That Nagging Netflix Queue 161
"Busy people hate traditional rental stores because you rent some movies, pay for them, get busy and can't watch them, and then return them 3 days later unwatched. Or, equally likely, you return them 6 days later and pay late fees for the movie you didn't watch."
"I could never return a rental ontime. It was more like a week or 2 after it was do. With the extra late fees added to the rental, it was cheaper to buy the movie. I just bought the movies instead. Of course, this was when I was single and had money to burn."
"Now with a wife and kids, there is no time to goto the movies. Netflix is great to catch up on the movies I missed. Plus, I can easily rent questionable movies like King Kong and Napoleon Dynamite without having to pay $50 to see it in the theater ($10 for 2 people, $20 for food, $20 for a babysitter)."
If there really is a "paradox of abundance," paying customers aren't the only ones who experience it; Brix Braxton writes that the same ennui affects the casual software copier, too:
"This reminds me of when I was a kid and had my first 8-bit computer -- for the first few months I bought all of my software one tape at a time. I would play the games, good or bad all the way through -- picking through every nugget I could find, playing some games for weeks on end."
"Some time later, I met a friend at school who had the same computer and offered to bring his disks over. Holy cow -- he must have had two hundred disks of software that I spent a weekend or two copying. That pretty much killed it for me since I didn't really have any pressure to play anything and since I didn't invest anything into the software -- I would just load a game, decide it didn't look all that great and move on to the next."
And reader bman08 says that "owning movies is even worse," writing
"There are something like 345 DVDs on my shelves at home and it would not, in a million years, occur to me to actually watch one... Those movies are for even later, after the Netflix movies. I've often found myself watching Pan'n'scan versions on cable of movies I own for this reason... the TV schedule provides a compelling reason to watch."
SloppyElvis renames the phenomenon of oversupply matched with underuse "Paradox of Consumption." He writes
"The converse of this paradox is also one. Accumulating as much of a product as possible to maximize the value of the monetary expense, even if doing so adversely affects your enjoyment of that product, illustrates a strange consequence of consumerism."
"The obvious example is that of the person who consumes far beyond a comfortable and enjoyable amount of food at an all-you-can-eat buffet. The value for the price is determined to be "volume of food" rather than enjoyment of the meal. Would someone consciously pay for a sick stomach?"
"For some, Netflix is approaching this valuation on "volume of movies" rather than convenience or even personal enjoyment/satisfaction of the service."
Writing "You don't want what you think you want," reader voidstin has some suggestions about the psychological dilemma posed by all-one-can-eat rentals:
"Of course we want to see Hotel Rwanda, or the new Almodovar film, because we are advanced, modern intellectuals. In reality, after a 12-hour day of re-factoring someone else's messy code, would you rather open a beer and collapse in front of Hotel Rwanda or Super Troopers?"
"The problem is Netflix (and TiVo) makes you confront this issue -- You have to send it back and quit on it. You have to admit that you don't want to watch Hotel Rwanda. You'd rather fast forward to the 'good parts' of The Girl Next Door rather than think about genocide. You are not the advanced, modern intellectual you thought you were. Who wants an existential crisis when they thought they were just renting movies? Is this horrible? Probably. So is alcoholism, but I bet you didn't cringe when I opened a beer in the above paragraph."
Reader Gadgetfreak supplies another psychological explanation for the unwatched-movie pile in many households:
"[T]he bigger and more complicated a decision, the easier it is for me to decide. Choosing a college: Simple. I went, I looked, and by the time I needed to apply, I'd already decided. Only applied to 1 school. (Graduated 3 + years ago, picked up a dual Engr. degree, and had a blast). Buying a car? Simple. I knew what I wanted. Buying a house? Simple. (Going on 2 years now, still satisfied)."
"But man... you put me in front of a vending machine and I cannot make up my friggin mind. I'm not kidding. I can't decide. I'll stand there staring at it."
Ackthpt suggests yet another reason: that a movie sometimes needs the viewer to be in a mood suited to it, and that it's hard to predict emotional states:
"[S]tuff coming in like clockwork isn't the way my tastes for music or film are sated. On impulse I'll suddenly whip out and buy an Etta James collection, because I like some tune she sang back in the days of yor or I'll buzz down to the Bijou and check out Superman Returns From Wherever He Buggered Off To, but I don't do these with any chartable frequency. I tend to buy music, DVDs or old radio plays to listen to on trips or when I feel like it. Having stuff come in on a robotic schedule just isn't going to work, no matter how good the deal."
