[Lava Lamp Freak]

Dear ****,

We wanted to let you know we will be eliminating Profiles, the feature that allowed you to set up separate DVD Queues under one account, effective September 1, 2008.

Each additional Profile Queue will be unavailable after September 1, 2008. Before then, we recommend you consolidate any of your Profile Queues to your main account Queue or print them out.

While it may be disappointing to see Profiles go away, this change will help us continue to improve the Netflix website for all our customers.

If you have any questions, please go to Netflix Online Movie Rentals - Rent DVDs, Classic Films to DVD New Releases or call us anytime at 1 (888) 638-3549. We apologize for any inconvenience.

- The Netflix Team

Q:
What is happening to Profiles?
A:
We will be eliminating Profiles, the feature that allowed you to set up separate DVD Queues under one account.

When? Profiles will be eliminated on September 1, 2008.

Why? While it may be disappointing to see this feature go away, this change will help us to continue to improve the Netflix website for all our customers.

Do I need to do anything? Consider moving all DVD titles in your Profiles Queues to your main account Queue. To do so, log-in and visit this page

How will this impact my account? On September 1, 2008:

All DVDs currently at home or in transit will be associated with the main account Queue
All Profiles rental history will be added into the main account rental history
Your additional Profile Queues will be eliminated. If you would like to keep a copy of each Profile Queue we recommend that you print them out
Prior to Profiles going away, we will also email you a copy of your Profile Queues
Profiles movie ratings and Profiles Friends connections will no longer be available
You will not be able to transfer your Profiles data to a separate new account
You will be able to set a maturity filter on the main account

Considering the number of married friends I have who religiously use the multiple profile system for their spouses and children, I can see a real problem here. I'm not sure if the plan here is to motivate people to pay for multiple accounts, but if it is, Netflix just screwed itself because it isn't gonna happen.

On top of that this whole thing is being handled badly. Ratings will be lost and they are making us manually move over movies from other profiles to the main one. How am I supposed to do that when I am MAXED AT 500 ALREADY? Ugh!

I have been a customer for 8 years. The queue system is screwed up as it is. Having multiple profiles is the only thing that makes it usable. Netflix has 30k + titles but I can only have 500 in my queue at a time. I use a 2nd profile just for TV shows, and was getting ready to create more profiles for different genres of movies. Having one large queue is an unmanageable mess. Unless they plan to have a new state of the art queue system in place when they delete my profiles, I'm gone. If I wanted to manage one huge queue I could do that with Blockbuster's service plus be able to pick up free movies in store. Tonight was the first time I've actually looked at Blockbusters site to see what their current prices are.

I guess this is good news for Blockbuster though. I bet they're loving it.

[alligator]

First, I've been a customer for 8 years as well and never even knew these existed. Second, if you have 500 movies in your queue, that is impressive! I can't manage to get more than 10-20 items in my queue at a time. I only restock my queue when I get near zero.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Why? This change will help us to continue to improve the Netflix website for all our customers.

Wow, why even bother giving an answer.

[-Q-]

Originally Posted by Dakar the Fourth 

Wow, why even bother giving an answer.

Quoted for truth.

[Atheist]

WOW... 500 items in your queue? That sounds more like a wish list than a queue. Do you really intend on renting all 500? It sounds like Netflix needs to provide a way to mark items that you are interested in but don't yet want to add to your queue.

[Lava Lamp Freak]

Originally Posted by Atheist 

WOW... 500 items in your queue? That sounds more like a wish list than a queue. Do you really intend on renting all 500? It sounds like Netflix needs to provide a way to mark items that you are interested in but don't yet want to add to your queue.

Yes, you have a great point there. Many of the movies in my queue I may never see. I just add everything that sounds interesting. At all times I'll have a TV show, new release, and some random movie I found browsing Netflix at home. What makes me angry is I had just come up with the idea to create a new profile to offload all of these "wish list" movies to and clean up my queue to a more manageable size. I may never see all 500, but if I delete them I'll never find them again.

Aside from queue size, we still need better management. I don't want to micro manage my queue. As it is now, when I send back a TV show, I get the next one in line. Once profiles are gone, I have to go back to micro managing to make sure I don't get two discs of TV shows at once. I didn't even realize others were using it for the same purpose until I started reading comments on Hacking NetFlix.

[mduell]

Feature that less than 1% of users use, that blocks development of other features they think more users want? Dump it.

It's cheaper to have two 3 at a time plans than one 6 at a time plan anyway.

[OwlBoy]

I wonder how this would "block" development of other features…

-Owl

[Railroader]

This will cause actual my wife and I to communicate about the Netflix queue. Actually, I will no longer hear Mrs. Railroader say: "Hey, add ****** to my queue". I will now hear: "Hey, add ***** to the top of the netflix".

[subego]

Originally Posted by Railroader 

This will cause actual my wife and I to communicate about the Netflix queue. Actually, I will no longer hear Mrs. Railroader say: "Hey, add ****** to my queue". I will now hear: "Hey, add ***** to the top of the netflix".

