[tptacek]

I hate the auto-playing trailers too, but in the spirit of the kind of analysis HN is actually good at: auto-playing trailers seems like an extraordinarily straightforward feature to collect and analyze metrics on, and Netflix does not strike me as the kind of company that is utterly ambivalent about metrics, so "hating the auto-playing trailers" might not be the strong indication of loss-of-touch that it seems; like, it seems more likely that for the majority of Netflix's user-base, the trailers increase engagement.

[stallmanite]

Perhaps they are measuring engagement in some perverse way.

[stefan_]

That's exactly the problem? Auto-playing trailers are a trivially obvious way to explode your minutes played metrics into the sky. Also utterly meaningless unless you have hooked into the camera to show the users eyes focusing on that content, instead of, as is overwhelmingly likely, playing into the void.

[reitzensteinm]

It's a little bizarre to throw shade on HN analysis while simultaneously using metric collection as a counterargument to an accusation of having lost touch with a userbase.

If there's one collective blind spot on this site, it's treating humanity as though it's a mathematical equation.

[marcosdumay]

It extraordinarily difficult to use metrics to improve a UI aimed at entertainment.

[tptacek]

It's not my claim that they've made Netflix more entertaining, just that it's likely made it more sticky.

[wayne_skylar]

This kind of thinking is the problem though. Like YouTube they don't care about the quality of the experience you're having. Where Netflix might see a very satisfied customer others might see a depressed individual binging a show for the 10th time as a way to escape reality.

[kevinmchugh]

auto-playing trailers seem like a move to encourage people to try something new instead of rewatching the same show over and over