So, there is an option with threads, depending on how I want to follow them, of getting notifications in my actual personal email inbox that someone has replied to a reply I have made . . . or hearted it . . . or invited me to join a particular thread set up by a particular person with a particular status who can think of silly things to do to waste time across countless time zones.
In the email notification, there is always a link that says, “Reply to Topic.”
I click on “Reply to Topic” and, if I have not logged off the discussion board, then I end up at a place in the discussion which is essentially going on at the time somebody else in the thread said, “Oh, time to check in and make sure I don’t lose my ‘Regular’ status [or whatever status has been painstakingly achieved].”
Otherwise, without the email notification option, I have to constantly check in with Viki to look through every frickin thread I am part of and scroll and scroll and scroll up and down and sideways and discover that I have been out of the loop for a day, five hours, who knows what.
It’s the logging in and out of Viki itself that makes communicating by any kind of messaging process a mess.
I don’t normally leave my desktop or my Microsoft Surface Pro on if I am going to sleep or going out of the house. Electricity isn’t free.
So, if I shut down my computer, of course I automatically get logged out of Viki. In order to access my personal watch lists, I have to log on again.
When I do that, then if I am doing something with pre-subs, I see a little red dot next to my avatar that means, “You got a message from the CM, click on me and see what’s going on (but don’t forget to refresh your browser window to see if there is new information you need to check out, but also don’t get confused about which email you are supposed to be responding to, and don’t send a message to the wrong @name in the process.”
And if I want to have a personal conversation on a discussion board with anyone, I have to log on to the discussion board, and then if I want to either get back to watching a video . . . or interacting with subbers on a project . . . I have to either open up a new window and continue watching, or I have to log out of the discussion board entirely, which logs me out of everything, including subbing work.
So, if I just open lots of windows on my device of choice (which does not include my phone) and keep them all open, and jump back and forth, I can communicate via messaging systems which all have little “zipping envelope icons” that I can click on to send a message which functions in some way like an email . . . but it’s not.
The actual IT hardware that Viki uses to send information across the Internet is undoubtedly somewhat out of date all the time (the servers, the computers in offices, the mainframe computers, and so forth) and never entirely replaced all at once . . . because THAT would require some significant bucks.
However, if Viki is TRULY trying in some fashion to compensate volunteers for the giant super cargo ships full of time and effort they put into their work, and if badges indicate some level of trust between Viki and subbers/segmenters . . .
Or some level of competence in doing certain tasks . . .
And if the email badge says to the Viki community that THIS person has been recognized and rewarded in some special way for mastering virtual communication both inside and outside the Viki-verse . . .
Then WHY doesn’t one of Viki’s IT guys deign to interact with volunteers who need to communicate across multiple time zones in a hurry so that the messaging system (that VIKI put together out of Discus bits and pieces) actually works without causing people to lose their minds JUST simply trying to keep in touch?
Rakuten bought Viki to provide an income stream and to help it get a foothold in the United States where Asian-drama lovers of all kinds are soaking the goodness up like some food-inhaling Pokémon.
I hate to be the whiny, penny-pinching Ahjumma again, but how much could it cost Viki to have an IT guy have a Zoom meeting with senior volunteers and then go back to his cluttered office and figure out how to make communicating, especially about ultra-time-sensitive subbing work, NOT make people pull their hair out?
It’s a case of, “Viki, honey, help us help you.”
The email badge is, without some meaningful context and meaningful support, truly a stupid, useless virtual decoration that means nothing and proves nothing.
Grump.
(from the Sonic Pokémon Wiki)
kicks off, and is linked to getting the silver, 
and the gold 
🪙
