Today, on the Official Netflix blog, Tom Willerer from the product team wrote, “We’re removing avatars, nicknames and bios associated with reviews, as very few Netflix members use them. We’re constantly working to improve the Netflix experience, and by removing these little-used features we are simplifying the review process.”
After the user backlash over the major redesign, it was pretty much a given that users would complain again. Here’s a sampling of the comments on the blog post:
“This should go over real well :-P”
“The new layout is terrible, and removing the avatars and usernames from reviews is just plain dumb. Please return the site to what it was before you mucked it all up. It is becoming less and less satisfying every time a change is made.”
“Bad Idea. I count on particular users reviews, ones I find dependable to select movies to watch. I also write a lot of reviews for the same purpose for others who may share my tastes. Makes no sense.”
“Yay, MORE reduced functionality. The reviews aren’t even easily accessible, thanks to the new child and monkey-approved UI.”
“I was expecting an announcement that you were bringing back the old format. Instead you are taking more away?! Are you TRYING to make people cancel accounts?”
“I am officially canceling my account – Hello HULU!”
You get the idea. When Netflix launched its major redesign, a lot of users started saying they were going to cancel their accounts. I haven’t seen any numbers on how many actually have, but it’s not been great PR either way.
It looks like the comments on the original announcement got maxed out at 5,000. It doesn’t look like the new announcement is upsetting quite as many people yet. The discussion seems to be minimal on Twitter, compared to the major overhaul. Netflix calls this one a “minor update”.
Netflix says “very few” members used the avatars, nicknames and bios. Did you use them?