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 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.
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
Stuff that is actually there, the vast emptiness of the Netflix catalog is the real horror.
80% (being generous) of Netflix is low quality Netflix produced trash they try and get you to watch so they don’t have to pay royalties or commissions to anyone.
I gave it up years ago.
When it doesn’t occur to you that the list is made up entirely by Netflix to get that engagement, really making it the “Top Ten Things Netflix Wants You To Watch Right Now, Please” list.
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.
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.
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.
You underestimate kids and their amount free time.
but someone’s buying all the merch
That’s the kids parents for their kids.
You underestimate kids’ ability to manipulate their parents to buy things
I didn’t mean to imply it’s all kids. Just that they can be the majority. Regardless, parents buy stuff for their kids all the time. You think adults are buying tons of hot wheels and barbies for themselves?
Roblox has completed its long-awaited direct listing on the NYSE, with shares closing at $69.47 for a fully diluted value of $45.3 billion—a gargantuan valuation for a video game company that rose to prominence and saw massive growth during the pandemic
Why exactly can’t it just be kids?
I think Roblox has more adult players than Mr. Beast has adult viewers
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 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.
Because they already have paying users.
They want engagement, which for Netflix means looking at what seems popular and promoting those.
But most likely not.
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.
It would be pretty stupid if our our movie preferences were basis for hostility.
Yeah sometimes when I am bored out of my mind I used to troll Star Wars subreddits or Harry Potter but like never 100% serious. It was always only about this perverse enjoyment of riling people up and nothing more. I wouldn’t do it on Lemmy but like Reddit i don’t care, it can die.
Come to think about it this is the only way I use Reddit for since some time hm… not that I encourage it but maybe. In my eyes you are still an angel if you troll on Reddit but are cultured pro social on Lemmy.
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
Something like this?
SELECT * FROM content ORDER BY (views + bribe) DESC;
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.
The new payola… payolix?
Godzilla minus one is currently dominating that and I absolutely agree with that choice!
I wanna take a minute to plug criterion channel. Objectively the value is worse than Netflix. But they have an amazing collection of films nonetheless. I put their 24/7 channel on and just watch whatever is on. Never in a million years thought I would be into classic French cinema.
On a side rant fuck the French and their films! They drop you right into a situation with no clear good or bad guys. The films have meandering plots that go nowhere because why would they!?!? At the end there’s no resolution, just an empty chasam in your soul you’ve somehow overlooked your entire existence. And the worst part is they just put “fin” up on the screen and that’s that. Fuckin foreign nonsense
There’s all sorts of treasures, may be worth a peek.
The villain in French films is the villain in every film: the French!
I’m so disconnected I don’t even have Netflix or any other streaming service
What’s television? Is it that thing boomers use?
TV and streaming sucks. Movies suck. I’ve seen so many of them in the past that there’s really nothing new out there that’s any good any more because it’s all just rehashing and reimagining the past. Same with gaming. Same with books. And music. We’re so buried under a ton of entertainment that we can just stop making new entertainment and watch everything done in the past and still have enough to last us our entire lifetime. So what’s the point? If we’re going to have streaming, give us everything old – EVERYTHING – for a very low cost or free with limited ads and stop making new shit for your platform, all on one service.
I hear this a lot and do understand the sentiment but oh man in the last 3-4 years there have been so many great original and lower budget not blockbuster movies that have come out it’s great. Horror has really had a renaissance in the last 3 years with fresh ideas and plenty of new actors who are very good. It’s just not the things that are ever advertised a ton and probably have to scrounge through trailer YouTube’s to find them or sign up for newsletters. Some examples from recent years are Barbarian (2022), Infinity Pool (2023), Monkey Man (2024), The Holdovers (2023) and Perfect Days (2024).
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.
can’t even figure out what is supposed to happening
big titted girls
Well there’s your answer
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.
Rebel Moon. Oh yeah, they’re so bad. And apparently a third one is on the way, and the extended cuts for all of them.
“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
“LOL just grab all that shit off the cutting room floor. Four hours sounds about right for a movie!” – Zack Snyder
“And by the way, Warhammer 40K: Winter Assault kicked ass!”
Hack Snyder
