Channel Manager Abuse

General Discussion
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Hi guys,

I’ve been having difficulties with a CM lately, and that’s got me thinking about what constitutes a good or bad CM.

Is it normal for a CM to be unfamiliar the original drama language? My current CM subtitles but she’s not good at English or Chinese. Or does the job scope of a CM only include recruiting and managing the CW?

I joined the channel when half the episodes were subbed. Apparently, it’s been left uncompleted for a long time and some fans have been waiting for a year. And yet the CM is not active on the page. She’ll tell me to leave a certain episode to her, which she’ll complete when she returns to Viki in a week because of personal reasons. She disappeared for much longer and thanks to the “Recent Contributions” tab, I’ve learned that she’s been working on other projects. And to my horror, she’s been starting new fan channels and signing herself up for more licensed ones in the past few months.

As an English Moderator herself, she doesn’t even stick to the standardized terminology which is so important to Historical Chinese dramas. It confuses the other language subbers.

I must point out that minus her, I am the only active english subber on this channel. Viewers are frustrated and I don’t blame them.

I hate when viewers pull the responsibility card on us to sub faster because we’ve volunteered for a project, but shouldn’t there be some responsibility to commit to a manageable number of channels?

I can’t quite decide if what she’s doing is wrong or if I’m just making a big deal of nothing. I’ve worked with other CMs before, and this is so different from my past experiences. What do you guys think?

2 Likes
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Viki’s community guidelines don’t have super specific rules about it, so I can only present my personal opinion and what I’ve seen.

It’s not at all uncommon for the CM to be unfamiliar with the original language. Often times, they’ll be receptive to suggestions from the moderators or subbers who are familiar with the language though.

The responsibilities of a CM aren’t really standardized. There’s nothing saying a CM actually has to do any subbing. A lot of CMs do contribute to their channels by segmenting, translating, or editing, but I’ve seen some who play more of an administrative-type role as well. As long as the channel runs in the end.

I think that a CM should at least be fluent in English though, since that’s the language they’ll have to communicate with the rest of the team. But I’ve also run into CMs who are probably less than fluent, and it’s not entirely problematic. But if your CM isn’t good at English or Chinese, I hope she isn’t subbing to either of those languages…

That sounds sort of ridiculous. Most contributors I’ve come across don’t appreciate calling dibs on subbing things. It’s detrimental to the overall subbing progress anyway, so it doesn’t make sense. Have you talked to her about it, and has she given some reason for why she said that?

It’s a bit of a stretch, but that might be seen as a way of discouraging contributors, which is actually against the manager guidelines.

You’re not supposed to manage more than 3 currently airing channels (this must have been changed recently, b/c I swear it used to be 2), but that doesn’t say anything about older channels.

A CM definitely should know to only manage as many channels as they’ll really be able to help on. I know it’s really exciting submitting channels and getting them approved and all that, but managing channels is (should be) a lot of work. If it’s not, maybe you’re doing it wrong. I actually recently requested several of my pending channels to be deleted for that reason. (Major kudos to channel managers though.)

I don’t think you’re making a big deal out of it at all. It does seem sort of strange. Considering the circumstances, I’d talk to her again, but if she doesn’t have a more legitimate reason for halting the subbing, I would just go ahead and continue working on it. Even though the CM is technically the head of a channel, that doesn’t mean everything they do is “right.”

1 Like
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Thank you so much for replying! It gives me a better idea of the situation.

Even if the channels aren’t on air, they’ve long stayed uncompleted and fan channels are another matter. I think the strangest thing to me is that she’s segmenting and subtitling for other random channels, when her own managed channels are devoid of subbers and seggers. She’s even tried recruiting me for another fan channel that she’s just started. Perhaps it’s like you said about the hype of starting new channels. I guess it’s hard for Viki to come with a solution to the problem. Coming up with more rules will just make it harder for good CMs as well.

And yes, I’m doing as you’ve said. Even if I have to do it on my own, I want to complete the series for the viewers.

Thanks again for all your help! :smile:

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It’s the same thing said for a variety show I’m segmenting, all CMs are full but some inactive. I’d rather have active than someone who has to be fluent in their own language.

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Yeah. I see a lot of inactivity on variety shows. Which is a shame because they’re licensed.
But are your CMs inactive on Viki completely or are they busy on other projects?

My worry is that there are ppl starting channels for the fun of it, and then leaving it to its own devices when they’ve gotten bored of the initial inertia. The whole team basically falls apart and even the subbers and seggers drop the project. As a viewer myself, I don’t think that’s very nice.

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Theres been English mods that have been inactive completely for 2 month - 1 year seen on their recent contributions. There’s been no editors either.
Only 1 English mod sometimes update upcoming episode preview on CW and I think adding volunteers?
There’s 3 Channel Managers, 1 is busy with other projects, 2 are completely inactive.
At least segmenters and subbers can do their work still, but it’s like a 2-3 man job on 270+ episodes. Already witnessed it before, if there are not enough segmenters, the subtitlers will leave too.