This is yet another very interesting thread! I read all the posts and there were many interesting points made. It was in fact very surprising to read that some volunteers with great history and contributions aren’t being chosen as CMs often or at all. I wanted to say a few things about my rather good experience regarding being a CM.
I’m not a long time volunteer nor a newbie. I’ve been around for 3 years now, starting as a viewer, then becoming a subtitler, a moderator, an editor of a “small” language community and, at some point a CM. I got my first CM assignment in April 2022, for a K-drama (I only work on K-dramas by the way), not very high profile, with 8 episodes. Until then, I had applied quite a few times, not because I wanted to be a CM that badly at that time, but as it happens sometimes, because I wanted to moderate the drama in my language. When I got my first CM project, I thought it was a good one, because it only had 8 episodes and it would be easier for me to do it and learn at the same time. I won’t mention how difficult it was for me to select the moderators!
After that, I stopped applying for CM if I wasn’t sure I wanted to do it, because I didn’t want to get appointed as CM for a drama I only wanted to moderate. Since then, I have been appointed CM three more times, and the dramas were from those considered anticipated, never of course at the same time. I wouldn’t apply for two dramas anyway. In total, 4 K-dramas in about 1,5 year. I find it a fair and satisfying number.
I can’t tell you why I was selected, like some of you can’t tell why you weren’t. I often wonder how come someone from a very small community was chosen for some “high profile” dramas. What I can tell you is that I didn’t encounter any problems with my cooperation either with viki staff or any of the moderators, editors in those dramas.
Regarding what was mentioned about the selection of moderators, that is a nightmarily difficult process, in which I pay great attention. It is after all the CMs basic task and responsibility. In those 4 dramas, most of the OL mods were different each time, but there are a few that I’ve worked with more than once. Sometimes it was a matter of good collaboration and trust and sometimes it was just a lucky pick or a matter of who applied first (rarely). So, yes, sometimes it does play a role if you have worked with someone before, but other times I don’t pick a mod because I have worked with them before and I need to give an opportunity to someone else. And there are the cases of some applicants being rude or even aggressive and I’ll definitely think twice before working with them on another drama.
So, I guess for me at least, there is no pattern, no black and white, when I select moderators. Maybe that’s the case for those selecting CMs too. I just try to be as fair as possible in a process that can never be 100% fair anyway. And I’m sure I’ve disappointed or angered some people along the way, just as I’ve given satisfaction or joy to others.
Thank you for reading this long - again - post 
Just wanted to share the other side of the coin.
Being too slow is an issue - just like bad subtitles are an issue. The pressure to speed up editing by letting one person do everything is a risk. No matter if they are fluent in both languages, there’ll be still mistakes. Even more, if they don’t or don’t really know the source language. Even if we didn’t get any of the hilarious mango subtitles lately, there are quite misleading or completely false subtitles out there that won’t be necessarily noticed. Therefore, I think first release after segmenting is okay. But we probably don’t have enough of an editing culture to pull that off in the necessary way. However, most solutions will end up having some flaws.
Some people never get any Kdramas at all, no matter what they apply for. In fact, managing a Kdrama can be rather nice. Two episodes per week are mostly set, all the languages love to participate and everyone prioritizes them as well. It’s usually over after 2-3 months.
For Viki, it might be easier to pick small languages since it’s unlikely that there’ll be complaints. Imagine you assign three highly anticipated Kdramas in a row to someone from the Spanish community.
The issue here is that problems are mainly noticed by said language community, unless you receive a bunch of weird applications or 7 applications within a few minutes from some smaller language. Otherwise, it’s difficult to determine things and imagine someone does complain about your choice. You’d wonder if the complaint is reasonable (however, most people might first assume they’re unhappy about not being chosen - and then some kind of complaints are not really the CM’s concern. E.g., if someone tells you they don’t prepare the episodes well or if they have high demands and very short deadlines). Most people wouldn’t even complain if there was a good reason, since they fear to be seen negatively by the CM (unless they didn’t apply at all). Next time, they might not even have a chance if they complain once. Since Viki does not really care about reports, some people try to exploit things. It’s frustrating, but most people do seem to think nothing can be done about it. 
That’s more work for OL and makes English editors lose interest.
This is not about speed but about the problem with having team members who volunteer on a drama and not showing up. If we have 3 TEs and 3 GEs, you’d think that we’d have 3 episodes a week, when that isn’t so in many cases. A channel manager needs to step up and do the “managerial” role they volunteered for. The editing positions problem was just an example I was using.
I understand that nobody wants to be the “bad” guy but when you volunteer for the LEAD position, you have to be the bad guy sometimes to make the process work.
