Mid-May - August 2018
The body of this page will be used to keep everyone updated when there is blog news, and to ask for feedback about improvements/changes/additions, etc. Of course, your participation is always optional and voluntary.
Other Open Discussion Pages
When a particular topic generates a lot of discussion, it will be spun off to its own specific Discussion page. Links to open Discussion pages follow. Please feel free to add comments to any of these. If your comments do not fit any of these topics, then please add them here, in the comments section below.
Netflix DVD Subscription Service - Problems, Questions, Changes
The New Netflix Ratings System of Thumbs Up or Down
Netflix "My List" - Problems/Questions/Changes/Updates
All Things Related to the Netflix-Disney Deal
Issues Around Netflix's Policies Regarding Expiration Notices
Complain About Netflix: Vent, Kvetch, Whine, Grouse - Get It Off Your Chest!
Archived Discussions & Ideas Pages
Previous months of this page have been archived, so you can look at what has gone before. Links to those pages are in the sidebar.
My goal: A blog that looks polished and feels complete (not giving up on this!), and that offers helpful content for all, without detracting from the sacred mission of giving followers as much lead time as possible to watch expiring titles.
Thanks to the many contributors who share their time, knowledge, and expertise to keep the blog interesting, informative, and fresh in a variety of ways. It is truly a collaborative effort, and I'm honored to be part of it.
Thanks to the many contributors who share their time, knowledge, and expertise to keep the blog interesting, informative, and fresh in a variety of ways. It is truly a collaborative effort, and I'm honored to be part of it.
My List has been de-truncated!
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteAnonymous May 16, 2018 at 7:11 PM
I have more of my list back but not all so could still miss some expiring titles. I tested by adding a movie and the last item on my list disappeared.
DeleteHi Anonymous - I'm wondering how many titles you have on your list. If you were at the maximum when the truncation problem began, there have been a number of titles that have returned to Netflix. Any that were on your list before expiring, would be back now, and that could put you over the 500 maximum, which would cause titles to drop off when you add a new one. Just a thought.
Everyone: Has anyone else gotten back only some of their full My List?
DeleteOkay, I did some experimenting. My manual My List is holding only 400 titles. If I add another one, the bottom title drops off. When I switch to Netflix Suggests, I have 520 titles. Maybe the extras are all what Netflix has added - or maybe they've only added 20, and those are in addition to my 500 - but the fact remains that the Netflix Suggests list still holds more titles than the manual My List.
My caveat is that I don't have a separate list of all my titles, so I can't do a proper comparison, or determine how many of the titles on the "Suggests" list were put there by Netflix. Also, I kind of did this on the fly, so my 520 number could be off a bit (but not by 120!).
What is for sure is the 400 number on the manual My List. I'm wondering if that's true for everyone. If yes, is that the new deal, or are they still "working on it"? If that's the new deal, is everybody that had more than 400 titles just SOL for the last 100 unless they switch to "NF Suggests"? You know the snake in The Jungle Book, who sings "Trust in Me"? I think that's Netflix's theme song.
I have gotten the full My List back. I haven't added anything lately, though. I only have 229 titles on my streaming queue, so I can't comment on the 400 vs 520 discrepancy.
DeleteI have the same result as Carol: 400. I removed 11 I had already watched (but couldn't see for months) and 11 more showed up at the bottom of the list.
DeleteI had complained to Netflix 10 months ago (and multiple times since - waste of breath) that you couldn't drag titles up a screen. Today, I can't drag titles up or down a screen, and when you manipulate a title and there is an auto-refresh, you end up in a wildly different spot. Good job Netflix!!!!!
Yippee!!! Happy Day!!!
ReplyDeleteAll my titles are there, but I only have 212. Same problem as anonymous about dragging titles around. I can do it with both Google Chrome and Firefox, but it freaks out a little, has to refresh, then you have to scroll back to where you were. At least we have our lists back. Sorry to those of you who have over 400 titles. At least that limit is better than 48.
I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw more than 48 titles. Disappointed it's not back to 500, but the fact that I have three lists, and could add another, somewhat mitigates that.
ReplyDeleteAnyone else having an issue with all the movie & show descriptions going missing when browsing the NF home page?
ReplyDeleteNo I'm still seeing a short description when hovering over the title.
DeleteHuh. I get this blurred area where the description is supposed to be, as if it was censored. :/
DeleteAny chance you are using FlixPlus - which blurs "spoilers," i.e. what you're describing.
DeleteI am using FlixPlus, but I have the "hide spoilers" option turned off. And turning FlixPlus off entirely didn't fix the problem either. Nor did turning off my ad-blocker.
