One thing about me is that I like pretty much every movie or tv show that I see. Knowing this, my friend Dan recently asked me why I bother to rate things on Netflix.
First some clarifications. While I do like pretty much everything I watch, I don't choose to watch everything. If there's something I don't think I'll like, I won't watch it, and won't rate it. For example, I despise "The Millionaire Matchmaker", everyone on it, and all it stands for, so I don't watch it. When I do find myself watching it, thanks to Rachel, I make snide comments about Patti the matchmaker the whole time. If I were ever forced to watch an entire season of it, I would probably rate it 1 or 2 stars.
That brings up the Netflix rating system. They only let you rate something 1 to 5 stars, which corresponds to Hated, Didn't Like, Liked, Really Liked, and Loved. Because there are three positive ratings, it's not quite a ceiling effect, so there's still room for comparisons. While I wish they let you rate half stars, (allowing for even more room), I still find there is a noticeable difference between my 3-, 4- and 5-star rated movies. Either way, it's not like the system is Like vs. Not Like and I'm rating everything Like.
Now on to why I bother with the ratings:
1. Every time I watch something new, I rate it, so rating reminds me of what I've seen.
2. Related to #1, rating things also lets other people know I've seen something, and how I felt about it.
3. On Netflix, how similar your tastes are to that of your friends is determined by ratings. The more you rate, the more accurate the similarity estimation. For example, based on our ratings, my brother and I are 95% similar, suggesting that taste in movies is partly genetic.
4. Netflix uses your ratings to suggest other things you might like. Like with #3, the more you rate, the more accurate these suggestions will be.
