Is there any benefit to protecting the integrity of your Netflix algorithm?

[HMS_Irruncible]

@aruvqan

At one point I think I broke the YT AI … I literally will go from watching a 5 hour Planet Caravan to um, Sic Mea Fata from the Carmina Burana to The Dead South to the whole album of Led Zep Mothership to The Hu to a hairdresser showing me how to do the Vestal Virgin hairstyle to one of those vids of 10 most haunted to The Mikado to whatever random thing catches my interest. I even had a vid on those little glass droplets that shatter when you snap off their tails on screen for a while. We regularly watch Forgotten Weapons, The Chieftain, C&Rsenal, Townsends and The Muppet Show. I will watch stuff in French or German, mrAru will pick stuff up in Spanish.

You can’t confuse the algorithm enough prevent it from glomming onto some good toilet installation how-to videos. Go ahead, try it.

[nightshadea]

@ISiddiqui

One possibility: to keep softcore porn type movies/shows away from the general account where the spouse can see what you are being suggested and put two and two together

wait they have that on NetFlix? I’m missing out …

[GuanoLad]

It’s interesting when something seemingly random, maybe tenuously connected to your interests, comes up on the YouTube suggestions feed, and you watch it, like it, subscribe, and then they start mentioning how all of a sudden they have had a boost in followers. I wonder if that’s a knock-on effect by chance (a popular thing becomes even more popular), or if it’s a deliberate move to randomly pick something out to heavily promote just for kicks.

[Bill_Door]

@BigT

What I don’t get from the OP is how the app works. Surely the Red Cross doesn’t just let people use their app to access Netflix without an account. And, if it’s using your account, I would expect all views to go to the history of one of your profiles.

They let you use Netflix without an account, or rather, using the Red Cross account. They’ve got a profile for platelet donors. There aren’t any movies or series in the queue when I start, I assume it; like the comfy chair I get to sit in; is sanitized before I open it.

You could do it at home simply by deleting and adding your profile. That gives you a clean startup and all of those aspirational documentaries and foreign dramas you’ve added to your list and then ignored in favor of watching Cake Boss or The Bachelorette go away.

[ISiddiqui]

@The_Librarian

Because you are seeing all kinds of intelligently targeted ads?

Yep. Facebook in particular was showing me quite interesting ads for things I ended up buying (one for some green chili salsa I had never heard of before, one for a monthly subscription box service).

And just right now Google gave me an ad for Bellroy laptop sleeve… which is something I need since I just bought a 14in Macbook Pro and don’t have a case for it and have bought Bellroy wallets before and have really liked them. That was a very useful targeted ad.

@The_Librarian

Amazon can’t even recommend me a book I want to read

I’ve bought a TON of Kindle books based on Amazon recommendations. It’s especially useful when Amazon recommends me a new book from an author I read before and rated highly.

@The_Librarian

if you think there is more to it: go check the “recommendations” in a friend’s account . The overlap between all of us is friggin huge.

Maybe your friends watch the same sort of stuff. I look at my wife’s profile and the recommendations are completely different from mine. I just checked and there are a few things on her profile I have never heard of before (like a movie called “The Starling”) - and isn’t on my profile’s home page at all. And we’ve definitely watched romance shows on my profile, Bridgerton for one, but that one show in category definitely doesn’t come close to making my page the same.

In fact that’s the biggest problem people have with Netflix. That the algorithm can sometimes lock out (aside if you know what it is and search for it specifically) certain shows you may find interesting because it doesn’t fit the profile.