Reader MagikSlinger lays some blame (if blame is the right word) on the queuing system used by Netflix, which he compares to that of Zip.ca, which allows a user to set some movies on hold ("Park"), and suggests
"Arbitrarily ranking the queue (which I understand Netflix allows) is handy if you know you're going to watch things, but maybe they need to ask the user: I really want to watch this, I wouldn't mind watching this, and 'Eh, a friend told me i should watch it.'"
Reader Quiet_Desperation wants to know why anyone should be so worked up about a choice that's all about luxuries in the first place. He writes
"My job has been very busy lately, and Elder Scrolls IV wandered into my life, so I simply cut back my Netflix account to two out at a time down from four. I can just about slip in two movies a week. If I can't do that, I'll cut back to one. There's also the 'rip to hard drive' option to backlog films."
"Feeling "pressure" to watch a movie? What would these "paradox of abundance" sufferers do if they had to go out and hunt a woolly mammoth for dinner? Cripes, take a Paxil or something."
(One reader's response: "I'm pretty much sure they'd starve to death -- the woolly mammoths have been real scarce this year.")
Dephex Twin, too, wants to know What's the problem?, and writes:
"I don't really see what's so bad about this. It's there, and maybe you get around to watching it and maybe you don't."
"One positive thing that I have noticed since I started Netflix is that I watch a lot less movies that I *don't* care about much. Back when I used to go to the video store, I might have a few movies in mind, and maybe these movies would be in, or not, or maybe I remember my mental list, or maybe not. But at that point, I've driven to the video store, so I'm leaving with at least one movie. So, I spend 45 minutes to finally decide on something that I don't even care about, just so my trip wasn't a total loss."
SydShamino takes a different tack, and writes that he's "been watching more movies that I really don't care about. With rentals, it's hard to pay good money for crap movies like 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' (currently at the top of my queue). With Netflix, though, assuming I watch and turn it relatively quickly, I'm only paying $0.80 or so for the rental -- and that money is hidden away in a monthly fee that I pay anyway. Given that my tastes wander enough to appreciate B, C, and D-grade science fiction, this is a good deal."
The customers are just afraid.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The customers are just afraid.... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:The customers are just afraid.... (Score:3, Funny)
But seriously with the volume of buisness for NetFlix do you really think they have to time to rewind each tape sent back.
Re:The customers are just afraid.... (Score:5, Funny)
Pft. Look at this guy, doesn't even know how to rewind a DVD. Point and laugh!
Re:The customers are just afraid.... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:The customers are just afraid.... (Score:2)
Rich
Re:The customers are just afraid.... (Score:2)
but aside that, my friend's sister was rewinding her DVDs (no shit!) until he told her
Re:The customers are just afraid.... (Score:2)
Re:The customers are just afraid.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The customers are just afraid.... (Score:2)
Not as confused as the DVD player manufacturers that still label the button "Rewind" just in case you don't know what the symbol means. Some do better by labeling it "Reverse" or "Back".
"Do not try to rewind the TiVo. That's impossible. Instead only try to realize the truth."
"What truth?"
"There is no spool."
Hardly anyone "dials" a phone number anymore either.
Re:The customers are just afraid.... (Score:2)
Re:The customers are just afraid.... (Score:2)
I'd recommend that customers afraid of returning unrewound DVD's upgrade their DVD player like I did. With my old DVD player, rewinding DVD's was a real hassle, since it didn't have a "skip back" button on it, so I had to watch the whole movie in reverse to get back to the beginning. Now, with my newer DVD player, if a movie has 12 chapters, I only have to hit the "skip back" button 12 times and I'm back at the beginning... although I have to hit the stop button really fast when I get back to the beginnin
slashback (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:slashback (Score:2)
and people throw ducks at balloons and nothing is the way it seems
Re:slashback (Score:3, Interesting)
However, for subjects I have only a passing interest in (for instance netflix usage), it's nice to have an editor pick through the crap and give a nice summary of the thread. It's much easier to read and takes far less time. It's l
Re:slashback (Score:2)
At least troll intelligently. ^_~
Re:slashback (Score:2)
(Well, okay, technically the repetive articles are Backslash, the follow-up articles are Slashback, but that messes with the rhyme. "I'd rather back slash than back Katz"? Um, no.)
backslash (Score:4, Insightful)
slashdot.org/users.pl?op=edithome (Score:3, Informative)
http://slashdot.org/users.pl?op=edithome [slashdot.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Re:backslash (Score:2)
It doesn't make sense to rehash the same thing is the same slashdot format
You must be new here.
