Channel Manager Qualifications

Contributing
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I know I’m about to poke a beehive, but at this point… DON’T CARE!

Y’all, I’m absolutely frustrated. It’s been over 2 years since I last was a Channel Manager. I, almost monthly, request about 10 different dramas/movies to manage. And every month, NOTHING!

Two years ago, my last CM job, I didn’t even get it normally like most volunteers do. Because of my experience in all aspects of Viki, I was personally asked to take that particular drama because it was a “test kitchen” for something they were trying to do. Of course, I was going to take it. Since, before that drama, it was almost again another 2 years that I had a CM job. AND that one I didn’t get normally, as well, because of some technical glitch, the CM who was chosen had felt bad that she had gotten it and gave it to me. So… I’ve not got a CM job in over 4 years, chosen normally like everyone else.

I want to know why I am constantly overlooked. Really. Somebody point me in the right direction. I’ve written Viki and got an auto-response, no human has spoken to me. I wrote to Viki staff and I’m completely ignored. Really. No response. Crickets.

When I volunteer, it’s the same managers I normally work with. Nothing against them, I love all of them dearly! But some of them have at least 2-3 Channel Manager jobs. Concurrently. How do some get more than one CM job at the same time, and I get 0???

I’m CM of two defunct reality shows. Running Man (don’t even know why I’m even CM of this since it’s run by Viki, it’s ENGLISH ONLY, I’m in name only) and Pops In Seoul (no longer gets new videos and pretty much a desert wasteland, and I was added as help to the channel, not really mine)

I’m at this point wondering why I even try to CM a channel when Viki blatantly ignores me.

Sorry for the rant, just completely frustrated.

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2

I know that we discussed this issue both here on Discussions and Dis-cord and couldn’t get to any logical reasoning. The final conclusions were:

  • the choice of CM needs to be more transparent
  • the rules of choosing one need to be clear - it will help those who aspire to become CMs build up their credentials
  • the process needs to be somewhat quantifiable and hence logical
  • because of so many candidates available, Viki should by all means avoid giving two or more projects to one person at the same time (concurrent projects)
  • gold QCs, who have never been a CM, should get the chance to become one at least once.
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3

That’s puzzling indeed!
Especially nowadays, when everyone and their aunt get one or more CM positions.

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4

I think they give preference to new members and/or they take into account the number of times you’ve been a CM.
By doing so, older members will never have the chance to become a CM again. :pensive:

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I’m not going to name names, but there is one person who has 4 CM (one is co-CM) RIGHT NOW! This person is newer but not a newbie. And most of the people that I’m seeing aren’t new. If I’m considered 1st Gen, then they are 2nd or 3rd Gen.

I would think that as many dramas as Viki has, I would AT LEAST get one a year.

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I don’t get it either… I did apply for CM quite a few times but I haven’t got any after I got back on Viki after long break early last year. Maybe because they know I hate A&C? Who knows… I just know that the ones I apply for seem popular but sometimes I apply when the count isn’t that high yet.

Most of the time it goes to someone I never heard off but maybe that’s because I’m not so active with volunteering because I don’t like A&C.

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Absolutely no hate for the chosen CM’s, but Viki chooses so many times the same people in the short term and the “other” people stand no change. Like you said. :heart:

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I so feel you, I got two movies and after that nothing. Desert. I feel as if I did something bad while managing my channel, because no matter what gender and country I choose, I’m not picked. IF in their eyes I did something incorrect, they should guide me. Teach me. And not go silent. I apply for small, big dramas, movies, web dramas, and still nothing.

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Hello! I hope you are well.

I know exactly how you feel, it’s the same with language moderators, even with subtitlers and editors, this is a problem that occurs in all volunteer areas, but you’re right, they should investigate well and choose wisely the CMs.

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And that is rare to see teams in movies, without lying I have only worked as a sub in one movie, it seems unfair that they don’t give opportunities and more with the jobs I’ve seen everyone doing here.

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I totally agree with you. I am leaving Viki after finishing my last project because of what has happened in the last two years. There is only a certain inner circle that matters on Viki. They get everything. It doesn’t matter that they have several projects currently running. Plus, they don’t follow the moderator rule of five, they get projects by abusing CM positions. And even the moderator positions are reserved for “buddies”, you can’t even apply for those projects, because on the day of the CM election, CM closes the application for those “buddies” in that language.

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Totally understand your frustration. We after all don’t expect much, just equal treating. I mailed to viki, and told them about my doubts and whole situation. The reply was like move on, we know, we will not change a thing. So I told them to take away the button to apply, and give cm to who they want, because still how It’s possible to choose same people from like 60 apply. Let’s split it to 30, because lets say they don’t fit, still its 30 people, and still same old are picked. It’s like close circle. And by responding ‘‘we took previous cm in consideration’’ it’s laughable, since they are the one who give cm, if they don’t pick you, you’re in lost position, and if you are ignored, you basically don’t have a chance. That’s sad, because of that, many big account that I know go suspend their work because they have enough of it.

Ps: tho I waited for my reply for a month. A freaking Month.

