Ask HN: Is it okay for Netlfix to fake buffering?

[prometheon1]

Try this:

- Start a video on Netflix

- Disable wifi

- Wait for the video to run out of buffer

What happens next (consistently in my case) is that a loading sign appears, which goes from 0% to 99%, and then halts. The fact that it goes to 99% implies to me that it has buffered something but is just waiting a bit more until the buffer is large enough to continue. In reality, my hotspot apparently turned off 5 minutes ago and the 0->99% loading sign doesn't mean anything. Is this okay? It seems very dishonest to me. If my internet is not working, why not notify me so I can look into it?

[ThrowITout4321]

It seems to me that it's a bug that has sent gotten much attention or it's not worth fixing because of the amount of work involved. I doubt they are try to deceive the users.

[version_five]

I've had that often too. I'd guess its "OK" in the sense that it's a bug, I can't conceive of any malicious intent behind that (compare to e.g. Uber Eats arrival times that are lies to try and make something look better). It's clearly undesirable behavior though.

[SiempreViernes]

Seems a bit questionable if it's intentional, but maybe you've just gotten AB-punk'd and this is not an actual production feature?

[nikau]

They must have stolen the code from Microsofts status bar

[togaen]

It’s fine, they don’t have to tell you anything about how their stuff works or why it does what it does, and it’s not their job to troubleshoot your WiFi.