There have been MANY dramas on Viki that have been restricted to North America and/or other continents/countries that have team members who can’t even work on the drama they volunteered for. QC access is also denied.
There lies our problem. The subber/segmenter is restricted by continent/country and they are restricted by their QC qualification. But they are a part of that drama’s team.
Is there anyway, if this were too happen, to allow a TEAM ONLY exception? This would allow subbers and segmenters who volunteered to do their job. Subbers are hard to come by, especially Kdramas and Chdramas, because they are so sparse and thin. For example: If N. America is blocked, QCs are blocked, then we have a very limited amount of people do the English subbing job. And most of you know that other languages depend on the English subtitles.
Fool’s Love and Nodame, for instance, reduced our subbing team to just 2-3 people if we were lucky. Subbing time increased by days and/or weeks. Stress was put on those subbers who were able to access a drama who depended on them. (Now Goblin has been added to this problem)
Wouldn’t a TEAM ONLY license allow us to move to another level at Viki?
This would eliminate the stress on an already formed team from having to scramble to find members in the licensed regions and from not losing the valuable members they already have who are willing to sub it in a timely manner and WANT to sub it in the first place.
This is just a crazy idea that popped in my head now that Goblin has arrived and this team is scrambling for English subbers. Only a few live outside the restricted area.
I wish there could be an exception or some type of license for just, the team. Most subbers here are from the Americas. As a viewer most of us haven’t been able to watch some drama for some licensing reason. But viki is about volunteers doing the work and completing the dramas. Managers work hard getting their teams together and then the license restricts 95% of them. It’s also not fair to the licensed area who viewers have to wait much longer to get the subtitles. They are use to faster subtitles, and may not understand how the license restricts us. If viki is aware that most of the English contributors come from the states or Canada and it’s a volunteer community there should be an exception for the team.
Sometimes Viki grands temporary QC status for team members so they can work on a project, I know they did for 2 Kdrama recently (not sure if they should be mentioned so I won’t). But then there is always a risk that people simply want to join a team so they can watch it. So I think there should be some sort of screening.
I think in this case it’s a bit different as it’s not a QC thing but regional restriction. I think they also should think of a way to grand acces to team members when QC access is restricted. But if the content owner doesn’t want it no matter what Viki can’t do anything. There are already limited Korean - English (most likely for Japanese and Chinese too?) subbers so if a bunch of them are blocked from working on a project due region restriction there is a problem.
I totally agree that vetting or screening is necessary for team members after the drama is licensed. After being on viki forever, most of us know who are trustworthy and have fluency.
I understand the licenses, but it does hurt the teams and the viewers who sometimes have to wait
much longer for the subs. Goblin is just starting, so hopefully we’ll get some more subbers to help.
I do wish at the very least that maybe some of the more experienced and reliable subbers could come on, when QC is not allowed.
The only way I know is by using VPN software that masks your computer’s IP to pretend you are connecting from one of the licensed regions, and I refuse to do that. I don’t know if it’s illegal or not, but it is unethical at the least. I will not install something and change my IP in order to provide free service to Viki.
Plus pay for it. Pay for doing something for free doesn’t make much sense, does it?
And I’ve been told by some people that having to go through another server makes the connection - and streaming - slower. Other people say that it doesn’t, so I’m not too sure about that, maybe it depends.
Practically speaking, as a QC based in Europe, there are very few dramas that I cannot see due to regional restrictions. There are some, though, most notably Nodame Cantabile which I wanted to watch (and many Indian films)
If anyone is motivated to join a team and help in whatever way, let alone have the fluency and the time to do so, I think Viki should do all it can to facilitate that volunteer. Even if that volunteer is motivated only because s/he wants to watch a drama. Aren’t we all ‘motivated’ in one way or another because of our love for dramas, among other reasons?
@jadecloud88 If they want to really help out fine but as a CM you don’t want half of your team to just be on there ‘for show’. Nothing is so frustrating then directing people to their language mod and that mod isn’t active anymore. One of my projects as a CM was a project where Viki granted temporary QC status for the ones who where not a QC yet. Some just bluntly PMed me “Please add me to the team so I can watch”. They where not interested in helping out at all. For that reason I also didn’t promote Viki granted temporary QC status for the project. Sometimes I filled in the form so someone was granted temporary QC status but for others who simply wanted to watch and not help out I said they should work on other drama to gain QC status.
Maybe that’s mean but as a CM you need active people, not people who are just on for show.
This is where my idea comes to play. Many are not willing to use VPN software (afraid of legality and because of ethical reasons). If QCs are restricted, then the team becomes a ghost town. Having a Team Only access would keep thousands from illegally watching (QCs) but will keep it to just a mere 10-20 players on the team (besides the countries that are legally licensed).
to me it looks like another way to weaken viki’s access to volunteerism since majority of subbers kor and chin are in US, I’d bet the competitive site knows this, isn’t that well thought?
I agree that at least these subbers should be allowed to have access but that would likely require another viki programing and the willingness of the content providers…
How about we stop work to show why they shouldn’t get bad licenses that do not cover the Americas. If they don’t want us to use vpns (there is no other way to work) then they should spend the money to get the Americas (where all the kor-eng subbers minus like 7 europeans) live.
I almost feel like we should refuse to do work to prove what an idiotic decision it was.
I don’t think it is Viki’s fault. DF bought the exclusive American license. At least they got the license for the European fans (Why not middle east too?).
re: Temporary QC access. For newbies who are not QC’s, I gave them an auction and if they applied a few weeks before the drama they wanted to work on started, I told them if they did several hundred subs before the drama started, I would ask the viki staff to designate them as tempoary QCs. That was very effective in finding people who were truly going to sub on the drama.