Netflix screws something up - again

[freeradical]

Now you can only see the last 1000 items in your history.

I signed up in 2006. Now I can no longer see that history.

[NewtonMP2100]

.....it's all like history.....repeating.....

[rjmacs]

Did you subscribe to a video streaming service or a personal data archiving service?

[space-time]

first world problems?

[Mike Sellers]

That could be a blessing in disguise.

[Carnos Jax]

That sucks...how much memory could a teeny weenie text file take????

[freeradical]

Carnos Jax wrote:
That sucks...how much memory could a teeny weenie text file take????

Exactly. It's less than nothing compared with their overall data storage needs. Practically immeasurable.

Anyhow, don't they need this data to make viewing recommendations to me? So they must still be storing it.

[rjmacs]

I suspect what you're encountering is a divergence between capacity and utility.

Would it be easy for them to maintain your complete viewing records forever? Probably, though their data sets are probably much richer than "watched" or "didn't watch" per title. They are now, and if their old data sets are relatively impoverished, they might not match the current 'watch algorithms' at all.

Does it profit them to do so? I suspect not. I suspect they know exactly how much viewing history they need on the average customer to keep them engaged and watching. Everything stored beyond that window would demand justification.

I 'd guess that few subscribers mine their viewing history back 12 years, or would stop subscribing if they couldn't.