

The Netflix Zen Master - jdoliner
http://joedoliner.com/?p=49

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imgabe
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.

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jdoliner
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.

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encoderer
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.

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jrockway
That would be me.

For some reason, I would rather watch Simpsons reruns than some movie I've
never seen.

(I returned one disk today that has been on my coffee table for two months. I
just couldn't get excited enough to watch the movie, and I was tired of
looking at the disk.)

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qeorge
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.

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bprater
Absolutely. There is a real beauty in quirkiness.

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absconditus
Netflix uses an algorithm to slow down people like this.

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

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DannoHung
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.

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shizcakes
Is this not a form of piracy?

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bprater
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.

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

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qeorge
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?

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raghus
No, not exactly quick-sprint :-)

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qeorge
My apologies, I had this confused with Qflip.net, from the Rails Rumble 08
competition, not even close to the same idea. I guess my memory is not as
sharp as I would hope.

