Just a small insight. Over the last month or so I've seen no real improvement in how the Peerflix system works, but I guess I've gained a small insight I thought I'd share.

When I joined Peerflix I first started out only listing DVDs I was willing to trade. I assumed that others were doing the same thing. Now I think this isn't true. Over the last weekend it dawned on me that there was value in listing all my DVDs on Peerflix. If we had a fire or theft and someone ran off with my 250 DVDs then I would have no records and probably get nothing from my insurance company so I decided to put all of them in. In the process I noticed that every DVD entered goes to the 'willing to trade' list and none go on hold. Suddenly I found that I had requests for 40 DVDs to mail. People want my box set of The Godfather. Likewise Indiana Jones, etc.

Suddenly the lightbulb goes on and I understood why I'm not receiving the movies I'm asking for. Even though people own them, and have listed them, these folks have no real intention of trading. Unfortunately they haven't put them on their Hold list. People are just doing the most simple thing they can - they enter their movies and quit. This makes the 'DVDs Available' a complete sham. They're only available if people intend to really mail them and I contend now that people don't really intend to send everything they enter.

Since entering my collection it's sort of fun to watch the number of DVDs I'm supposed to mail go up and down. This morning it's at 19. However I currently have 14 Peerbux and no desired movies coming to me so I'll not mail any more until my Peerbux count drops to under 3. Why reduce the size of my collection if I cannot get any movies I want. Unfortunately that means there are 19 disapoointed people out there that aren't getting my movies either.

I didn't ever see the system as a replacement for Netflix and now less so. If I want to watch a movie this Saturday evening I will always go to Netflix since I know it will be delivered. I now realize that Peerflix is even less likely to work as a real trading system, but hopefully will, over time, improve the quality of my collection.

- Mark