The Netflix Zen Master

by jdoliner • 17 years ago

37 29 17 years ago

qeorge3• 17 years ago

This is the kind of guy I hope to be in my middle age. Given his antics probably won't actually result in a quicker turnaround, but I love the idea of sending the DVDs back on the same truck they came on just for the hell of it.

I also like the idea of the contest the author proposes, although I'm sure Netflix wouldn't want to publicly encourage piracy.

Great article, made me smile.

bprater2• 17 years ago

Absolutely. There is a real beauty in quirkiness.

imgabe• 17 years ago

I think Netflix wants you to be inefficient though. The longer you keep the movies, the less postage they have to pay mailing them back and forth each month, making your account that much more profitable.

jdoliner2• 17 years ago

Hmm, I don't think that's necessarily true. For new releases Netflix often doesn't have enough to go around and has to make people wait. I bet efficiency there is appreciated.

encoderer3• 17 years ago

Netflix notoriously throttles heavy users. Their largest expense is postage. I'm sure their calculus is more complex, but if they had to pick an extreme, i'd wager that they'd pick the guy who has had the same 3 discs sitting on his table for the last month.

DavidHull3• 17 years ago

Also, Netflix doesn't have to make a customer wait, they can just send a movie from farther down in the customer's queue.

DavidHull3• 17 years ago

Yes, I agree, the premise that Netflix wants you to return the DVDs as quickly as possible so that they can send it to someone else is wrong. At any given time, you're going to have N DVDs out, and Netflix doesn't have any reason to particularly care whether they're the same N DVDs each day or N different DVDs.

When I return two DVDs to Netflix on the same day, I usually send them in one envelope in the hopes that the mailing costs will be slightly lower. (I figure that if their costs are lower that helps keep the subscription price down.) I've wondered why Netflix doesn't try to combine the discs that they send, but perhaps the cost savings aren't enough to be worth the extra handling that would be required on their end.

encoderer3• 17 years ago

Interesting... I noticed a couple years ago that if I put the DVD in the return envelope backwards (and the bar code couldn't be seen thru the little window) it took longer to mark those movies as returned (I'd get the email at 3, 4, 5 PM instead of 7 or 8 AM) and it often led to an extra day of waiting. I now take care to always have them in the right.

You haven't noticed any extra delay by doubling them up?

Ben65• 17 years ago

True, but the contest idea builds a community and hopefully increases the number of subscribers. It certainly builds loyalty with existing subscribers. I think it's a good idea.

shizcakes• 17 years ago

Is this not a form of piracy?

sp332• 17 years ago

I don't see why. He's not distributing them, he's not getting any money, and he's not showing them in public.

It is illegal in the US, both because it "circumvents" the copy protection, and because he's making a copy of a movie he doesn't own. So it's copyright infringement, but not piracy.

bprater2• 17 years ago

It's obvious he's doing this as a hobby. Legal? I'm sure it's on the threshold. This is where an inflexible legal system shows it's age.

He isn't hurting anybody, he's obviously having a great time. Netflix is making money/building loyalty from him. (They are building loyalty with all of us when we read this story.) The movie companies aren't suffering. It's a triple win.

But in a court of law, it's likely that he would be slapped.

raghus5• 17 years ago

I wonder what his stats and graphs will look like on the site I started: http://feedfliks.com

qeorge3• 17 years ago

You actually get a plug in the article itself. Cool site by the way. IIRC, it was made in one of those quick-sprint exercises, no?

raghus5• 17 years ago

No, not exactly quick-sprint :-)

jdoliner2• 17 years ago

Well since you asked, let's see if can't get this for you :). Also I found your site through Netflix itself which I take to mean that they don't wholly disapprove of such a venture. Did you have to get your app concept cleared with them at all?

raghus5• 17 years ago

Not at all. As far as I can tell, Netflix is very supportive of FeedFliks. They did want me to change the name from FeedFlix to FeedFliks.

And yeah - if you can get the ZenMaster to post what his stats look like on FeedFliks, that would be great too!

staunch3• 17 years ago

If I decide to quit FeedFliks can I make it delete all my data?

raghus5• 17 years ago

Yes, absolutely

absconditus• 17 years ago

Netflix uses an algorithm to slow down people like this.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_422313.html

DannoHung2• 17 years ago

The only thing about that is that I really don't see the value of Netflix in getting new movies fast, I personally like the back catalog aspect. Like, I've been going through all the Miyazaki films, and there's a lot of independent movies, and cornball sci-fi movies. Heck, the watch instantly feature is awesome for that too.

I love Netflix.

The Netflix Zen Master

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