Netflix is losing its profiles

[ganthc]

From Netflix in an email:

Dear XXXX,

We wanted to let you know we will be eliminating Profiles, the feature that allowed you to set up separate DVD Queues under one account, effective September 1, 2008.

Each additional Profile Queue will be unavailable after September 1, 2008. Before then, we recommend you consolidate any of your Profile Queues to your main account Queue or print them out.

While it may be disappointing to see Profiles go away, this change will help us continue to improve the Netflix website for all our customers.

I think that this is disappointing. I liked being able to have my queues separated to make for organizing my movies easier. Maybe a lot of people weren't using it, but I think it was a great feature.

[firestorm]

Bye bye Netflix. That was 100%, entirely, solely and completely the reason we stuck with Netflix.

[sub780lime]

Not a big deal for me, but it surprises me that they wouldnt do the consolidation for the customer...

[Astrakan]

I'm not a Netflix user (they don't do Canada) but for those that are, what could possibly be the reason for this? Is it somehow impeding other potential features?

I can't think of a single reason to remove this. Not even a technical one. And since the feature is already coded, it wouldn't cost them any money to keep it.



KM

[ganthc]

Originally Posted by Astrakan

I'm not a Netflix user (they don't do Canada) but for those that are, what could possibly be the reason for this? Is it somehow impeding other potential features?

I can't think of a single reason to remove this. Not even a technical one. And since the feature is already coded, it wouldn't cost them any money to keep it.



KM

Yeah, I have no clue. I'm not going to cancel my subscription over it, but it definitely doesn't hold up to the marketese speak of improving the site.

[Astrakan]

My wife suggested one possible reason:

If there's lot of customer support issues with the profiles causing extra work for teir support team, then there'd actually be an incentive for them to remove the feature. That would be especially true if only a minority of users are currently taking advantage of the feature.

KM

[PorkRind]

The Reason Netflix Is Dropping Profiles
Adrian Cockcroft, Director of Web Engineering at Netflix, posted the following on the Netflix Community forum:

The Netflix site was designed without profiles, then features were added continuously for a few years, then profiles were added, but with minimum disruption to existing features, rather than a ground-up redesign, then a few more years of features were added over the top.

Now in some ways its too messy and its slowing down our ability to change and add new features, so a lot of investment is going into cleaning up the code. Part of that cleanup is to simplify and re-implement things so that we can get more interesting and advanced things done more quickly in the future. For this feature that is used by a percent or two of the user base, it will make cleanup a lot faster by removing it.

When profiles were invented, most users were on multiple-disc plans. More recently we have added one-disc plans, and a lot of users are on those plans and can't use profiles, even though they have the same needs.

So there ya go . . .

[tomdkat]

Thanks for the explanation.

Peace...

[ganthc]

Perhaps they will add it back in again later on. I do find the profiles useful for separating my queues.

[ganthc]

You spoke, and we listened. We are keeping Profiles. Thank you for all the calls and emails telling us how important Profiles are.

We are sorry for any inconvenience we may have caused. We hope the next time you hear from us we will delight, and not disappoint, you.

-Your friends at Netflix

Woohoo!! I didn't email them, but I guess enough did to have them put the kabosh on getting rid of profiles.

[firestorm]

WOOHOO! Netflix came up with a coworker of mine, and I gave her the FYI on the profiles. She had never even heard of it, but did see a great application for it in their usage. She's also a programmer and didn't see what the big deal was. If they really had to do away with profiles, it seems they could easily create $0 accounts using special account codes and such and big one primary account... do it all on the back end.

That's excellent news though!

[tomdkat]

Originally Posted by firestorm

She's also a programmer and didn't see what the big deal was. If they really had to do away with profiles, it seems they could easily create $0 accounts using special account codes and such and big one primary account... do it all on the back end.

She, as I, doesn't know Netflix's internal structure. Sometimes these "easy" changes can cause the most damage and disruption. Based on the description of why they wanted to drop profiles above, I'm guessing there is a lot of "crap" code driving the site and they are trying to get it cleaned up to make future changes easier (meaning something else won't break when they add or change something ).

I've never used profiles but it's good to know Netflix does listen to feedback from its customers. Or at least some of it.

Peace...

[Pirate]

Does anyone know if the main profile takes shipping priority over the secondary?

[ganthc]

Originally Posted by Pirate

Does anyone know if the main profile takes shipping priority over the secondary?

No, it doesn't. Both act independently.

[umainebearman]

I don't use netflix so from an outside look I would think from there explanation and other comment they are eventually going to have to do a ground up redesign. I mean if theres so much crap code and they though removing one thing would help clean it up but now aren't. Doesn't that mean that everything they add on top is just going to make things worse?

I would think now would be the perfect time to do a redesign. When the Netflix implementation happens with xbox live I would think that would be one more thing to worry about. Plus the xbox live connection is bound to bring in more customers.