Many of you who subscribe to Netflix and don’t live by your lonesome are familier with the Netflix Profile system. This allows your account to have an additional “Profile” on it, which basically means that you have a second Queue for your wife, kids or roommate to use. Obviously, this is important for many people: the Netflix Queue is more than just an ordered list of movies to rent, it becomes the centerpiece of the “film” aspect of each user’s personality. I love my Netflix Queue… filled as it is with There Will Be Blood, Tron, Goodfellas, Oldboy, Primer, and everything else that is good. What I don’t want in my Queue is High School Musical, Hannah Montana, Pretty in Pink, and everything else that is bad.

To everyone else who was shocked tonight to get Netflix’s email blast announcing, in so many words, that they would be taking your wife, husband, roommate or children’s turds and dumping them into your panties, I would recommend you click “Contact Us” on the bottom of netflix.com and remind them why their sophisticated Queue and recommendation system makes you a subscriber.

Don’t forget, once he’s on your Queue, every time your husband clicks 5 stars on The Best of WCW, it’s going to think YOU like WCW too.

Below is my message to Netflix, which I will officially proclaim an “open” letter:

Removing profiles, are you guys serious?

In an age of customizable internet.. Blogs, RSS, site specific preferences, Facebook, Myspace and everything else.. You are taking a MAJOR step backwards by disabling one of your best features.

Netflix is built on the foundation of having, maintaining, and cultivating a great Queue. Watching it change, grow, diversify, while getting razor sharp recommendations on new films.

On September 1st, I will have to choose between filling my well manicured Queue with my wife’s 90s high school flicks, romantic “comedies,” Scrubs seasons and other trite, or cancelling my account. I think I’ll choose the latter.

If, as a third option, you decide to continue to evolve as an internet service: seeking to innovate and create new opportunities for user customization, instead of stripping out your best features and regressing, then I will stay.

Thanks.

Update 6/19/2008: An online petition against this move has already been created here, please sign it.
Update 6/30/2008: Acknowledging this and other complaints by its customers, Netflix has reversed its decision and decided to keep Profiles/Multiple Queues. High-five for Netflix!

I don’t know if a whole lot of explanation is necessary after you compare these two pictures, which I took at Wal-Mart tonight. Wow!

Apple, Apple, Apple… when will you find the limits of your greed, your “in-factor,” your branding, your mark-ups? Seeing Apple charge thirty dollars for a few pairs of socks brought me a rush of emotions, and interestingly, the first thing that came to mind were my days in school. Back when Steve Jobs had just come back to Apple, just when the company was beginning to drown in its own lack of relevance. A company that, though it made really pimp desktops and notebooks that were great for design and audio, surely wasn’t going to last much longer.

Enter the iPod… a little white plastic box (well, “boxy,” especially in generation 1) that would forever change the world (and the world’s perception of Apple). Being a design student/Mac user watching the release of the iPod and subsequent explosion of Apple’s name felt very strange… maybe the way it felt to be a rock ‘n’ roller in Seattle during the late 80’s, only to see your favorite bar/garage bands like Nirvana take over the world in ‘92.

In other words, to summarize this rambling discourse (I’m still trying to get my mind around all this), in 2000, who would’ve thought that Apple would one day be so IN that they would sell a pair of socks for $7.20?! Furthermore, in 2000, who would’ve thought that they, personally, would be so foolish as to pay this amount for a pair of socks in 2007? I don’t know…

LicensArt.com claims to be a place “where artists can showcase their work to companies interested in licensing art for commercial use.” However, by asking professionals, students and amateurs to provide their skills, time and labor pro bono, they’re showing us that they have no understanding of the industry that they’re pretending to support. And for a $1,000 prize? They should be paying a contracted professional at least $1,000 to go through a true development process. But instead they’re going to get dozens of submissions from design idiots who place no value on their own skills.

Also, a HUGE thumbs-down to Design Sessions: Notes on Design. This blog site is supposed to be a community of design professionals and educators, and they’re posting/advertising this trash on their site? I’ve lost a lot of respect for Notes on Design, and hope they stop posting Spec contests.

For more information on free work, “contests” and other exploitations, visit No!Spec.