other aspects of the system. It is not rocket science, and the programmers among us cannot accept that they couldn't make it that happen if they wanted to.
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