I just assumed the Netflix top 10 were movies/shows they were trying to push, not based on actual veiwership.
That's a bingo. Any "trending" algorithm is designed to get you to click on it. It's not a source of accurate information.
It's the same with search results. You're searching for X? Here's something X-adjacent we've been paid to show you that you might click on while looking for X. We're going to call it "what others buy" and hope you do, too.
It really bothers me because I want to buy actual good quality stuff but I have no idea how to find it because I don't trust any reviews or anything on search engines at all really.
This is one of the big things that killed Amazon for me. They used to have a great search and filter function that was designed to make it as easy as possible to find what you were looking for. Now it's designed to find things that are related to your search and ignore your filters when sellers pay them to promote their product. Combined with the fake reviews and the ocean of low quality trash that fills 95% of their inventory, it's now actually easier to drive to a store and search shelves manually than it is to sit and click.
And don't get me started on AI generated "reviews" that are just reworded marketing material with affiliate links. It used to be that google could get you some relatively reliable sources, but most of those have long since replaced real reviews with this bullshit. At this point, I just assume every review is a lie unless I see a video of a human testing the product while taking about it.
I honestly think that anyone who is making money by misleading consumers with product reviews that aren't actually based on some interaction with the product should be in prison for fraud.
I don't get why the streaming services would care what media people watch. Are they pushing stuff that is cheaper to license?
They want to get recommendations just good enough to keep you hooked. If they show you just the objectively best, you would instantly know after seeing the best ones, that the rest of the catalogue is worse and worse.
This is how Netflix was in the beginning. I actually unsubscribed for a while for yhis reason. Now I'm as hooked as ever, there might still be a few good ones out there - I just need to keep scrolling for a few hours. /s
I believe that they have said the top 10 is based on views, but haven't given the windoww for that count or whether the thimbs up/down ratings factor into it. That seems plausible as it is promoted as a popularity indicator and tends to have recent additons and already popular stuff listed.
Now the trending category is most likely the stuff they are trying to promote.
Browsing YouTube while logged out is 1,000 times worse.
the absolute blessing of never seeing Mr. Beast's face whenever I am signed in.
And the sheer amount of weird pseudo-reality-show-shovelware! Good grief, people! If you want made up content that's supposed to look like the real thing, watch porn!
I didn't even know who he was until recently. I don't even understand why he's popular.
His early videos that got him popular were insane and novel. I watched them from curiosity. As for why he's still... I have no idea. I don't know anyone who watches him. It can't just be kids.
I'm a grown ass man and love his videos because they're light-hearted and generally wholesome. Like where he rescued 100 dogs from kill shelters and helped get them adopted. But some of the more recent ones are just wasteful or dumb.
I like how they actually removed suggestions on the home page on the first time you visit logged out. I never click on anything on the home page suggestions and most of the stuff there is garbage, so it's actually refreshing just to see a blank home page.
It's still garbage, but you're 100% correct about it being 1000x worse logged out, at least it's like that for me.
I started getting a shitload of recommended videos based off an app I played for 5 minutes and deleted.
I never looked it up on youtube or google, and I didn't even search for it in the play store, I just saw it listed as similar to a different game that I did look up.
And after a week of constantly telling them to stop recommending me these videos because I don't like them, I'm still seeing them.
Again, played the app for a few minutes and deleted, have now spent more time telling youtube to stop showing it to me than I spent playing.
Remember when Netflix had a million dollar competition to improve their recommendation system by something like 10%? Remember when they had user ratings and reviews? Remember when they threw it all in the fucking trash?
The original recommendation engine was amazing. Showed me stuff I loved that I would have never found myself. My favorite example is the French claymation acid trip called "A Town Named Panic"
Now all I get recommended are shows that are cancelled and that I've already watched.
The goal isn't to give you stuff you want to watch, the goal is to do just enough that is just good enough to keep the highest amount of users subscribed. We like to think those are the same thing and they are usually aligned, but don't have to be. It's better for Netflix if you find those slower and just keep coming back to look around, kind of like some frustrating streaming gatcha game.
Maximize subscriptions, minimize actual watch time.
It wasn't long after they "improved" the recommendation engine that I set up my Plex server so I guess it was successful?
Nothing makes me feel more disconnected from humanity than the YouTube trending tab
I feel that way when I see YouTube shorts. Some of them are big titted girls doing shit which I can understand why those get clicked on but a lot of it I can't even figure out what is supposed to be happening.
PSA: The top 10 lists are 100% bought and paid for, or pushed by the streaming service in question.
You know I've worked on these sorts of bullshit features (under protest) as a developer (special sorting algorithms that bump up the score of monetized entries over organic (aka real) ones) and somehow I never stopped to think that everyone was likely doing the same.
Naivety, I guess
Absolutely. Ever since shitflix removed the star ratings and reviews that were done by real people, I stopped believing any of that "top list" bullshit.
As if it's not just their selected movies they wanna promote.
That's also how I feel whenever I access youtube from a different browser and just get the default listing.
I'm so disconnected I don't even have Netflix or any other streaming service
Godzilla Minus One was #1 yesterday. I'm glad to finally see some good taste on there.
Godzilla minus one is currently dominating that and I absolutely agree with that choice!
I never trusted that list from the getgo. Why wouldn't they use it to promote certain content? It would be wasted opportunity if they didn't.
Godzilla Minus One instantly hitting #1 restores my faith in humanity... a little.
During the pandemic I just sort of forgot about movies and most TV. I hadn't even heard of 90% of the stuff nominated last awards season.
For the most part it doesn't come up, but every so often I end up in a conversation where I feel like an alien.
That's pretty much the rest of the planet whenever US people talk about "world famous" people
My mom was describing some show to me saying I should watch it and I was just thinking "that sounds awful"
It keeps trying to get me to watch the new Zack Snyder Star Wars rip-off.
I watched the first one. I'd take a prostate exam by Edward Scissorhands before I waste another two hours of my life on the sequel.
I don't know if these are based on what everyone on the service is watching, or if it's just because they still use Nielson families as their sole metric. How can the top 10 most popular things be shit I have never even heard of? If they're that popular, I'm pretty sure I'd hear about it somewhere.
The comments here are enlightening. In a dismaying sort of way.
It seems nothing drives a wedge between all people in a community than algorithms like the Netflix Top Ten. Everybody eyeing everyone else with suspicion, when actually no one is actually watching that crap.
This is true for most popular things for me. I'm always wondering how this is so popular.
You can find good stuff aound 5+ sometimes.
The Outfit is good. Atlas is shit.
People tweeting stuff. We allow tweets from anyone.
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