Hacker News Reader

Comment by KozmoNau7 | Hacker News Reader

Good old nostalgia. I miss IRC, simple hand-written HTML websites and forums. Now everything seems to run through Facebook or one of their peers, with little to no room for custom touches and design, everyone just paints within the lines.

I also kind of miss the days of movies on VHS, physically going and renting movies, music on CDs, not having millions of media choices accessible within seconds.

Though I have to say, I tried reliving the CD experience a little while ago. I dug out my CD collection and bought a second hand CD player. It just wasn't the same anymore. The magic wasn't there.

Some things are best left to nostalgic thoughts.

View on HN

Browsing and discovery within a blockbuster store was far superior to what any of the steaming apps have given us. I absolutely loathe the process of trying to find something to watch these days

Disagree. While that was good, I enjoy browsing Netflix. I wish it had reviews though.

Thats the thing, as a teen, I worked at blockbuster and by 6months had watched everything in the store. I would have deep conversations with customers and help them find things based on their tastes, many of whom I got to know. Now you have an algo. Its not better, for exactly the reason you stated.

I wouldn't want a discussion with a single teenager about a movie though

Clicking next, next, next one/five titles at a time is my complaint. And even paging doesn’t help much when it’s constantly resorted.

I could semi memorize my local blockbuster and do a walking scan for stuff that was new or caught my eye. They also picked a genre for a movie. Netflix you can see same movie in drama/comedy and thriller. Just makes their catalog look bigger and harder to sort through.

I don’t use Netflix through a touch device. Only on TV via Apple TV or amazon fire so there may be some experience I’m missing out on.

>I absolutely loathe the process of trying to find something to watch these days

Wow, I find it infinitely superior to video stores, besides almost every movie or series ever made being instantly available, and many reviews of them all!

Maybe I can help with that. Lists are good, google lists of..whatever you're looking for. e.g. best movies ever/comedies/european series etc. I use IMDb a lot, I read a page or two of user reviews of a movie and almost always know whether I will like the movie or not, and am almost never very surprised by what I think of it. There are a few critics I regularly read in External Reviews on IMDb, e.g. from Ebert, Urban Cinefile, Moria - but have learnt to mostly trust the user reviews instead. IMDb lists are a great way to discover new movies, either googling lists or seeing what lists the movies you love are in. (NB the movie score on IMDb is mostly no guide to anything.) When I find a director or actor or screenwriter I like, I check out their other stuff.

..If all else fails, you could (I hope) do worse than check out the movies & series I've given an 'outstanding' star to on http://www.adamponting.com/movies/ :-) Good luck.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com