Yes, I get what you’re saying, and I’m sure there are examples of both types of moderators in every language. But I also object to the first kind of moderator, the “serious and hardworking” one. Why on earth take 20 projects at once, if some of them will be of necessity put on the “back burner” waiting until their turn comes, maybe many months later? Why block them and delay them, when there could be someone else who could finish them in a timely manner. Why not take only 3-4 at once, finish those and then ask for more? What’s wrong with that?
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It’s not the CM’s fault for not giving them a chance, they just don’t bother to complete a project even when they are given a chance.
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There is nothing wrong with that. It would probably be good solution for bigger language communities but not mine. Our goal should be finishing as many projects as we can so other fans who are not very fluent in English could watch dramas on Viki.
For me it’s a choice between waiting some time for subtitles (with competent moderator) or waiting forever (with unreliable hoarder-type of moderator).
The analogy with towels is good. There ares some people who just throw them and never use. They don’t have experience and probably are not even that interested in having it. This type of behavior could discourage other potential moderators and/or subbers. A CM can always check a candidate for language moderator. If they got 20 projects in a year and finished 1, are they reliable? Why giving them another one? It’s not Spanish or Portuguese where time is of essence. Wait a little bit, at least to the day of first episode release. Maybe someone else will be interested.
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I fully agree with you about not feeding hoarder moderators. I’ve written many times about it, and I said here that when I was CM I spent days doing my research as I could, with the inadequate tools Viki gives us.
I also agree that the CM should wait for some days until people get wind of the project, to give a chance to people getting the news of the project.
But I surely don’t agree with the following:
That’s WAAAY too long. (At least? LOL!) According to what you say, the poor chosen moderator should be notified on the day the first episode airs or comes to Viki, and he has just one day to gather a team, prepare a cover page (if you’re one of the languages that have one), prepare a Google sheet with names and relevant info for the subbers?
For Good Casting, I spent two or three days researching Intelligence Services, agents and what they do, make a glossary of possibly useful terms gleaned from many different websites. For instance what’s a black agent and white agent, and how to say that in my language (those terms do not exist in Italian. For the black one I used undercover which is two words “sotto copertura”, but white agent you cannot say it in one word, just “the one who works in an office and other people know of his existence”)
But let’s say the other things are not that important and can be done a little later. The important thing is to gather a team.
Some people don’t login every day if they don’t have an ongoing project, or if they have finished their episodes for the week. They reply to you days after, even a week after.
My favourite excellent subbers may not be available at the last moment. If they are so good, someone else may have grabbed them. What can I tell them? “I asked for moderator position for drama X, I don’t know whether I’ll be accepted, but in the meanwhile, please keep yourself available and don’t accept anything else just in case I get the moderation?” Absurd!
For subbers too, if they take on too many projects they won’t be able to dedicate sufficient attention to all of them. And I don’t want that.
Sometimes if it’s a specialist field you want to recruit some specific subbers, for instance I know one subber who is a lawyer, who helped us a lot both in “Solomon’s Perjury” and in “Memory”. I know of an English editor who is a retired mechanic, and an Italian one who used to work for military aviation and was indispensable to me when I did “Where Stars Land”, which had lots and lots of incomprehensible pilot lingo.
You need to reserve those precious people time ahead.
No no no. A moderator should have at the very least ten days to prepare. Preferably one month.
It might also be that, tired of waiting, the moderator himself has in the meanwhile said yes to another project and replies “Sorry but since it took you so long, now I cannot do it anymore”. So on the day the episode releases, the CM doesn’t have anybody for that language.
Telling people at the last moment is bad manners.
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(If I understood correctly…)
Why taking 20 projects at the same time is…
- it is selfish, not sharing with others.
- in the future, the project is waiting and someone who can do it wants, he can’t take over.
- being in the radar of Viki and/or other mods and/or CMs
- realistic
When? Many channels we don’t know when it will be licensed and aired on Viki… so I’m in ds if many of them are aired at the same time.
Same point with subbers for irmar.
If you’re going to do it alone bec you lack subbers… a lot of investments. When ppl find time?
- a little respect for the show… even a not popular one can be interesting for sb else… and that sb else might enjoy mod it and do it better… while I will stay on it without touching it before the next semester or next year and be bored while doing it…
If we tell the CM, we can’t do it now bec we have 15 projects now… not serious. The CM is supposed to recruit sb active or else the channel won’t be active or subbed until ages.
