Right now when people invite me to volunteer at a project I mostly tell them I would like to help out but I’m not sure how much I can actually help due work. Most people tell me that’s fine and they add me anyway.
Today I had to work from 9AM to 4PM with only 20 minutes break in between. Got home at 4:30PM and found out the episode for a project I manage was already up so I started segging right away and notify the seggers, answer some messages etc. I segged 2 parts today and had dinner in between and now I can finally sit down, relax and watch some Kdrama while keeping an eye on the project I manage.
That’s also a problem with Viki for a while now: The uploading times… Sometimes an episode is already up at 4PM and then it’s still not up at 9PM. Back in the day it was easier to predict when something was up. So you can’t always work on something when you have time because it’s not up yet… and by the time it’s up and ready to be worked on you have other things to do/time for bed etc.
Knowing that the subbers are volunteers that get very little for their effort, I would never dream of complaining. (Thank you subbers!)
I would however suggest that you complain to Viki - I read that they don’t have any paid subbers and they really should have paid staff on hand for this.
ask them beforehand to communicate if something happens
what you wrote, put them on the list of people you don’t call again.
Of course the situation with Korean-English subbers is particular. They are so precious and indispensable and not nearly enough of them - let alone the good ones - , so one walks on eggshells with them. Have you seen how Spanish mods treat their subbers, who are there by the dozens? If they commit to take one part, they have to finish it in 1,5 hour. They have the luxury to do that because there are great numbers to choose from.
Really? Never knew that. But yes it’s crazy for the popular languages. I still get messages from people who want to sub in the popular languages for projects that have been finished years ago but sometimes have a teaser or preview clip not fully subbed so they show up in the finder. Asked Viki many times to remove my completed projects from the finder but that’s not possible. So instead I just ignore them because they can see for themselves that it’s subbed already so their help isn’t needed anymore.
This is something Viki itself can DEFINITELY work on. Upload is the start of the subbing process. And if the start is unstable, you can’t really plan your life and Viki work well. If Viki pays so dearly all these licences, the least that they should be guaranteed is the timely access to videos.
And if inconveniencing volunteers with drastic differences in upload times from one week to the next are not important enough, Viki should consider that down the line this affects the viewers, who instead of getting an episode finished that day/evening, they get it only the next day.
The most unpredictable are the Kocowa shows. Because the Kocowa people want to be the first ones to upload them on their own site, so there is a greater delay after airing time in getting them here on Viki.
Yesterday I could have used a break but the ep was already up at 4:30PM when I got home. Now it’s 5PM and no ep to seg yet so I wasted 30 minutes already with reloading…
I feel like I don’t have the right to post a Bugs and Issues ticket on the other community pages, because I don’t know all the ins and outs of this problem. But if somebody does, and has little time to write it up over there, I’d be happy to support it.
@chemellelott
So, my final report on that channel. I tried contacting 2 people from the channel, did not get any reply.
I did, what I normally don’t do after such a short time, I contacted Viki.
I got a response from there right away, but I can’t tell you which way worked. However, subtitles are in progress again. Hope they will be done in a timely manner now, since the last episode is uploaded.
If you ever experience something like this again, there is a form to send.
If you post it on the comment page of the channel, you might find enough people, who will join in and might get Viki*s attention https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1X_nZa_aL8eJhvLLBLjBy97dLdhAXoDDo95PeLXC0d1o/viewform?edit_requested=true
But I surely hope that it won’t be used where people are still working, and even reporting to viewers.
@irmar-- you are absolutely right. I see a connection between upload time and whether or not the drama is at Kocowa. Viki apparrently can’t upload the raw until Kocowa uploads fully subbed episodes so then we get complaints about our slow subbing because we start six or more hours later than Kocowa subbers.
I think this form is an excellent mean of derailing sometimes hysterical mob anger from the volunteers. They fill the form, feel themselves useful and avenged in a way. And the volunteers can actually do their job.
And I’m not sure if any Viki staff reads each one of these these filled out forms. But I hope it goes through an automatic system and somebody every week checks the stats.
I’m glad I’m not on the Last Empress team. I once saw it wasn’t even up at 9:30PM and I have this rule for myself that I don’t seg that late as I’m less focussed by that time and others are off to bed and I hate using headphones.
@lutra thank you for your help. I appreciate you going beyond to look into this matter.You answered my question and fixed the problem. Again, I appreciate all the hard work subbers and seggers do. I just think past a certain point of waiting it becomes ridiculous. Like I said, I did wait 3 WEEKS, and just wanted to know how I could help move the process along. I’m sure everyone gets upset when people watching start complaining after the 1st day. I understand. But again, thank you so much.
