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Comment by slg | Hacker News Reader

You are certainly right about Netflix's catalog decreasing, but that doesn't explain why Netflix's recommendations have been downgraded over time.

I am reminded of the show Tuca & Bertie. It was a new Netflix original from the same people who created BoJack Horseman. You would think it would be obvious to surface the new show to anyone who watched the old show. Except that never happened. The show's creator even commented that Netflix's algorithm never recommended her her own show. She had to manually search to find it.

The only real explanation is that Netflix believes it is more important for customers to think the catalog is large rather than the catalog is good. Netflix wants people to spend 10 minutes scrolling through crap to find something to watch instead of simply listing all the recommended content at the top and for people to notice that there are only a few good options.

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What I hate about Netflix’s recommendations is how if you watch any standup comedy special, Netflix decides that you’re a huge, undiscerning standup fan and recommends all standup comedy to you, forever.

Not sure of that. I have never watched standup and Netflix still recommends lots of standup comedy

Netflix is all-in on comedy, esp standup.

But I have the same problem with the music services -- I listen to a lot of "quiet" music playlists for sleep and work. And so, all the playlists Spotify build for me are quiet. But I also follow and listen to a lot of rock/noise/loud music. But the "made for you" formulas won't budge.

I jokingly believe I need two services -- one where I listen to ambient/quiet/etc, and another where I never listen to it.

But the probability is I'll stop caring about music services and live without them. I don't need to curate my relationship with services like they're tomagachi's. I pay for Youtube Premium, but when I subscribe to a certain number of music artists, it chokes my video subscription feeds.

Moving to willfully not caring for content, music and videos alike.

There’s definitely a big difference once you’ve actually watched one. You can create a new profile and see it for yourself. Or at least, this was the case the last time I attempted to verify.

Netflix’s recommended content has become so terrible outside things I want like Better Call Saul or Mindhunter, that I’ve cancelled the sub. Most of what they push to the top is straight garbage. Really badly written stuff.

Meanwhile I can pay the same for amazon and get more Picard, Mr Robot, The Expanse... and if the TV sucks there are plenty of movies on rotation.

I reached the same conclusion today. When I logged back in to disable the autoplay-previews, it occurred to me that the only reason I have a subscription still is to catch the remaining Sherlock (with Cumberbatch) episodes that I haven't yet seen.

But I realized they might also be found elsewhere, and it turns out they're carried by Amazon Prime Video. That was the last straw for my Netflix subscription.

I'm amazed by how thoroughly Netflix has changed me from a lover to a hater of their service and company in recent years. It's not just a matter of cancelling because they don't have a catalog I care about. It's that I feel lied to and manipulated as well.

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