So much for the great exodus that was predicted.
Savvy tech users consistently underestimate how much hostile corporate behavior the general population is willing to put up with.
But then I couldn’t watch Netflix!!
When was the last time you actually did watch Netflix, and even then how often have you watched it?
…but I need to watch Netflix
Soo…what about reddit?
We wait and see. My guess is the company looked at the number of 3rd party users verse official client and desktop users and decided: “Yep, we can lose them”. It will all depend on how much of a dive the site takes. Similar to all the leave campaigns on FB, Twitter, Digg, etc… it won’t shutdown by this protest.
I look at it that the best users will be the ones to leave.
IMO lurkers that just browse Reddit just for getting answers to something they were searching on Google will obviously continue using the app. For them this won’t matter, and they constitute the majority of the Reddit user-base.
I guess most of the Third Party App users are somewhat tech savvy and understand that their official app is a total piece of shit. But as you said, Reddit is okay with losing these somewhat small amount of users.
Reddit has a different problem: most of the moderation and most of the content came from power users who are now jumping ship en masse, and Reddit, Inc doesn’t have anywhere near enough personnel to replace them. They’re a minority on Reddit as they are on Netflix, but whereas Netflix can live without them, Reddit cannot. With them gone, it’ll soon become a wasteland of spam and trolls like Usenet. This kills the platform.
I’ve looked into it and the data is for 2 days. It might be an outlier…
The general consumer is an idiot. It’s basic psychology. Rewarding behavior increases it’s likelihood. Soon other streaming services will follow.
BuT tHe FrEe MaRkEt WiLl HoLd BuSiNeSsEs AcCoUnTaBlE!
Oh the late stage capital slogan is now “what the market will bear”
Which is too bad. I never went back and never plan to.
I have a tendency to think this way when I see this kind of disappointing news, but I think it’s a good idea to resist the temptation. Assuming everyone that chooses this particular streaming service is an idiot because of something that for me is an issue but for them either doesn’t matter or more likely still, isn’t even on their radar, well I guess it just helps reinforce a distorted world view that assumes everyone is or should be like me and the people I talk to online.
Still though, I was definitely hoping this would bite them in the arse and it’s a shame to see them come out of this smelling like roses somehow.
I only consume content the way God intended : Torrent
Praise be
Absolutely the best way of consuming content, if you have access to the better trackers.
The sad reality most of us who comment on social media and forums forget is we are just a vocal minority, majority of consumers don’t care for these outrages unfortunately. If the end product works good enough for most people then they will keep it/use it.
majority of consumers don’t care for these outrages unfortunately
See also: Preordering video games
Preordering online video games is such a rip off.
I go nuts on anyone preordering digital releases just to be outraged when it turns out the game sucks balls.
I usually pre-order PC games that come with a pre-order bonus on Steam because I can just refund it in two hours of playtime/2 weeks in library if it sucks. If it doesn’t, well, I was going to buy it anyway. I know game prices are ridiculous now and I’m buying far less than I used to but being able to just refund it is a game-changer.
Yep, already seeing in the family, people having to pay for their own sub now that netflix is cracking on password sharing
They knew they’d face backlash with this decision, but the average person just want to turn on the TV and watch something, so they’d keep paying for that instead of suddenly learning how to pirate things, or move on to other streaming services
It’s a short term measure. Long term is: will it have enough exclusive content that makes it worth it?
It seems that business has gone the way where, as long as you keep making profit, who cares if you have less customers? It’s such a backwards way of thinking when you actually apply it to reality. I wish I could find the article, but I remember there being a discussion about the trust threshold for businesses. Where, a business who constantly pulls moves like this makes more and more money out of fewer customers, until they suddenly pass a threshold of trust, and BAM! It all falls down.
Ofc, I know, it’s capitalism. The endless pursuit of profit and the expense of all else. It’s just… Exhausting to see it happen everywhere.
The anti-piracy scare tactics paid off huge dividends for the powers that be.
Bear in mind that Antenna (the source of this info) has no access to internal Netflix metrics, only to opt-in consumer information. We won’t really know what’s going on with Netflix’s numbers until their next quarterly report.
This is a super important piece of the puzzle that no one seems to be talking about. It’s surface level at best
I wouldn’t be surprised if the kind of person who voluntarily participates in opt-in surveys like this has a different likelihood to get their own account in a situation like the Netflix password sharing crack-down.
I’m about to the point where I’m just going to go back to pirating. The value of streaming services was in their convenience. I was willing to pay money for that, but the more fragmented and complicated all of it gets, when I can just pay for 1 VPN and go to a site and click a few links…
Piracy can be pretty convenient too. There are some services that are a kind of a hassle to set up, but work really well once everything is configured. You can have one docker container running qbittorrent and set up so it’s only able to access the Internet through VPN, other containers running sonarr/radarr etc to automate the downloading, and one runing plex to organize and stream all the content.