- quality: for being subtitler and editor and mod, it is really heavy. If they have 20 projects at the same time and they finish some really fast: can be doubts about the quality and if there was an edition. They might skip it.
The mod guidelines from Viki:
“It is important for Moderators to be regularly available for the entire run of a series…” (on air or not)
“They should be willing to provide quality contributions to the community.”
I suggest ppl to be careful bec once Viki is aware and the CM (or the team mods) receive Viki’s PM about that… bad advertisement and risks taken.
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In general it’s good to actively seek out Moderators, of course. However, in this case it was crap because the CM knew there would be a lot of applicants for that one position, but she gave it to her buddy before anybody else finds out. The buddy who actually didn’t have time for it (hoarder). Not that the CM checked or cared. That’s why I called it nepotism. Both parties were at fault, the CM and the Mod. And this had been going on for a while.
Yes, exactly. Or not just more qualified people, but simply people with less projects and inherently more time for this project.
Hahaha! That was me, I said that. Yucky situation, best to forget it. Things got much better after I reported it to Viki.
Of course as a CM you don’t know where to put your trust, of course you don’t want to be put in the middle of a conflict. Unless I give you screenshots of when my team’s subtitle was created and when that other “team’s” subtitle was created, it’s difficult for a CM to check. And like, if you only have two days to assemble a team, you’re not delving into who is what kind of a moderator too much. Simply no time for that. Besides, I don’t even know how to attach a picture to a message.
If those CMs think they have it tough, imagine your subs being stolen by the same user’s team on three projects 
That’s the thing… It’s not maximum number of projects globally. It’s maximum number of on-air projects. So, a user can have 5 on-air dramas at any given time and a 100 old projects with an episode or two translated.
I remember you recruiting for moderators for When the Weather is Nice. There was a little riffle of shock in our language community at the requirements you asked for. But since I participated in a lot of these types of discussions with you all here, my reaction was just 
Needless to say, you didn’t get a lot of requests for my and neighbouring languages 
If anybody is curious what I’m talking about, you can read it here:
That is true, as a Moderator you need time to organize yourself, wrap up any unfinished projects, or simply brace yourself for an overlap between two projects and exhaustion that ensues.
My dear, I 
you for this. I was thinking the same, but didn’t know if it should be mentioned. But it is so true! In this benevolent community we need to keep learning how to share! We need to put our egos behind. We need to revel in the satisfaction that a volunteer you helped get started, one day becomes your equal or even surpasses you.
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That’s good to hear!
I actually did. Not lots and lots, but I did. You’d be surprised. There were some long, heated exchanges as well. And a lot of backstabbing. Very upsetting.
On the other hand, there was a Catalàn person who did all the subbing on his own (I think it was a guy, but I may be wrong), in a very timely manner, two episodes per week, and was finished very little after the rest of us. I have no idea how the translation is, but the collaboration was excellent all along. Same with Sandeep Sandhu who did the Hindi. So I’m not saying that a person working alone or almost alone cannot do the job!
And there’s a notorious* South-West Asian language which didn’t get a moderator at all. The applicant didn’t even bother to reply to my reply telling her why I’m not eager to work with her.
*Notorious because of this person, not because there’s anything wrong with the language, of course!
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I sort of feel like I need to apologise here. I’m sorry you were put in this kind of situation. Some individuals have always been and will always be coo-coo. The rest of us try to work together as best as we can.
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Are you a sage or something like that? If only it were true… If only people could understand the word “sharing”, the whole world would be better.
Well, I put the definition here, maybe some people may have an insight or find a conscience (or education) by reading this: (https://dictionary.cambridge.org/fr/dictionnaire/anglais/sharing)
-> to divide food, money, goods, etc. and give part of it to someone else.
-> If two or more people share an activity, they each do some of it.
-> If two or more people or things share a feeling, quality, or experience, they both or all have the same feeling, quality, or experience.
-> to tell someone else about your thoughts, feelings, ideas, etc…
-> to have or use something at the same time as someone else.
I you guys too, for this.
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Ha ha, why would you? Then, every German should apologize for Hitler, every Russian for Stalin and every Italian for the Catholic priesthood doing you-know-what?
These people are your compatriots and neighbours but not your children, you’re certainly not responsible for them!
