• RampageDon@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I just assumed the Netflix top 10 were movies/shows they were trying to push, not based on actual veiwership.

    • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      That’s a bingo. Any “trending” algorithm is designed to get you to click on it. It’s not a source of accurate information.

      It’s the same with search results. You’re searching for X? Here’s something X-adjacent we’ve been paid to show you that you might click on while looking for X. We’re going to call it “what others buy” and hope you do, too.

      • garbagebagel@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        It really bothers me because I want to buy actual good quality stuff but I have no idea how to find it because I don’t trust any reviews or anything on search engines at all really.

        • Makeitstop@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          This is one of the big things that killed Amazon for me. They used to have a great search and filter function that was designed to make it as easy as possible to find what you were looking for. Now it’s designed to find things that are related to your search and ignore your filters when sellers pay them to promote their product. Combined with the fake reviews and the ocean of low quality trash that fills 95% of their inventory, it’s now actually easier to drive to a store and search shelves manually than it is to sit and click.

          And don’t get me started on AI generated “reviews” that are just reworded marketing material with affiliate links. It used to be that google could get you some relatively reliable sources, but most of those have long since replaced real reviews with this bullshit. At this point, I just assume every review is a lie unless I see a video of a human testing the product while taking about it.

          I honestly think that anyone who is making money by misleading consumers with product reviews that aren’t actually based on some interaction with the product should be in prison for fraud.

          • Zagorath@aussie.zone
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            5 months ago

            Top 7 “All” of all time on Lemmy, as seen by my instance:

            None younger than 10 months old, on a platform largely only about 12 months old in total. So once again, not really representative of the lifetime of the site, or what the site is like today.

              • Zagorath@aussie.zone
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                5 months ago

                No posts about open source. Nothing queer. No tankies or even leftist. I wouldn’t say that the best representation of today’s Lemmy.

                • MicrowavedTea@infosec.pub
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                  5 months ago

                  Maybe it’s missing some technology stuff. I don’t think leftist posts get that upvoted, even if there’s a lot of them.

            • OpenStars@discuss.online
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              5 months ago

              Yeah, to be clear that’s “of all time”. Like, if we listed the greatest human achievements of all time - fire, gunpowder, antibiotics, computers, vaccines, the internet, etc. - that list would not be expected to change daily or even once a century.:-)

              Also, every single one is either 10 or 11 months old - with only one exception being 9 months. That is obviously some kind of spike related to the Rexodus:-P.

              The Fediverse is much older than 12 months btw - your list contains posts from outside of Aussie.zone so it’s not looking at Local but rather All, so it includes those, which you can get to by sorting by Old.

              TLDR: “top of all time” is not intended to be anyone’s default search - Top or Active or New would be much better choices.

    • Fermion@feddit.nl
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      5 months ago

      I don’t get why the streaming services would care what media people watch. Are they pushing stuff that is cheaper to license?

      • Lifter@discuss.tchncs.de
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        5 months ago

        They want to get recommendations just good enough to keep you hooked. If they show you just the objectively best, you would instantly know after seeing the best ones, that the rest of the catalogue is worse and worse.

        This is how Netflix was in the beginning. I actually unsubscribed for a while for yhis reason. Now I’m as hooked as ever, there might still be a few good ones out there - I just need to keep scrolling for a few hours. /s

        • Crashumbc@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          80% (being generous) of Netflix is low quality Netflix produced trash they try and get you to watch so they don’t have to pay royalties or commissions to anyone.

          I gave it up years ago.

    • snooggums@midwest.social
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      5 months ago

      I believe that they have said the top 10 is based on views, but haven’t given the windoww for that count or whether the thimbs up/down ratings factor into it. That seems plausible as it is promoted as a popularity indicator and tends to have recent additons and already popular stuff listed.

      Now the trending category is most likely the stuff they are trying to promote.

    • Sotuanduso
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      5 months ago

      I’d agree with you, but I’ve seen Morbius up there.

    • Salvo@aussie.zone
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      5 months ago

      This is what The Algorithms have been doing from the start.

      It is only just now coming to light just how manipulative YouTube, FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram are configured.