Re:backslash (Score:2)
Hurry up with the tagging beta, and let me ignore backslash tags, already.
Re:backslash (Score:2)
Re:backslash (Score:2)
It's perfect for those who can't decide whether they should browse at +4 or +5.
Re:backslash (Score:2)
Netflix good: Different people, different reasons (Score:3, Insightful)
Anyway, the real story is that choices for consumers is a good thing. Some people would never use Netflix because they enjoy the trips to Blockbuster...browsing, touching, feeling. Others like the community feedback that an on-line store provides. People will decide what works best for them...and that is a good thing.
No need to be frantic, just rip 'em for later! (Score:2)
Steve
Oh dear (Score:5, Funny)
I rented 'Groundhog Day' ... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I rented 'Groundhog Day' ... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:I rented 'Groundhog Day' ... (Score:2)
Irony... (Score:2)
So clearly the tools exist to check for similar content, which leaves me wondering which of the following is true:
A) The tools are not made available for editors to research if an article is going to be a duplicate, or
B) The editors (okay, not all of them) don't bother researching...
Hrmmmm...
That's the point (Score:2)
I like the idea of SLashback but would like to see more editorial commentary from the grouper.
Just in case you didn't think of something... (Score:2)
Re:Just in case you didn't think of something... (Score:2)
Re:Just in case you didn't think of something... (Score:2)
Reminds me of piracy (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm not much into movies, frankly, but I am heavily into music and software. When broadband, CD burners, and a news host with a good alt.binaries.* feed came into my life, I downloaded music and software like a fiend. It was all free, and there was an ass-ton of it. It ended up consuming a lot of time, downloading, repacking, renaming, and organizing everything. My mp3 collection topped 60,000 tracks. That's bloody ridiculous, of course, since I could spend most of the rest of my life listening to that without repeating.
You know what? I got sick of it. It was too much stuff, and just organizing it so I could access it effectively was a tremendous time suck. I still have it, of course, and I still use some of it, but weirdly, I have ended up buying more music CDs and software titles from retail stores since then than I ever did before. It's more... manageable. I seldom ever bother with downloading pirated mp3s anymore.
The underlying psychology, I think, is that we are accustomed to scarcity, both in terms of our evolutionary heritage and our personal histories as consumers. Suddenly confronted by ridiculous abundance, it's very hard to develop a balanced approach. And this isn't just piracy or movie rentals. It's everything. How much time do people spend in malls or Wal-Mart or other stores looking for something to spend money on -- as opposed to going to a store with a specific purchase in mind? Human hoarding behavior is pretty much what you'd expect if you took a bunch of primates out of the marginal semi-arid plains of Africa and, in the blink of an evolutionary eye, dumped them in the middle of post-Christmas sales in a gigantic mall. We're hard-wired to expect that anything we don't snatch right away will be picked up by a competitor, and that wiring continues to be active even after the conditions that produced it no longer exist.
Piracy? Arrrr (Score:2)
But I don't get your subject? what on earth does it have to do with one legged men with swords and beards and walking the plank?
Re:Piracy? Arrrr (Score:2)
Crazy!
Great for TV Series Watching (Score:4, Insightful)
I've been using Netflix for the last 2 years. And it's been awesome for me. There have been a lot of good shows that for one reason or another I was never able to watch completely (Farscape, Firefly, Stargate SG-1, a couple of anime series). Sure I could have gone out and bought the series box sets, but in some cases I hadn't watched the whole series to make it worthwhile to buy.
Also since I rarely watch TV, Netflix is a nice alternative for me when I want to watch something. Not only that but I can watch something I'm interested in instead of the boring TV series that seem to be up now. Currently, I've been devouring season after season of Stargate SG-1, with 3-4 DVDs a week.