DeleteI noticed last week that FlixPlus options quit working for me. Per the Chrome "store," the extension hasn't been updated since 10/8/2018 (numerous complaints as well).
DeleteWhen I removed FlixPlus entirely, and then reinstalled it, I could no longer get any of the options to work (I could change the options, but the change didn't have any effect) and that included blurring, which I don't want. So, until they update FlixPlus, I won't be using FlixPlus.
Ah, there it goes. Disabling the extension instead of just unchecking all the boxes in the options.
DeleteWhich is sad, because I was mainly using FlixPlus for the one feature that still worked -- putting a list of expirations at the top of the page. :(
Sorry for the slow reply, I was travelling. Expiring titles was the most useful FlixPlus feature for me as well.
DeleteWhat I do now in Chrome is CTRL+F and "/18". Using the NF "Move to top" option, I pop all the ones I know about to the very top. When another day goes by, to look for new expiring titles, I use CTRL+F and scroll with the up arrow to get to the lowest one on the queue.
If you're coming up to a new year where you have a mix of two years, just use "/1".
It's not a perfect work around, but it's better than searching both "/18" and "/19" when you have both in your queue. When "/19" and "/20" are appearing together,use "/".
NetFlix seems to have given us back our manual My List queue of 500 titles.
ReplyDeletenot sure what you mean, I am still only getting 398 of the movies in my list just the same amount since they "fixed" it a while ago.
DeleteAnonymous, sorry about that - I thought I was getting 12 titles per page, but Netflix would already repeat one at the top, so when I thought I was well over 400, I was just under instead. When I went over 400, titles start disappearing.
DeleteToday when I checked my list I noticed a few of the newest Netflix original titles on it that I don't think I added. It's possible I added them by mistake and only just realized it, but I don't really think so. When I add titles from my PC, they show up at the top of my list and when I add them from my SmartTV they show up at the bottom. These new titles were about 4 or 5 down from the top. The two that were added were 'Brain on Fire' and 'Us and Them.' It could just be me with clumsy fingers, but we may need to keep an eye on this, especially if they're limiting your queue.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteYikes and egads! I can't add anything to My List! I'm on the phone with NF customer service now. They were able to see what I was talking about, and are in contact with tech support, who is looking into it as we speak. If any of you also have this problem, let me know as soon as possible. Wish me luck.
I've got the same problem here. Can't get anything added. I click to add a title to my list and it looks like it has been added. But, then I go to my list and its not there.
Delete
DeleteYes, that's exactly what's been happening with me. Here's how my customer service call ended up: They were able to fix my "Carol" profile, so I can add titles to that profile, but the other profiles on my account still have the no-add problem. While the cs rep was not previously aware of this problem, tech support told him they had received other calls about this. They are now escalating it to their engineering people, but no promises about when it would be fixed. If it's anything like the only-48-titles debacle, it could be months.
For anyone else with this problem, I suggest calling Netflix Customer Service to see if they can get their tech people to at least fix one profile (caveat: I don't know yet if my Carol profile is permanently fixed, or if it might revert back).
Thanks for responding, Bill. Hope you can get at least one profile fixed.
Just checked mine. Could it be that they actually fixed a problem in two days? Didn't have any problem adding a title to any of my three lists.
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DeleteWow, it does look like it's working again. I tried just this morning, and it was still no go except on the Carol profile. Now I can add to all profiles. I'm stunned and amazed. Thanks for the bulletin, will g.
Anyone else see this yet?
ReplyDeleteNetflix has decided to eliminate reviews. You will soon no longer be able to write them or read them.
https://deadline.com/2018/07/netflix-removes-online-reviews-august-1202422284/
i love reading the reviews. what a shame, but i can't say i'm totally surprised. even on the dvd side, the last supervisor i spoke to seemed surprise i used the filmography pages the way i described, and for years whenever i mentioned the additional features section or the reviews of a title i was usually met with polite but awkward silence, so these parts of the site are not what they themselves value or pay much attention.
Deletei've watched so many movies based on netflix member reviews. i generally value "real people's" (especially movie/tv lovers') opinions more than critics'. it makes sense that once they removed our ability on the streaming side to vote our opinions with star ratings that eventually they would remove reviews as well.
One of the titles in my DVD queue just went from 'Very Long Wait' to 'Possible Short Wait.' I've never seen that before.
ReplyDeleteNot a lot of streaming titles expiring this month, apparently. I went through my whole list and only found one that had already been mentioned here. I'll check again tonight, though.
there is some discussion on "Possible Short Wait" on the dvd page of this blog. last i checked, my queue had some of these as well that were "Very Long Wait."