      It isn’t about increasing Ad views or Viewer engagement; it is all about controlling viewer opinions and belief systems.

      • Norgur@fedia.io
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        5 months ago

        And the sheer amount of weird pseudo-reality-show-shovelware! Good grief, people! If you want made up content that’s supposed to look like the real thing, watch porn!

      • Empricorn@feddit.nl
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        5 months ago

        I don’t watch him or any top YouTubers, but many other clickbait thumbnails are far worse and more annoying with their shocked “YouTube face”…

    • edric
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      5 months ago

      I like how they actually removed suggestions on the home page on the first time you visit logged out. I never click on anything on the home page suggestions and most of the stuff there is garbage, so it’s actually refreshing just to see a blank home page.

    • Transporter Room 3@startrek.website
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      5 months ago

      It’s still garbage, but you’re 100% correct about it being 1000x worse logged out, at least it’s like that for me.

      I started getting a shitload of recommended videos based off an app I played for 5 minutes and deleted.

      I never looked it up on youtube or google, and I didn’t even search for it in the play store, I just saw it listed as similar to a different game that I did look up.

      And after a week of constantly telling them to stop recommending me these videos because I don’t like them, I’m still seeing them.

      Again, played the app for a few minutes and deleted, have now spent more time telling youtube to stop showing it to me than I spent playing.

      • Franklin@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Google does a fair amount of data gathering even if you don’t log in. I think it does it through cookies, fingerprinting or browser inspection

        If I use a session long enough it will start to change to my actual taste

      • morrowind@lemmy.ml
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        5 months ago

        Could you send a screenshot of what you see? I’m curious to see if it’s different

      • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        If your tastes are anything except the average population’s, you will have little to no interest in the homepage suggestions.

  • oyo
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    5 months ago

    Remember when Netflix had a million dollar competition to improve their recommendation system by something like 10%? Remember when they had user ratings and reviews? Remember when they threw it all in the fucking trash?

    • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      The original recommendation engine was amazing. Showed me stuff I loved that I would have never found myself. My favorite example is the French claymation acid trip called “A Town Named Panic”

      Now all I get recommended are shows that are cancelled and that I’ve already watched.

      • BarbecueCowboy@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        The goal isn’t to give you stuff you want to watch, the goal is to do just enough that is just good enough to keep the highest amount of users subscribed. We like to think those are the same thing and they are usually aligned, but don’t have to be. It’s better for Netflix if you find those slower and just keep coming back to look around, kind of like some frustrating streaming gatcha game.

        • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          I watched it because it was the top pick in children’s movies and ended up enjoying it more than my kids. I rewatch it every few years because it’s just so weird and good.

          Another one is the TV show Oscar’s Oasis. It has no dialog, but a very Coyote-and-Roadrunner feel. My kids loved it and it was actually pretty funny.

          But when we were at Disney World we ended up sitting next to a family from Brazil who knew very little English and their kids were watching Oscar’s Oasis and my kids immediately joined them.

    • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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      5 months ago

      That was such a glorious time. I recall they even held a competition at one point to develop a recommendation algorithm that could predict whether or not someone would enjoy Napoleon Dynamite

    • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
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      5 months ago

      I feel that way when I see YouTube shorts. Some of them are big titted girls doing shit which I can understand why those get clicked on but a lot of it I can’t even figure out what is supposed to be happening.

      • FlihpFlorp
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        5 months ago

        can’t even figure out what is supposed to happening

        big titted girls

        Well there’s your answer

        • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
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          5 months ago

          But there’s no big titted girls in the ones I can’t figure out. It’s just people doing weird shit.

          • FlihpFlorp
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            5 months ago

            Hm interesting

            Maybe it’s just one of those things where it’s so absurd it’s funny, like the meme man ones such as “as yes the cheese stick hath returned” or a farside

      • CatLikeLemming@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        5 months ago

        Hm, the Shorts algorithm should be generally based on your normal recommendations until you start watching them.

        You know, potentially controversial opinion, but I kinda like shorts, since by now the algo has figured out that I like longer documentary-style videos on normal videos, but still get vtuber clips and cute animal videos as shorts.

        • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
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          5 months ago

          Maybe I’m just getting the general ones then. I never log into the browser I use for Youtube and I have it wiping all the browsing data when I close it.

    • arglebargle
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      5 months ago

      There is a trending tab? Huh. I really only use youtube when I want something specific and I never use thier app or webpage so I had no idea.

    • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
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      5 months ago

      You know I’ve worked on these sorts of bullshit features (under protest) as a developer (special sorting algorithms that bump up the score of monetized entries over organic (aka real) ones) and somehow I never stopped to think that everyone was likely doing the same.

      Naivety, I guess

    • penquin
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      5 months ago

      Absolutely. Ever since shitflix removed the star ratings and reviews that were done by real people, I stopped believing any of that “top list” bullshit.

    • ARk
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      5 months ago

      oh my how scandalous

  • widw@ani.social
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    5 months ago

    That’s also how I feel whenever I access youtube from a different browser and just get the default listing.

  • callouscomic
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    5 months ago

    As if it’s not just their selected movies they wanna promote.

      • whoisthedoktor@lemmy.wtf
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        5 months ago

        TV and streaming sucks. Movies suck. I’ve seen so many of them in the past that there’s really nothing new out there that’s any good any more because it’s all just rehashing and reimagining the past. Same with gaming. Same with books. And music. We’re so buried under a ton of entertainment that we can just stop making new entertainment and watch everything done in the past and still have enough to last us our entire lifetime. So what’s the point? If we’re going to have streaming, give us everything old – EVERYTHING – for a very low cost or free with limited ads and stop making new shit for your platform, all on one service.

        • keyez@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          I hear this a lot and do understand the sentiment but oh man in the last 3-4 years there have been so many great original and lower budget not blockbuster movies that have come out it’s great. Horror has really had a renaissance in the last 3 years with fresh ideas and plenty of new actors who are very good. It’s just not the things that are ever advertised a ton and probably have to scrounge through trailer YouTube’s to find them or sign up for newsletters. Some examples from recent years are Barbarian (2022), Infinity Pool (2023), Monkey Man (2024), The Holdovers (2023) and Perfect Days (2024).

        • TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          sounds like you only focus on pop culture bullshit.

          try getting into shit that isn’t designed to entertain you. classics, art films, art music, etc

      • TachyonTele
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        5 months ago

        It’s good. Don’t expect Shin Godzilla good, but it’s definitely good. I actually cared about the people in this one.

        • Makeitstop@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          No one’s stopping you from turning the color saturation to 0 on your TV/Monitor.

          Fun Fact: I thought Bubba Ho-tep was in black and white when I first watched it. Turns out the DVD player was broken. I kind of liked it better in black and white.

  • AgentGrimstone@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I never trusted that list from the getgo. Why wouldn’t they use it to promote certain content? It would be wasted opportunity if they didn’t.

    • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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      5 months ago

      Because they already have paying users.

      They want engagement, which for Netflix means looking at what seems popular and promoting those.

      But most likely not.

  • JJROKCZ@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Godzilla minus one is currently dominating that and I absolutely agree with that choice!

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    5 months ago

    Godzilla Minus One instantly hitting #1 restores my faith in humanity… a little.

  • 👍Maximum Derek👍@discuss.tchncs.de
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    5 months ago

    During the pandemic I just sort of forgot about movies and most TV. I hadn’t even heard of 90% of the stuff nominated last awards season.

    For the most part it doesn’t come up, but every so often I end up in a conversation where I feel like an alien.

  • LesserAbe@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    My mom was describing some show to me saying I should watch it and I was just thinking “that sounds awful”

    • tetris11@lemmy.ml
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      5 months ago

      I know, same. Then a year later I watch it after the hype has died down, and I’m like “mum, you gotta watch this!”

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️@yiffit.net
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    5 months ago

    I don’t know if these are based on what everyone on the service is watching, or if it’s just because they still use Nielson families as their sole metric. How can the top 10 most popular things be shit I have never even heard of? If they’re that popular, I’m pretty sure I’d hear about it somewhere.

    • AProfessional@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      There is both no reason to believe its truly accurate and also its true that the content they advertise the most will be watched the most. I wouldn’t take it serious.