What is the difference between the moderator and the subtitler? Currently I am a QC. Can I become a language moderator? How does the moderator on Viki work?
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Hello,
You can read this guide (and other guides like the Subtitling Guide on the nssacademy website are really well explained too if you want to check them out):
http://nssacademy.weebly.com/channel-roles-guide.html
Summary, Third chapter “Moderators”, paragraph B. "Other language moderators"
In short: “He’s a team leader who has extensive knowledge in his language and in English and in subtitling, who recruits subtitlers in his own language, who communicates not only with the English team and CM on behalf of his team but also with his team, he can fill every role (subtitler&editor), he locks the subtitles, he verifies subtitles quality (he’s an editor by default), he moderates comments (cover page&Timed Comments) and he does the cover page.”
If there’s only 1 or 2 subtitlers, no need for moderator (this is what it is written on there)
Sentences that I love:
=“Other Language Moderators are responsible for completely translating all episodes of the drama for which they are moderating.” > meaning you have to be active in the drama that you ask for moderation.
="Viki Community Guidelines state that moderators shall have written 200 subtitles on the channel for which they moderate. "
=“The moderators optimally are outgoing to be able to recruit and hold competent subtitlers, and considerate when responding to PMs or comments.”
So before asking for moderator position, just sincerely ask yourself if you can fill every mission stated on this guide. This is what I do when I’m tempted to say yes but finally, I say no because I don’t have time and I need to be realistic.
And since your language is Vietnamese, I suggest you to gain first experience among Vietnamese Moderators, I only heard about Zano_v https://www.viki.com/users/zano_v/about and Icedthy https://www.viki.com/users/icedthy/about for Vietnamese language so maybe try to contact them to work with both of them to see what it looks like, ask them tips. And then when you are ready to be a moderator, just enroll 
Good luck!
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I think the most important role of a moderator for any language is to get the job done. Meaning, to finish subtitling the entire project.
Moderator is supposed to:
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recruit subtitlers into the project (fat chance if your language is spoken by a few million people only),
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oversee the subtitlers’ work - be responsible for the quality of the subtitles by (usually quite extensive) editing of subtitlers’ translations.
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Do subtitling if no other subtitler volunteered to work on the project.
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Moderate and flag all the inappropriate comments both in the live comments section, as well as in the Disqus comments on the page below the video.
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Communicate with English editor should you and your team members find it hard to understand the English subtitle, or if you believe there is a mistake in the English translation or generally in subtitle’s syntax (including those pesky dialogue dashes (-) and italics and names and so on…)
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If working on an ongoing project, make sure your team members do NOT translate an episode until it has been fully segmented, translated to English and edited.
I think there should be a moderator for every language, even if it’s only just you. Reasons? Sometimes you get “late volunteers”, beginners who want to get started. So you are there to explain stuff and help them out. Sometimes you get those imbeciles who jump into your project and do mayhem (Evil Google Translators, the Dot-Dot-Dot tribe and so on). Basically, your job is to stay on guard.
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If you are a QC and have already been officially in 4 teams, technically you can. Whether you should is a different question. It’s something that you should decide after reading the following, and see if you want to take the plunge right now or wait to gain some more experience.
First of all, let me copy the basic Help Center’s description.
[QUOTE] Each show or movie has its own landing page and community called a Channel. Moderators of a Channel are each appointed for a specific language and are responsible for taking care of subtitling in their language by recruiting and managing subtitlers, editing, and overseeing the quality of subtitles in their language. Moderators also help and support the Channel Manager(s).
Moderators (and Channel Managers) do the following:
Adding a translation of the Channel Description and Channel Title in their language
Editing the Community Wall/Cover Page design in their language
Locking/unlocking subtitles in each language
Moderating Timed Comments
To become a Moderator:
Contact the Channel Manager for the Channel you’d like to be a Moderator of. [/QUOTE]
OK? Those are the basics. But let me share my own views/experience.
Asking a Channel Manager is not difficult. Your language is Vietnamese, right? So most Channel Managers who don’t understand Vietnamese cannot know whether you’re good or not, and will most likely give you the job if you’re the first to ask. This is an unfortunate thing, generally, because sometimes jobs are given to people who are not good, but it can’t be helped. If they do know a Vietnamese moderator whom they trust (and who declined the offer for that series), they may ask him/her to have a look at your subtitles and tell their opinion of it.