We never used profiles so I don't think I've gotten a DVD I put in the queue.

Ever.

[alligator]

Originally Posted by Railroader 

This will cause actual my wife and I to communicate about the Netflix queue.

My wife and I NEVER communicate about our Netflix queue. I add a bunch of movies I like, and when she goes online, she deletes everything I've added and replaces it with her own. Every once in a while a crappy movie gets through, and when we sit down to watch it, like last night, she blames me. Who knew that Time Bandits was a stupid movie?

[vmarks]

I knew.


And I own it.

[Railroader]

Originally Posted by subego 

We never used profiles so I don't think I've gotten a DVD I put in the queue.

Ever.

Originally Posted by alligator 

My wife and I NEVER communicate about our Netflix queue. I add a bunch of movies I like, and when she goes online, she deletes everything I've added and replaces it with her own. Every once in a while a crappy movie gets through, and when we sit down to watch it, like last night, she blames me. Who knew that Time Bandits was a stupid movie?

You two have struck fear into my heart.

[Randman]

Originally Posted by Lava Lamp Freak 

How am I supposed to do that when I am MAXED AT 500 ALREADY? Ugh!

Do you watch movies 24/7? Or just click on everything?

[Lava Lamp Freak]

Originally Posted by Randman 

Do you watch movies 24/7? Or just click on everything?

Yes, over the last eight years of my life I have "clicked" on quite a few movies, and it adds up. Sadly, for the last month, I've only watched around five. I don't go out to watch movies often, but I add all of the theatrical releases that interest me to my queue while they're still in theaters.

[KeriVit]

You really have way too much time on your hands to let this and the queue size upset you. Just keep on top of your qeue. For the love, 500+?

[SpaceMonkey]

Did they really call you a four-letter word? What jerks.

[Laminar]

Originally Posted by SpaceMonkey 

Did they really call you a four-letter word? What jerks.

Almost as bad as RailRoader's wife wanting a movie with a dirty word as its title.

[Lava Lamp Freak]

The Netflix product manager made a post about this on the official blog today.

As a Netflix product manager I'm tasked with the wonderful job of helping members find movies they'll love. But today my job is more challenging as we've decided to terminate the profiles feature on September 1. Please know that the motivation is solely driven by keeping our service as simple and as easy to use as possible. Too many members found the feature difficult to understand and cumbersome, having to consistently log in and out of the website.

Continuing to maintain the profiles feature for the passionate few who use it (including myself) distracts us from the mission of presenting to all our members the easiest way to find the best titles for them from the 100k plus on DVD and the 10k plus available instantly.

We will do our best to find better ways for families to share accounts than the existing profiles feature and will continue to invest in improving the website experience in many different ways.

- Todd

Netflix Community Blog: Profiles feature going away

I'm still hopeful they'll have something new in place by Sept 1. that will alleviate mine and others concerns.

Originally Posted by KeriVit 

You really have way too much time on your hands to let this and the queue size upset you. Just keep on top of your qeue. For the love, 500+?

Queue size is only one small part of the issue. I requested years ago that they add better queue management so I could handle TV shows and movies separately. Profiles was a fix for that, if only a hack.

As far as too much time on my hands, those of you who have responded just to insult me or my use of the service, I can't believe your audacity. I come here to share my complaints about a service I assume many of us use. I'm not a heavy poster here, so I guess I'm just not used to the hostility.

[Paco500]

Originally Posted by alligator 

Who knew that Time Bandits was a stupid movie?

Blasphemy.

[sek929]

Profiles? Huh?

I alternate my 2 at a time plan between my picks and my g/f picks...even though I pay for the whole thing. I watch a Netflix just about every other night and my queue has never exceeded 20 or so.

If you have 500 DVDs in your queue I think you need to do a little house-cleaning.

[EndlessMac]

Originally Posted by Netflix

Too many members found the feature difficult to understand and cumbersome, having to consistently log in and out of the website.

So instead of trying to improve the feature they would rather just eliminate it. They could just have a master log in and just have the feature to quickly switch from one profile to the next within each profile. People will be giving up some privacy but if a family has to be that secretive about what they watch from each other then the family probably has larger issues to deal with.

I really don't use the profiles feature so I don't have a problem with it being discontinued but I can see how it can be beneficial for others. Right now I just do something like sek929 by alternating between mine and my family.

[Railroader]

Originally Posted by Laminar 

Almost as bad as RailRoader's wife wanting a movie with a dirty word as its title.

She is a redhead, what can I say?

[Railroader]

Originally Posted by Netflix Blog guy

We will do our best to find better ways for families to share accounts than the existing profiles feature and will continue to invest in improving the website experience in many different ways.

I hope they figure it out quickly.

[KeriVit]

Originally Posted by Lava Lamp Freak 

Queue size is only one small part of the issue. I requested years ago that they add better queue management so I could handle TV shows and movies separately. Profiles was a fix for that, if only a hack.

