Netflix Profiles Getting the Ax (Not!)

UPDATE: Scratch that, just got an e-mail from Netflix saying they're heard the outcry, and they'll keep profiles. Hooray! So glad they were willing to listen.

Pisses me off: Netflix axing profiles. This is the feature that lets me maintain separate queues for me, my wife, and my kids. Now every time I send a disc back I'm going to have to remember to juggle my queue, and since they don't necessarily send stuff in order, even then the balance won't be as good as when Netflix supported this feature.

(Not a huge inconvenience in the great scheme of things, but a pretty big inconvenience in the little life niche that movies-by-mail encompasses.)

I've heard various excuses: the big one is that profiles present a programming obstacle that will prevent the development of new killer features. Hard to believe. With all the great, sophisticated features the Netflix team has implemented (recommendation engine, what has to be insanely complex demand allocation algorithms, etc.), PROFILES present an insurmountable challenge?! Isn't each account pretty much a profile? They have 8 million of those. When Netflix first launched, I doubt the engineers told the brass, "sorry, you can only sell one account."

Speaking of 8 million customers, the other excuse is that only a small percentage of the population uses that feature (and that therefore the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, since profiles are such a technological speedbump). But even if it's only 1%, that's 80,000 pissed off people. 2% would be 160,000. This is probably not a fun day on the job for Netflix support staff.