Netflix Completely Scraps User Reviews

Netflix completely removed all user reviews from its site Friday, following through with a promise to purge them all last month.

The streaming service stopped allowing users to post their own reviews on July 30, reports Variety. Netflix said the feature was dropped because of a drop in user reviews, although some shows like Stranger Things had as many as 4,000 user reviews when the feature was killed.

“We have notified members who have used the feature recently,” Netflix spokesperson Smita Saran said in July. “This feature is only offered on the website and has seen declining usage over time.”

Netflix also updated its Help Center page on “How do I post reviews on Netflix?“

“You can no longer post reviews on Netflix,” the answer now reads. “Netflix customers were able to leave reviews on Netflix.com until mid-2018, when reviews were removed due to declining use. To learn how Netflix suggests TV shows and movies we think you’ll love, visit our Ratings & Recommendations article.”

For now, users can only give their favorite shows thumbs up or thumbs down ratings.

Netflix told Variety that the ratings systems do not have an impact on the algorithms used to suggest content to users.

“The reviews and our redesigned ratings system (thumbs up/down) never contributed to how we approach personalizing recommendations for members and writing a ‘bad’ review never had any bearing to whether a title was recommended to another viewer or not,” a Netflix representative said.

Getting rid of reviews also helps Netflix avoid some public relations disasters, like the one that sprouted after Amy Schumer’s stand-up special was deluged with one-star reviews. When the thumbs up/thumbs down system was announced last year, it sparked an online conspiracy theory that it was a reaction to the Schumer reviews.

Netflix also will no longer have to worry about bad reviews for its own content. Its new series Insatiable debuted to a mixed-to-negative critical response, but you will not see negative reviews now when you look it up on Netflix’s site.

Meanwhile, users can still go to other sites to express their opinions on Netflix content. Some even went to Twitter to complain about Netflix killing the user review.

This is the latest change for Netflix that has left some users feeling uneasy. Netflix has also reportedly started testing ads between episodes for other Netflx programs, with no options to skip. The company confirmed it was a test, but denied that users could not skip the ads.

“We are testing whether surfacing recommendations between episodes helps members discover stories they will enjoy faster,” a Netflix representative said. “A couple of years ago, we introduced video previews to the TV experience, because we saw that it significantly cut the time members spend browsing and helped them find something they would enjoy watching even faster.”

As of now, the test appears to have only been done outside the U.S.

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