As far as too much time on my hands, those of you who have responded just to insult me or my use of the service, I can't believe your audacity. I come here to share my complaints about a service I assume many of us use. I'm not a heavy poster here, so I guess I'm just not used to the hostility.

It really wasn't intended to be that harsh. I just think you are expecting too much of a rental service. I would think if you are that into shows and movies, perhaps another database management option would be better. Netflix is there to provide what I find- a very useful service, but I do not expect them to manage that many aspects.

Again, no harsh tone here. But, I would not expect iTunes Music Store to manage my widest array of interests or any other serice for that matter. Maybe there's something else available for movie buffs like yourself. What if there was a Netflix "Pro" account that cost a little more?

[Lava Lamp Freak]

Adrian, an engineer at Netflix, responded on the Netflix Community Forum.

The Netflix site was designed without profiles, then features were added continuously for a few years, then profiles were added, but with minimum disruption to existing features, rather than a ground-up redesign, then a few more years of features were added over the top.

Now in some ways its too messy and its slowing down our ability to change and add new features, so a lot of investment is going into cleaning up the code. Part of that cleanup is to simplify and re-implement things so that we can get more interesting and advanced things done more quickly in the future. For this feature that is used by a percent or two of the user base, it will make cleanup a lot faster by removing it.

When profiles were invented, most users were on multiple-disc plans. More recently we have added one-disc plans, and a lot of users are on those plans and can't use profiles, even though they have the same needs.

Adrian from Netflix
Profiles going away!? - A Netflix Community

Answering how security settings could be used on a single profile...

Two people can be logged in at the same time and they would see each others changes to the queue etc.

Support for children is one of the obvious needs. However since many households are on a one disc at a time plan, they are not able to use profiles to solve this problem.

Obviously, I can't comment on any future plans. But I can echo the comment that many Netflix employees use profiles, so we are very aware of what the various needs are.

Adrian from Netflix
Profiles going away!? - A Netflix Community

This makes more sense to me now. For starters, profiles was a hack and is increasing the difficulty of making further updates. As a web developer I can understand that. Also, profiles don't help people who only have one movie at a time but want to share their account with a family member. Since the one at a time plan is their most profitable per disc, I can understand that they want a solution that will work for it as well.

It looks like the only solution for me will be to get two accounts when my profiles go away. Its not a big deal as it will only raise my plan about $4 a month to get a second account. Maybe in the future they'll add some of the things I've asked for regarding queue management. I know I'm not the only one requesting them. Reading through posts on the community forum I see others asking for the same things.

As far as my queue size, I think my biggest problem is putting more on my plate than I eat. You know how you can go into a grocery store hungry and leave with more food than you'll possibly ever eat? I do that with movies. Don't get me wrong, I do watch a lot of movies. I just watch them at the same rate I add new ones to the queue. If I watch 5-10 a month and add 5-10 new movies a month, the queue stays maxed.

I doubt it will ever fall below 480. I think that is the lowest I've seen it in several years. I moved over a bunch of movies to my overflow profile last night, and today I added 5 new recommended movies to my queue. That is the whole point of the rating system, to find movies I might be interested in but haven't seen yet. I find movies that I've never even heard of before that I end up loving that way. I stopped buying movies over a year ago and sold my entire collection for enough to pay for my Netflix account for almost two years. I'm not about to start deleting stuff. I'll just have to use a second account in the future as my overflow. I'm not going to apologize for utilizing one of Netflix's most powerful features.

[Lava Lamp Freak]

Hah, I guess someone at Netflix read my e-mail. This just popped up in my inbox.

We Are Keeping Netflix Profiles

Dear *****,

You spoke, and we listened. We are keeping Profiles. Thank you for all the calls and emails telling us how important Profiles are.

We are sorry for any inconvenience we may have caused. We hope the next time you hear from us we will delight, and not disappoint, you.

-Your friends at Netflix

[EndlessMac]

Originally Posted by Lava Lamp Freak 

Hah, I guess someone at Netflix read my e-mail. This just popped up in my inbox.

There must have been a lot of people who wrote in to get this feature saved. I think the next mission should be that all of us Netflix Mac users should write in demanding that they allow streaming video for Mac. Currently only Windows users can stream video for instant viewing.

[Randman]

Originally Posted by EndlessMac 

There must have been a lot of people who wrote in to get this feature saved. I think the next mission should be that all of us Netflix Mac users should write in demanding that they allow streaming video for Mac. Currently only Windows users can stream video for instant viewing.

I already do this.

[Lava Lamp Freak]

Originally Posted by EndlessMac 

There must have been a lot of people who wrote in to get this feature saved. I think the next mission should be that all of us Netflix Mac users should write in demanding that they allow streaming video for Mac. Currently only Windows users can stream video for instant viewing.

Netflix has stated that as soon as the DRM required by studios is available, they'll offer Mac streaming. Silverlight 2.0, which is still in beta, meets the requirements. The official word from Microsoft is it will be final by end of the year. So, hopefully we'll be able to stream on Mac within a few months.

http://community.netflix.com/forum/t...3ATopic%3A8057