Deletei haven't had as many end-of-month streaming expirations in the last few months, which i attest to that the older movies available i've already seen (and own many). the recent disney titles do expire at a regular clip.
for those keeping score, the opening credits of Hurricane of Fun: The Making of Wet Hot read "Netflix Presents" in collaboration with Matador. the film was newly assembled basically as a promotional piece for the netflix prequel miniseries Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp (2015), which is referenced in the end credits. it is curious that it is expiring, but i noted the copyright was to Hurricane of Fun, LLC, and netflix is not its exclusive home even now, explaining why this was never a "netflix original."
ReplyDeleteWell it is 6:45 Central and my list is just sitting there spinning. Looks like those ass hats broke my list again.
ReplyDelete
DeleteHi Anonymous, I hope this has been resolved - that happens to me sometimes, too. I usually just close the window, then open a new one and try again. That usually fixes it.
Is there a reprieve on NF removing reviews "at the end of July"? I hope so - really helps me separate the chaff from the wheat.
ReplyDeletei was just thinking about that. every title i've checked so far this month has had reviews except for a new "original." usually the wrong kind of reviewers are quick to add their 2 cents the day something is put up (never mind if they actually watched it), so either they were slow or netflix stopped reviews for new streaming-only titles or new originals specifically. older titles seem to have their reviews ported over still.
Deletei did ask a customer service rep on the "dvd.com" side last month about this change, and he wasn't aware of it, but when i mentioned the change from stars to thumbs on streaming he wasn't aware of that either, claiming to be an odd duck of sorts who prefers dvd to streaming. to my knowledge, there has been no change yet on the discs side; titles with no reviews are probably because no one's written one.
i still greatly value the customer reviews, even the comedic value i get from reading nonreviews i then flag.
i just took a moment to look further into this and want to correct myself.
Deletethere are no reviews for several new, streaming-only titles i just checked, even beyond "originals."
a recently added but years-old title has no reviews ported over from its "dvd.com" data, where there are a few. another title related to this one that was added on the same day does have reviews ported over.
most tellingly, there is now no option to write a review on the streaming side of the web site.
my guess is they've turned off the faucet, so to speak. i would not expect new reviews unless they change policy, and access to existing reviews on the streaming side seems hit or miss and possibly headed toward total removal. at long last, the customer's voice is silenced. now binge, baby, binge.
FWIW, just now I checked several streaming titles including some that I am sure had reviews. Now, no reviews anywhere … not a one.
Deleteyup. i just checked 2 of the biggest movies of last year, and the column where reviews were has been removed since my last post (as announced, to be fair).
Delete
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering how we might help each other fill in the gap left by the swell new no-reviews policy. We already have pages set up for both expiring titles and non-expiring titles, which so far have been used by readers to give their own opinions. Perhaps we could also use them to point others to critics' or audience reviews that we have found useful. Both IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes are good sources for both, and there are surely many sites where these could also be found. Following are some ideas for what we might do:
> Link to a review, with a comment about why you found it to be good, e.g., "Steered me clear of movie," "Made me want to watch it," "This review expresses exactly how I felt about the film," or something along those lines.
> Quote a brief part of a review that you find to be right on, then link to the whole review.
> Make a comment with your star rating, based on the standard that used to be on Netflix. I could post this standard on both of our pages. This would be a lot quicker than writing a review, but would still be helpful to others.
> Offer a brief comment about why you liked/didn't like the film/series. For example, "It was silly, but had a good heart," or "Plot was too formulaic - nothing fresh." Again, this wouldn't require a lot of time, but could help others decide, especially if there were several comments about a title.
What do you think? I could put up some guidelines on both of our pages. I probably wouldn't have time to format all reviews in date/alpha order, but we could use the Reply feature to keep all comments for the same title together.
They're all gone.
ReplyDeleteNetflix Has Deleted All User Reviews from Its Website
https://variety.com/2018/digital/news/netflix-deletes-all-user-reviews-1202908904/
I never paid much attention to user reviews, so this doesn't really bother me.
Deletei love how these top sites don't even bother to clarify that reviews are still on netflix, on their dvd service. hey, who cares about facts in this era anyway? thankfully, the kind of drek netflix adds to streaming only i wouldn't generally check for reviews of anyway, so i'll stick with their dvd page while it and those are up.
Deletebtw, i think netflix experiments with your My List. no such issues on mine.
You frightened me that maybe my test-participation button was switched on again, but no it's off. (This is a reference to a post I made on the expiring titles page.)
Delete
ReplyDeleteThere is a new Discussions & Ideas page. Link is in the sidebar at the top of the Ongoing Discussions box. Please put all comments on the new page now. Thanks!