I subscribe to several streaming services because the people who work on and create this content deserve to be paid, but often will watch something on my plex server rather than through the streaming site because it’s just more convenient. Also it’s nice to have local copies of that media in case it ever gets removed from the streamer in the future.
That’s what I’ve got too. Family and friends are slowly catching on the more I talk about it haha. Got a few friends and my whole family on my Plex server now. It’s a fun side project/hobby too imo
The recent loss of Rarbg has been pretty bad for Piracy community. Big shuffles on the internet lately.
I’m skeptical. If this is indeed true, I believe it will be short lived. The simple reason is that the content is not worth the cost. It worked better when people shared their passwords maybe? I gave up my subscription long before they announced these changes because the content, IMO, mostly sucks.
There’s a reason to be skeptical. The data is for 2 days
Yeah, not surprising tbh. They tested the change in smaller countries like NZ first, which allowed them to determine if it was worth doing the same elsewhere.
Password sharing is really common, but I don’t think enough people realise - if they give a shit about what they use and where it comes from, they’re the minority. That goes for almost any service, not just streaming. The people willing to change their habits to protest are always going to be less than the entrenched people who can be pushed, inch by inch.
Most Netflix users just want something to watch with minimal effort and without having to try or think about it. So if the password doesn’t work, they shrug, they accept it, they make their own account, and their routines stay the same. In fact I’m willing to be that of the new Netflix users, a majority of them are probably also subscribed to at least one other streaming service, too.
Convenience is a commodity, and users have different price points.
While I don’t watch enough Netflix that this decision will affect me directly, this is awful news, because now I expect more streaming services to see this as a viable option and it will likely be repeated.
I’m honestly sort of suspicious of this report. I wouldn’t be surprised if the information is misrepresented or outright fabricated.
I am not really that surprised. I think a lot of people use netflix and just didn’t get a sub, because why pay for something that is free. I think a lot of people used the same account then grew up, moved out, moved on and just kept using the same account. Now that they cannot, they are happy to pay for it. My wife and I have not been kicked off my parents account yet. I do not know how long it takes to kick in. But, once we do, we may subscribe again, but it is not a rush as we are watching a lot of disney plus at the moment.
Of course, I did figure that at least some folks would get their own, but the growth is much higher than I was expecting. It’s also a death knell of sorts that will start a feeding frenzy for other streaming services I think though. In a few years, it may not be an option for ANY service to share passwords.
Yeah, someone on Tumblr has pointed out that the data does not actually support the headline here. The spike actually started just before the crackdown and immediately dropped.
Almost as if they just started recording in earnest I wonder.
It coulr be misleading, but outright lying here wouldn’t be particularly useful since they have a duty to report truthfully on their finicial results.
E: nvm I just realized the source isn’t Netflix themselves.
Yeah, it isn’t from netflix themselves. And, even if it was, the consequences for lying are rarely ever greater than the benefit. If the stocks go up AT ALL because of them, someone’s benefitting.
Plex + Sonarr/Radarr and you won’t need Netflix anymore ;)
That’s what I moved over to a few months ago, I will say…it was a challenge to set up but it’s been fantastic so far. Have you by any chance automated downloads via trakt TV lists?
Yeah! I also use Overseer to manage library requests and automate those downloads.
I would also recommend spending time looking into Usenet providers with lifetime subscriptions as it provides a great resource for pulling media from. I use NZBgeek and Frugal UseNet, rarely have problems finding seeders. It does take a bit more setup than just pulling from Torrent Indexers but the ease of finding the content I’m looking for is 100x better than just torrents from personal experience.
Wow, lifetime subscriptions, really? As in pay once and use forever? That sounds too good to be true. Any recommendations?
It’s a little buried in the account settings, but Netflix does allow account sharing for an additional fee (~$7?). I know families that went with this option so they could continue sharing their account with elderly parents, and college aged children.
I imagine that if a group of friends agreed to split the cost of an account + fees, they would end up paying less than having individual accounts.
Wasn’t it more like $3?
Depends on where you live!
Ahh ok. I still get mine through T-mobile so I have no idea how much I pay they just roll it into my bill.
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In Brazil too sadly
Hot take but I think ultimately this will work out for them. Nobody is going to cancel their sub over this, because whoever is paying isn’t losing anything.
The people who lose access to the account might not sign up, but it doesn’t exactly hurt Netflix if they don’t, they weren’t paying anyway.
I canceled mine at the beginning of the year. For me it represented a 5x increase in the cost of the platform. But I agree overall, it’s probably a slight positive for them in the short term (I’m skeptical its worth losing mindshare in the long run).
I know of one friend group that’s going to cancel, but that’s just one paying user in the end. If anyone from the group is getting the subscription it’ll already cancel out.
It was only a matter of time untill this happened. This will definitely be profitable for them in wealthy countries.
Well, these events made me reconsider subscribing in the first place, as the people benefiting from my subscription used it more than myself, so that was a good opportunity to cancel my subscription.
Makes sense. Everyone was outraged that they were going to be punished for violating the T&Cs, if just because Netflix never really enforced it, but they’re not actually willing to go without.
