What Is Your Favorite Section of MakeUseOf? [Poll]

The time has come to say goodbye to the MakeUseOf Poll. It may return in some form in the future, but for now we want to focus on reading and responding to your comments on all of our articles. Your opinions are important to us, more now than ever before.

We have chosen, in a final show of vanity, to make the last poll all about ourselves. Therefore, we’re asking you to vote for your favorite section at MakeUseOf. There are 20 to choose from, making this the most epic poll we have ever run. Or at least it will be if you all vote…

No to Netflix

To answer this week’s question please scroll down the page until you see the poll staring back at you. But first, we need to look at the results from two weeks ago, when we asked, “Are You Addicted to Netflix?”

Out of a total of 231 votes, 29% chose I Don’t Have Netflix, 26.4% chose At Least a Couple of Hours Every Week, 20.4% chose At Least a Couple of Hours Every Day, 8.7% chose Too Many to Count, 7.8% chose At Least a Couple of Hours Every Month, and 7.8% chose I Cannot Remember the Last Time I Watched Netflix!

These results show that there is still a fair portion of our readers who don’t, and, taking the comments into consideration, likely never will, have Netflix. Of those who do have Netflix, the usage varies considerably from person to person, with most using it between a couple of hours every day and a couple of hours every week.

Comment of the Week

We received a lot of great comments, including those from Peter Fitzsimmons, Joseph Krak, and Mark ‘Mr. Marcus’ Major. Comment of the Week goes to Xoandre, who earns our admiration and affection for this comment:

I have found that 90% of the Netflix content is unwatchable rubbish. The few key gems are what I watch. The first half of every month, I will see what new items they have added (usually 30 pieces of worthless garbage and 2-3 things I may or may not care about). But for the most part, I am bored and considering discontinuing my Netflix account because there is no innovation and their release schedule is pathetic.

What would bring revolutionary change and amazing subscription increases would be:

1. Reinvent the search feature when using Google TV to stream Netflix. As it stands, you can search by title of the program or by actor name. There are no GENREs (other than the redundant ones suggested and filled with the same 10-20 Films/TV Series).

2. Time-shift the release schedule so that each of the Netflix Original shows comes out 1 month after the previous release. Having all 10-20 Netflix shows coming out at one time and then leaving us binge-watchers without any further content for 6 months to a year after we have finished the season allows loss of interest.

3. STOP listing the same 3 films or shows in every single category. Dreamworks’ PENGUINS is not a THRILLER or a SCI-FI film. It’s not a Documentary or a Foreign-language film. Yet it appears in every one of those categories. HOW TO MAKE A MURDERER is not a Comedy or a Family Favorites, but it lists as such in those and other inappropriate categories.

4. Get rid of the filler. Browsing through my full screen of options on Netflix, I see 50 of the same exact titles in every row of suggested content. I also see rubbish strewn all over the place – things that they sell at Dollar stores on DVD that NO ONE WANTS TO BUY.

5. With my 75MBps connection and nothing else running, my speedtest comes back perfectly fine. However, streaming a 45 min TV Episode on MEDIUM QUALITY causes the LOADING screen mid-way through the show. NETFLIX has a long road to make their content streamable on their end. That being the whole point, it’s high time they make it their primary focus.

We chose this comment because it offers some ways Netflix could improve its service, at least for this reader in particular. The fact is Netflix is far from perfect, and we would hope, and expect, Netflix to constantly be working behind the scenes to improve it. Especially now that it’s available in 190 countries.

MakeUseOf Opinions

So, we come to the last MakeUseOf Poll for a while, and it’s a doozy. As regular readers will know, MakeUseOf comprises multiple sections all specializing in particular subjects. There are 20 sections at the time of writing, with others coming and going as we expand and experiment.

We simply want to know what your favorite section is right now. This isn’t a popularity contest, and we won’t be making editorial decisions based on the results. However, they should provide us with a nice snapshot of the sections our regular readers are most interested in exploring.

Once you have voted in the poll above, please explain in the comments section why you voted that way. Why do you like that section above all of the others? Do you have an inherent interest in that subject? Or is it the quality of writing, the authors’ expertise, or something else?

The more information you can provide with your comment, the more accurate our conclusions can be based on the results. As this is the last MakeUseOf Poll, at least in its current form, we won’t be choosing a comment of the week, but rest assured we appreciate all of your opinions.

Image Credits: WoodleyWonderWorks via Flickr