We’ve been using Netflix for about two years now and come to really like the service. One of the better features is the ability to have different profiles each with their own queues of movies you’d like to watch. Our membership allows us to have three DVDs borrowed at a time. We set up a queue for Becky and me (for two DVDs) and one for the kids (with one DVD).
How all this works in practice is that when we return a movie from our queue, the next one in line get sent to us. Likewise, when we return a movie from the kids’ queue, it takes the top of theirs. All-in-all it is very convenient and keeps things quite organized.
Unfortunately, Netflix has announced that they will be doing away with profiles at the beginning of September. Any profile other than our main will get merged in to the main and then removed. We’ll have to make sure that one of our kids’ selections is at the top when we return theirs. What if the top one isn’t available (which happens sometimes)? I guess they lose out.
I personally don’t see why they need to do it. Perhaps they figure they’re moving through too many exchanges per subscriber each month. As many are considering (as am I) to drop their membership from 3 to 2, there’ll be some impact on their revenues. It’s already been a hit to their public image.
It’s not enough to drop membership from 3 to 2. This is not only an insult to those who use profiles, it’s just plain unethical – they’ve accumulated ratings data for years, making users work with the promise of a better netflix experience. Now, they’ll be deleting all of that data on different profiles, as well as mashing together the rental history from different profiles, which will throw off the rating system. The only way to respond to a company acting this way is a strict boycott – cancel your service and encourage everyone to do the same. Hopefully the next Neflix competitor will do better.