If instead I wanted to watch several theatre releases, I could see things being left on the shelf and eventually making their way back. I've had a few movies that I rented and didn't really watch.
Re:Great for TV Series Watching (Score:2)
Wow, finally, some confirmation that I'm not crazy (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Wow, finally, some confirmation that I'm not cr (Score:2)
It is human nature to assign greater value to things that cost the acquirer more. In your case, pirated entertainment is essentially free, so you feel that it is of little worth. While paying your "hard earned money" for something gives it a boost in perceived value.
This phenomenon manifests throughout the human experience, from the mundane to the weird. For example, it has been widely reported that the people who pay full sticke
Re:Wow, finally, some confirmation that I'm not cr (Score:2)
Of course, that may be because I grew up in the vinyl era, when record albums were often elaborately produced pieces of visual art themselves, and I've just retained that emotional response to
Re:Wow, finally, some confirmation that I'm not cr (Score:4, Funny)
It holds on the opposite end as well (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Wow, finally, some confirmation that I'm not cr (Score:2)
Ive gone through the same phase when i was in college. Got an internet connection that was restricted by the local network and the beginning of p2p (scour, napster and some others). Also the beginning of mpeg4 video compression with the divx codec.
The result? I could find lots of movies easily and download them faster than i could watch them. Hell we could almost STREAM them! At first, you go crazy and hoard all you can get your little dirty hand
little dvd envelopes under those dust bunnies?? (Score:2)
Re:little dvd envelopes under those dust bunnies?? (Score:2)
1. Immediately cancel your gym membership. You need to spend more time "sitting" and "staring".
2. Immediately quit volunteering at church. In fact, quit church. (You are going to need to start sleeping in on the weekends.)
3. Begin consuming large quantities of "junk food" and spend your time reloading the Slashdot main page.
4. Once you gain some weight, stop bathing for a while, and get really slothful your other problem of being married will take care o
slashbackback (Score:2, Funny)
One Word (Score:2)
By the way, you got your
When immigration is criminalized, only criminals will immigrate.
which of course also explains why you don't see many white-collar workers illegally immigrating.
Replay Link (Score:2)
Guess it's a slow news day (Score:2)
Backslash used to be worth a damn (Score:2)
Now it's just a summary of the original discussion, which is a complete waste of everyone's time. Those of us who cared enough to read the comments probably already did, and if not, those comments are all still there.
(For the inevitable jackass: I have removed Backslash in my prefs, but since I don't subscribe it still shows up in
Re:Backslash used to be worth a damn (Score:2)
I think. Could be wrong, though.
Correction: Backslash has always been useless (Score:2)
Gradual movie watching (Score:2)
It takes a little getting used to, but is second nature to me now. It gives time to gradually digest the movie's content, like reading and reflecting on a novel over the course of a week, rather than in one sitting.
Taking Dupes to a Whole New Level? (Score:3, Insightful)
Drown, Hollywood, Drown (Score:2)
It will get harder to distinguish the worthwhile titles from the crap, and the good movies will fill with product placements, because they're more likely to actually get watched.
What I'd like to know... (Score:2)
Where do you find Movie tickets for $5 a head these days? Here in Orange County, CA movie tickets start at about $10/head except for Matinees maybe (certainly can't do a movie "night" anyways). Now granted Orange County is one of the most expensive places in the United States to live, but is it that much better elsewhere? Then the movie people probably wonder why I don't go to the movies very much...
What I'd like to see... (Score:2)
steve
I'm moving to that town (Score:2)
$10 for 2 tickets? Around here, the dollar theatre costs more than that.
Over availability killing the cool factor (Score:2)
I got my name, LoudMusic, those eight or nine years ago by having A) A cable modem, and B) 12GB of Mp3s. I guess about three years ago the mission to fill with Mp3s every last byte of disk space I could purchase just became profound insanity. I had plans to build multi-terabyte disk arrays and gather all my friends collections together. Then I realized that 99% of wh
DVD renting for exercise (Score:2)
I get a fair amount of enjoyment from the walk and the browsi
Re:Netflix too slow (Score:2)
Re:Netflix too slow (Score:2)
No its not, I just read it and it forbids renting of sound or computer programs without permission..
