Two companies, two warning signs.

Stewart Butterfield, one of the progenitors of Flickr, has left the company. The takeover by Yahoo! seems complete, and the only question now is how many _more_ people will leave? Picassa isn't really "there" yet, so the big Y! is going to have to put Flickr though some serious encrapping before it dies.

I think Video is part of that encrapping, but never you mind that.

Netflix got a very nice letter from me.

It seems like you folks have a bit of a PR debacle on your hands. It's not surprising, I'd imagine that the kind of folks who'd make heavy use of profiles are also the kind of folks who'll make lots of internet noise when they're taken away.

I figure that profiles weren't so much a maintenance nightmare as a support nightmare. Stacking profiles inside a single log-on with no extra password protection leads to all kinds of possible security problems, not to mention people asking for account information to be moved into the profile space to further personalize a profile. I'm also betting a lot of people just didn't understand the difference.

Here's how to fix things for everyone:
1) Make a button that says "create account from profile". This will allow people to keep their queues independent and suddenly give folks all the benefits of an account.

2) Figure out how to bill multiple accounts as one charge to one card, maybe a "sponsor an account" thing, so that the sensitive financial data stays under one account.

3) Even out the pricing so that 1 six-at-a-time account is more equal to 3 two-at-a-time accounts. The fact that you're taking away profiles is the only reason people are making that comparison, so what's happening is that people are assuming you're doing this to chisel more money out of your customers (I'm giving youthe benefit of the doubt here). Throw the customers a bone so that they know that's not the case.

I think that should quiet most of the whining, and if you do this and I'm right, don't forget who gave you the idea ;-).

Jason Sullivan
Happy Netflix Customer

Now, if you read the fine print of the FAQ you come across this little gem: You will not be able to transfer your Profiles data to a separate new account. See, so they've already considered 1), and found it either too hard or not worth it. Rumour has it that only 2% of their customers use profiles. Can Netflix afford to lose 2%? A very Internet savvy and Internet vocal 2%? I'm kinda disappointed, since it seems like they have adopted a callous attitude to 2% of their users.

The problem is, how do you know you're not going to be in the next 2%? Even if you understand some of the technical issues this time, you have NO IDEA where the knife is going to cut for the next 2%. That's a bad message to send.