So what are the Moderator’s prerequisites?
Compared to a subtitler, the Moderator has to devote much more time, has to possess more skills - including people skills, organizing skills and also -optionally- some html skills. Most of all, she is the one who has the ultimate responsibility for everything. As a translator, if you really cannot find a good way to express a word or sentence, you give up and leave it blank, thinking “the moderator and editor will take care of it”. If you’re the moderator, you’re the one who has to take care of it, there’s no other person higher up to turn to.
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You have to translate the Channel page and make a nice cover page for your language (most of the time this includes pictures, so Photoshop skills and html skills are nice to have), which you have to update every time a new episode is ready in your language, so that visitors can have updated information.
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Finding a good team is not so easy as it seems. They have to be good, so you have to go to each one’s profile and to look at several pages of translations to see how good they are. Most of the shows they have translated will not be open, so you won’t be able to see the English source, just the translation, and this makes it difficult to judge sometimes. Then they have to be reliable. You don’t want a person who has accepted too many jobs and then doesn’t have the time to complete yours, or is always late. This is especially true if it’s an on-air drama. If you put an “ad” here in Discussions and some of the people who reply are not good, you have to be able to write a refusal letter in a polite and considerate, constructive manner.
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The Moderator does not necessarily need to subtitle, if the team is big enough, but often it is needed. Every time an episode is released, the Channel Manager sends a message to Moderators and Moderators send a message to all their translating team. You assign parts (if you work that way) and give a deadline. If people don’t do what they are supposed to, then you have to fill in and complete the episode yourself.
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Then the editing. If you’re not sure about your language skills, perfect grammar and attention to punctuation etc., it’s irresponsible to become editor. If you think you’re good, then we’re all right. If not, an editor is indispensable. And, if you’re not that good yourself, how can you know who is a good editor?
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The interaction with your team. You have to keep them on their toes, encouraging them to complete in a good and timely manner, but you also have to find the right way to express dissatisfaction: for instance if they didn’t take the trouble to read again what they did and leave lots of typos or formatting mistakes, or if they disappeared without warning for days and so on. Here you need a courteous manner, a lot of diplomacy but also firmness. It’s one of the most difficult parts, I’m telling you.
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Then you have to have a good working relationship with the English team. For many moderators this is not an issue, and it’s surely an optional, but I make it a point to take part in Team Discussion, ask questions and so on. Many moderators, when they see something they don’t understand they just skip it or translate in any random way, because either they’re too lazy or because they feel shy to ask. But by asking you learn many things, and your translation will be much better. And sometimes you form friendships as well, with people you find are on the same wavelength.
These are a few thoughts about the matter. Then the decision is yours. Good luck!
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@irmar, I don’t think this is really a must. Translating the description of the show in your language, yes. The cover page thing, not a necessity.
Amen to that!
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Sometimes when I’m lazy I just copy the English cover page images and add text in my language. That’s why I said “Photoshop skills and html skills are nice to have” - nice, not essential, as you rightly say.
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some English cover pages are so beautiful and captivating, I would feel terrible to put a simple cover page for my language, my photoshop skills are limited so when to change or not to change that is the question, but I could try to find a designer…
updates: I just went through few on air dramas and not all cv are in my language, even one “about” isn’t there…
if the cv is changed it’s through a designer… one needs to find… for the non-English speaking community, it def. makes sense to make a page in their respective language.
Chà o bạn! Nếu mà bạn muốn là m moderator cho lần đầu tiên, bạn có muốn là m moderator cho phim nà y với tôi không? Tôi sẽ giúp bạn là m moderator. Cũng dễ lắm, cũng không có gì khó hết. Nếu mà bạn muốn là m thì tôi sẽ cho chị irmar biết. 
Phim: https://www.viki.com/tv/29729c-unexpected-life-drama-specials
P.S. Bạn mấy tuổi váşy? Tại vì tĂ´i khĂ´ng biáşżt tĂ´i lĂ em hay chị.
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This thread has some useful info which shouldn’t be buried.
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I have a question. Sometimes I see “Moderator” status with no language attached. What does that mean?
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It means they are an All Lanuages moderator. This is usually given to the English Chief Editor and the Chief Segmenter.
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