Lame, but what do u expect

I've always thought netflix added a star or two to most of the shows, theirs or not.

It may have just been that different people see different ratings, based on want they watch. If you like a genre you would see titles in that genre with higher ratings than someone who didn't like the genre

So the rating was what they thought I would think of it and not how it was rated by others? That sounds awfully convoluted. Maybe this new system is better. Although they need a neutral button so you can mark it as watched without having to rate it. A thumb up, a thumb down, and a fence.

No it was the rating of others, but only the rating of others with similar tastes as you. Not all viewers

The ratings system is gamed regardless...how many fake accounts are on Reddit, how many do you think other companies use to promote their movies or products?

At the very least a company would need to pay for Netflix accounts to an extent. Reddit and similar sites are fair game and free at that

I knew their ratings were rigged when even sites like InstantWatcher were no longer able to access the actual user rating. Netflix shut them out because most of their content was in the 2.5 star range or less. They replaced it with the "Suggested Rating for you" after that which is entirely made up bullshit. If it were in any way accurate for me, only Star Trek shows would be maxed out because I like thinking. But no, I should also give The Do-Over 5 stars because they wasted so much money on it. I prefer Alluc.ee now

I remember for a while seeing a show rated 4 3/4 stars and then when you clicked on it and it went to the side menu and auto-play the star rating would be something like 3 1/4 stars.

Is there any evidence for this?

Plus, people should realize Netflix used algorithms to determine whether you would like a show or not and THAT determined how many stars were shown to you. Not everyone saw the same rating.

I can confirm OP's assertion. I voted it !-star without having watched it, and it is now a 79% match for me, despite the fact that I exclusively watch dramas, action shows, and documentaries and never watch stand-up comics on Netflix.

I'm sure they are. I gave one of their shows a neg review and it never showed up. Amazon. iTunes. All rigged. Another example, a new album came out on itunes by a new band on a major label. 800 rave reviews in 4 hours pushed it to the top. Some negative reviews appeared, then were gone, some never appeared at all.

I didn't even rate her damn thing, I don't watch stand up, and yet her garbage is currently sitting at 98% which is some how 2% more than what it was this morning.

Netflix is inflating their original content easily, because they are all 90%+ for me, meanwhile shows I actually watch are 40-50%.

How quickly people forgot about the "Dear White People" controversy.

There is no conspiracy, but some very shortsighted product development.

5-star rating system, and their algorithm that predicted how many stars you would give to a film used to be central to Netflix experience, they used to encourage you to rate, had helpful tips explaining how it works, etc.

But there was one little problem. Few titles on their streaming site were rated higher than 4 stars. Some people used it as an evidence of bad selection. But it is not that big of a deal if you think about it. If I am in the mood for a particular type of film, I do not mind if it is rated less than 5 stars. There are plenty of thoroughly enjoyable films in 3.5-4 star rating range.

But Netflix decided to solve this problem. They started to deemphasize star ratings. They hidden ratings from immediate view. They made you mouse over a title to see the rating.

They used to display both predicted rating and an average for all users, but then they removed average rating for all users from the streaming site, leaving only predicted rating, which confused a lot of people. This will make sense if you consider their next change...

They fudged predicted star ratings on the streaming site. There was a day when all the films Netflix predicted for me in the 3.5-4 star range suddenly started showing in 4.5-5 star range. (Thankfully DVD site still shows correct predictions, but I am hesitant to talk about it too much lest Netflix decides to "fix" their DVD site as well.)

Ratings were still useful on the streaming site but the whole experience started to leave a bad aftertaste, and it is no wonder people were using it less and less.

And now, in a spectacular display of lack of self-awareness, instead of going to the root of the problem and undoing all the unnecessary and damaging changes they've done to their star rating system over the past few years, they decided to throw it out all together.

The only criticism against 5-star rating system I agree with is that the way people use it varies greatly person to person. As an example, I've heard from a few people that they only give 1 or 5 star ratings. But Netflix's prediction algorithm is supposed to match you with people who rate similarly to you, so different way people use rating system will only reduce the sample size used to make a prediction for you. And it may be an issue for films that are not rated by many people.

Netflix claims that in their tests 200% more people were using thumbs system than star system, but as I described in my previous comment, they really deemphasized star system before, so I don't fully trust those numbers.

But, if they are true, new system will be better at finding "OK" films for you. Let's say you are now giving thumbs up to films you used to rate 3.5 stars and higher. New system will tell you with better accuracy if a given film is in 3.5-5 star range. But it will not tell you whether it is a borderline 3.5 star film or a 5 star masterpiece.

So it will likely be better for finding films that are OK. But it will be worse for finding films that are great.

The Netflix originals dnr need much help, most I have seen are pretty good.

I really dont like this new system and i really dont like amy schumer. I heard her whining about this and went ahead and gave her show 1 star, now its a 91% match for me? Fuck off netflix.

I want to say George Soros owns a stake in Netflix.

Hmmm. I always thought the ratings were created for each user individually based off of what Netflix thought you liked, and that based off of what rating you put in. It used to be that way. Movies on different scouts would have a different amount of red stars, per your viewing profile.

I watched the first few minutes minutes of the special and it is the cringiest thing I have ever seen. Her material wasn't even remotely funny.

Soros bought in to Netflix just so you know who you are supporting when you pay for that crap

Haha the end of that video Netflix posted is ridiculous.

"What if you want to know what everyone else think? Fuck off and ask them, we're Netflix and we don't care as long as you watch our shows"

The absolute worst part about this new rating system is that just like the old one the ratings are a way for Netflix to customize what you see on your lists. But with it being yes or no it's too simple. Things like comedy, anime, or various other genres are much more diverse than that.

If I rate a few comedians with a thumbs down because I don't like certain ones I'll see less stand ups in general. The genres are way to diverse to have a yes or no option for a rating system.

My suggestion don't rate at all unless you hate that genre entirely.

I don't think it's that Amy Schumer complained about the one star ratings for her special (deserved as far I'm concerned. I don't find her funny at all) but that Netflix paid Schumer at least 20 million dollars with a commitment probably for one or two more specials at the same price. Those one star ratings are direct hit to Netflix's bottom line and potential subscribers. This new system is a way of hiding the bad ratings for their expensive purchases that turn out to be bad investments. One of the spurious reasons they gave for changing the system was that people were giving things they weren't interested in and hadn't watched 1 star so it wouldn't show up as suggested content. That's nuts. As I recall, Netflix used to have a "Not Interested" option that would have handled this problem. Without the star system how are we supposed to tell if something is any good without seeing ratings for it? I generally trusted the old system. Now I have no idea what to choose anymore.

And while we're at it, Netflix can you please GET RID OF THE POP UP PREVIEWS WITH THE GENERIC MUSIC when we're trying to browse. They're beyond annoying and force us to rush through the selections. PLEASE.

Every single thing on netflix is now a 95% match to me. Makes sense

I can confirm OP's assertion. I voted it !-star without having watched it, and it is now a 79% match for me, despite the fact that I exclusively watch dramas, action shows, and documentaries and never watch stand-up comics on Netflix.