Re:Netflix too slow (Score:2)
Re:Netflix too slow (Score:2)
Re:Netflix too slow (Score:2)
Re:Netflix too slow (Score:2)
There's more to it than that, but
Re:Netflix too slow (Score:2)
Re:Netflix too slow (Score:2)
Re:Netflix too slow (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Netflix too slow (Score:2)
Re:Netflix too slow (Score:2)
How to speed up returns (Score:5, Informative)
My solution is to print out a bunch of labels with the address of the closest Netflix return address and use the labels every time you're given a return envelope with an out of state address.
Re:How to speed up returns (Score:2)
I forgot to mention (Score:2, Informative)
How is this off topic? (Score:2)
Re:Netflix too slow (Score:2)
Re:Netflix too slow (Score:2)
Netflix lets me get my Kurosawa fix, while Blockbuster refuses to even stock most of them.
Re:Netflix too slow (Score:2)
is VOD codeword for greater than average number of pay-per view selections?
because I have been to hotels that have a decent VOD selection, but they got a relatively small audience dedicating 2 dozen channels to VOD works for them.
I have been with directtv for several years, their PPV selection is not bad, but it is nothing compared to the selection at the video store. and the selection at the video store, is nothing compared to the selectio
Re:The Nagging Dupe Queue (Score:3, Informative)
Re:The Nagging Dupe Queue (Score:4, Funny)
>
>You do understand that Backslash highlites user comments from a recent story, right?
Backslash: That Nagging Slashdot Dupe Queue
Posted by timothy on 12:03 PM -- Wednesday July 19 2006
from the failure-to-grok-backslash dept.
Dupe: Backslash: That Nagging Slashdot Dupe Queue
Posted by CmdrTaco on 12:03 PM -- Thursday July 20 2006
from the failure-to-check-for-backslash-dupes dept.
Backslash: Dupe: Backslash: That Nagging Slashdot Dupe Queue
Posted by CmdrTaco on 12:03 PM -- Friday July 21 2006
from the failure-to-grok-recursion dept.
Stacksmash: Backlash of Stack-Smashing Slashdotters Backslash Slashdot: Backslash: Dupe: Backslash: That Nagging Slashdot Dupe Que~``~1[][}
Posted by Fandango On Core on 3:15 AM -- Tuesday January 19 2038
from the failure-to-check-for-boun segmentation fault -- core dumped
Re:The Nagging Dupe Queue (Score:3, Funny)
Re:The Nagging Dupe Queue (Score:5, Informative)
Maybe next time...
Re:The Nagging Dupe Queue (Score:4, Informative)
Re:The Nagging Dupe Queue (Score:2)
We don't have time to read the summaries just the title then we're off to the next article to mine for more karma.
Re:Who has the time to watch crappy movies? (Score:2)
I don't sit down with a bag of popcorn, dim the lights, and take these in with the full "movie experience". As you state - they aren't good enough to be worth the effort. However, they have a "quality" to them
Re:Who has the time to watch crappy movies? (Score:2)
Seriously, with all the crappy movies out there and so little time, why bother.
For me NetFlix serves two purposes. First, I know I'm going to want the TV on occasionally while I'm working on something else, or cooking dinner, or just feel like doing nothing else. Since that is the case, I might as well watch a good show, in the right order, rather than a random episode of whatever happens to be on cable.
Second, Sometimes after a hard night at the bar or just when a few dozen rowdy bikers show up it is
Re:Who has the time to watch crappy movies? (Score:2)
There are people who use Netflix for television series on DVD, not "crappy" movies. I don't put many actual movies in my queue, but I find I can usually get through 1-2 seasons of various television shows (Monarch of the Glen, BBC Scotland; House M.D.; The Muppet Show; Rome) and pay much less than the cost of buying the series on DVD. One season usually costs $30-50; I can easily get through it in a month with the $10 one-out-at-a-time plan, and I don't feel rushed watching all of those DVDs.
Re:Who has the time to watch crappy movies? (Score:2)
Re:Didn't see this reason covered (Score:2)
Re:My only problem... (Score:2)
Re:My only problem... (Score:2)
Uh not a dupe (Score:2)
Re:Suggestion (Score:2)
Re:Suggestion (Score:2)
Although, must say that I neither have a sister, nor do I know anyone with a theater system better than my beanbag + comp + 5.1 speaker system shack. :-D
Re:Suggestion (Score:2)