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I’m subbing on Viki since 2019 and never got to be a CM, not even for a movie, not even for a finished drama without CM (first CM deleted their account). But I see sometimes people who are on Viki for 3 months, and they get some. I stopped trying. There are only 3 dramas I want to see on Viki. If they land here, great - I would gladly volunteer to sub them into my language and one last time apply for CM position. If not, goodbye Viki.

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In Portuguese teams are the same…some people are with 5 dramas (full slot) as moderator and it’s hard for me to get one!! And some CMs only choose the same person for all their dramas… my friend says that it looks like sometimes we have to humiliate ourselves to get 1 moderation. I also tried to be CM and I didn’t get it even when I’m the first candidate on the channel. It’s so unfair, so I agree that Viki needs to review this way of choosing CMs.

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I forgot to mention that it is becoming more and more common to have someone who can barely speak English as CM…
I’m not a perfect English speaker either, I don’t have a language exam, but at least I try to write a meaningful sentence.
I feel sorry for those who stay here, because if there is no change, they will have nothing but what that particular inner circle does not want. And what is Viki going to achieve? Poor quality, lousy subtitles… Although, the way I see it, Viki isn’t really looking for change…

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If one of the best Viki volunteers is frustrated about not being chosen as a CM and has more contributions, imagine me, a newbie. This is very humiliating. Just this month, I tried for about 20 projects, and here’s the worst part: since I can’t be a CM, I’ll try to moderate, which is even worse. In the end, I either become a subber or an editor, since the projects are coming with subtitles. I asked what the requirements are to become a CM and got no response. Speaking for myself, I do work on Viki as if I were being paid for it, meaning with quality. Some people don’t take it so seriously and do the work haphazardly. It’s frustrating to see the same people being CMs or moderators. I took advantage of Kakashi’s post because I’ve wanted to say this for a while and didn’t know where to express it.

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I was rejected in several projects, the bigger the community the worse the issue of language moderator selection becomes.

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Over the 3 years of contributing on Viki I’ve been CM 6 times (3 movies, 3 dramas) and I’m quite content with that number.
It’s sad that in the same time some people don’t even get a single project to manage.

When it comes to OL moderators, I’m not too well informed about the inner circles and such. I think Polish is such a small community that we rarely have to desperately fight for projects, or maybe I’m just working on the more unpopular ones.
However I recently saw some projects where people got appointed as editors instead of moderators and I was wondering, why Viki allows it. I also saw “speed appointing”: the people got appointed immediately after someone got chosen as a CM.

When I get the CM position, I like to take into consideration the amount of current moderations. I feel like it’s better to distribute the work and give someone with 1 project the moderation rather then someone with 4 moderation, each with 20 episodes. Of course the other factors such as experience and how much do I trust this person come into play.
(There are some people, that I would trust more. For example there were some typos in a drama I was translating and I wanted to check, how it translated to other languages: some also made those mistakes, but some editors corrected them and I really admired them for that)

As for applying recently: I don’t want to minimise your struggles, but recently there were a lot of dramas/movies that are coming in English only, so your application might not have been rejected, they might just be hanging until the rights to subtitle arrive.
So if you applied to 10 projects, 7 might be hanging and only 3 were rejected

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I haven’t gotten a CM position for 8 months now. Is it, because the Portuguese subtitles aren’t done yet? Is it, because the projects took some months to get finished in the conservative way? We won’t know, but I guess we can agree that there’s a difference in terms of speed regarding dramas released to OL after editing and those which are released immediately after segmenting.

In general, I think some CM behaviors are not up-to-date either. E.g., choosing moderators by taking the first applicant. Given the width range of contributors, it happens to be in the middle of the night or early morning sometimes. So not even being able to apply just because someone is up at 6am… :smiling_face_with_tear:
Just like Viki should of course check a CM whose decisions allowed some drama not be segmented after a mere 9 months. Seems like they don’t care. In fact, I have no idea what they even care about.

It’s certainly not the chosen people’s fault that Viki (or rather people in charge) appoints them frequently, but it can disturb the balance to some extent. Even if we may benefit from Viki’s decisions, I do think that Viki needs more appropriate evaluations. And at the same time they should provide more concrete guidance on how they want their channels managed.

Regarding dramas with various seasons, those sometimes drop without expecting them. But each of these require a slot. In theory, you can appoint different moderators, but I can understand why it’s more likely to choose the former moderator for a new season (if there’s some connection). But this may lead to people reporting CMs because the former moderator has no free slots currently.

Regarding being selected as a moderator, I can only recommend to work on the application content and maybe on the “About me” page as well. This won’t necessarily lead to a project, but I think a majority of CMs wants to know why you want to moderate this project and why you’re qualified.
But… even if it’s very difficult, CMs should as well watch out for doubtful applications. Some people may have various accounts or use someone else to help them expand their slots. Sometimes this can be detected.

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I really understand you. I go through that too. Sometimes it’s even frustrating to see people with less experience even in moderation being chosen for CM. I have experience and I’m active in Viki since 2016, I have never been able to be CM.

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