For a while I wondered if ‘they’ thought I did a bad job the one time I managed to become a CM because I never got it again. 
given all these similar replies I guess they have no idea I exist at all 
Currently, people do not even try to recruit any TE or GE for many dramas because they worry about the releases being delayed. This results in CEs messaging people for help because they can’t fill blank segments or translate a song without copying from YT after all unless they know the source language. Certainly, it’s your duty as a CM to make some unpopular decisions if necessary, but usually OL moderators have to pressure CMs for months or a year to see any changes. Like that drama where someone thought it’s a good idea to work on Season 2 only after Season 1. It’s been at least 10-11 months now, and Season 2 has not even been segmented. Reports to Viki resulted in nothing. There are still some of these projects. However, they became less nowadays.
English editing lacks new (and reliable) people, there are only few CEs too who are willing to take them under their wings as well. Very few people put their everything into Viki to even keep this running. The issue is that some don’t know their limits. In fact, it’s not that simple, either. When people ask you to help them, and you reject them, you may know that there is no alternative in some cases after Viki’s changes in procedures chased away translators that might be in a position to do translation editing as well.
I don’t think English editing is just for OL translation. In many cases, presubs are all right. The last step isn’t always needed to deliver a proper translation. I won’t deny that some people may have a rather lazy attitude toward translations and just write what’s said there, but in fact we can expect an OL moderator to think about a project as well.
Have not taken part in this discussion, because I am not involved in the process of getting a CM position - I had one for a movie, it kind of was a gift, and it was back in the days, a nice experience and I wanted to keep it at that.
Found this in the Help Center it gives answers and then again not really.
“Based on, but not limited to…” is not my idea of transparency.
As always, it’s not that clear-cut. I am in the English team of Tree With Deep Roots, we are looking for a T.E. which is absolutely essential, because there are lots of things to change, and we’ve had not one but two (and they were two of the very best and experienced in sageuks) who suddenly disappeared on us. The CE and I have been begging right and left, but nobody wants an old drama which few people will follow, they like the excitement of new ones. And there’s another thing, now that new ones come already subbed and often Viki commands not to put a TE “because we’ve already done it”, Ko-En subbers and TE are leaving Viki faster than the melted glacier water from the North Pole, so there’s fewer and fewer available. In this case, the English team has their hands tied. Our CE does know good Korean, but doing TE on a sageuk is a different matter altogether. Only think that the previous two TE made about 50 changes per part! And this was AFTER I had gone through once to take care of the basics like spelling,syntax, formatting, name romanization and job title continuity (I did that so that they wouldn’t have too much to do and could work more quickly)
Now this is taking up one of my slots for months now, I don’t want to abandon it because I love this drama, and I want to complete it, but there’s nothing I can do.
“Applicants must be active within the community 24-hours up until 7 days from their application to be considered.”
What does it even mean?
My thought exactly, and I honestly don’t understand 
Does anyone know what it means?
[Edit] Does it mean you need to be active for 7 days after your application? But then what’s with the 24 hours thing?
Become a zombie, LOL, no need for sleep, nutrition, pay.*
(*officially marked as irony)
If you need help on TWDR, I’d love to help. This was one of my all-time favorite dramas, and wouldn’t mind editing/watching again. 
- Previous Channel Management and/or Moderation experience is ideal.
- How well the Contributor follows and understands the Viki Community Guidelines, promoting a positive, healthy environment and collaboration on Viki.
- Applicants must be active within the community 24-hours up until 7 days from their application to be considered.
…and I’m a Gold QC.
I’m pretty sure I fit all the criteria… but nothing. NADA. ZILCH. Not even a crumb.
I would give you a big cake as I have seen you around all these years, but I don’t have a position to vote for you.
So you also do T.E.? And have experience in sageuk terms? You know that I had no idea?
Please speak with Connie, she’s in charge. 
Additionally, all the information about the process should be in one place, and one place ONLY.
Oh, shoot! I’m not fluent, I just thought I’d help with the general since you mentioned it was taking a toll… I’m not TE superfluent by any means of the imagination. I can catch stuff but not on that level…
“Our Channel Manager selection team reviews applicants’ current un-finished channel count for managed channels and the average duration of time to release to the language teams.”
??? 
The release to OL is not related to the CM. I don’t understand.
Yes it is. A CM has the duty to check the progress of the teams and to urge them to go faster, if needed. If the CM deems the current team not fit anymore they can discuss to either add more people to help or replace the whole team. In that regard the CM is the decision maker, of course they should always try talking to the team first, but if that does not help a decision has to be made either way.