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True, true… Same as I don’t feel much pride if my country’s sports team wins something. Their hard work, their victory. But I sort of feel illogical shame and responsibility for idiots from my own country and culture.
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I think it’s linked to empathy in good and bad situations or feelings.
Wow finally a norwegian moderator, i talked to edvarda (the norwegian moderator) and she was so sweet and nice.
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That’s EXACTLY what happened with “Bossam - Steal the fate”. Which was a high-profile historical drama as well. Only it was two and a half days. I got it on Thursday night (just as I went to have a peek at my inbox before closing the computer and got ready for bed), and the drama started airing on Saturday. Needless to say, the night from Thursday to Friday I didn’t sleep all night, sending messages, checking messages and profiles, making Team Notes, character list, basic cover page etc.
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I feel like lately, many CMs are chosen very late. Either the drama starts in a few days, or sometimes it even already started airing before a CM is chosen!
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Well, I understand that they may not expect a Chinese Drama to air etc., but there are dramas that “idled” for a long time and still only got a CM after they started releasing the episodes while the drama already aired on another platform anyway. What’s the point of this?
While I know the rules in regard to the amount of projects and understand it might not be as fair if people don’t get the chance to do something. I can understand as well that people who don’t know a certain language and don’t have access to e.g., spreadsheets of someone will ever be able to judge if someone is good or not. Therefore, Viki may have developed a system that relies on quantity. In reality, it’s just an assumption. Personally, I think it’s most important to treat projects equally and work on all of them if you accepted them. I would never accept a project I don’t intend to work on.
Furthermore, I think it’s important to prepare projects properly for audience and subtitlers. Therefore, I sometimes spend an hour or more to release one episode for translation. It’s a lot of work to research e.g., terms for types of lotus or find something that suits terms such as “Judicial Procedure Office” in German. So some people bother a lot, while others don’t. However, only their own language community will ever notice the stuff, aside of the above-mentioned quantity. Just like not every project is the same. If you accepted a 55-episodes projects with a release once every 2-3 weeks, there’s not much to do, but you’ll be still judged by the amount of projects. Another point would be the amount of moderators.
However, last year’s discussion shows that there are different opinions in the first place. Lately, I’ve been asked to do translation edit for example, but I let them know that I’m not as confident since the level isn’t close to a Native level (Japanese). But there’s people who just do it with less of a background and in another thread they said something like “lots of them just learn a language, so they can improve like this/ the edit will fix subs / it’s okay if they only know a little bit”. Maybe I hesitate too much. 
Lately, we’ve discovered someone again who translated to and from languages he/she didn’t know at all, but they told the CM that they’re Native speakers. I’m aware it’s hard to determine that, but I guess I would be suspicious if someone translates into 5 completely different languages. That might not always be justified, but I guess it’s something to watch out for.
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Late organisation around the licence might have something to do with this. Although it’s no excuse. Because then the problem breaks (gets resolved) on the backs of the CM and the English language team members.
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I wonder if is the same person that ruined the subtitles in a [program/show] I was CM years back…
Years back, this person she/he always bragged that knew 5 different languages, and was proficient in all of them, and bc I saw her working in other dramas; I assumed she was legit.
When she/he? finished all her/his subtitles in the show/drama in question, the viewers in the language she/he had subbed, started complaining in the comment section, and started accusing me of doing the bad subtitles/translations. I asked another person that knew the language in question to just to check if the complains were factual/real, and indeed it turns out they were really bad subs.
As a CM, I was able to delete all the terrible work she had done, and I also reported him/her (we had a good help center system back then) and I didn’t see her around for a long while. BUT…still, I see her working here now in many dramas (with the same name and ‘‘avatar’’) so I’m guessing that with the little bit she knew and working in so many dramas, she finally learned the language and became proficient enough to be added on teams after teams. Very popular indeed.
I think if you are not confident enough in the language, as long as you don’t work in on-air dramas it won’t hurt you and it will only help you to advance and learn better the language (Japanese?) you know. I see no harm in doing that. Like you, I see ppl here that don’t have a good level of English proficiency, and right at this moment, they are working in so many dramas (I swear I’m not lying) as an EDITOR no less! in many, many dramas.
Hope you do give yourself the chance and go right ahead, if you have the time and really want to take advantage of this new way of learning/improving what you already know a bit; go for it! I can assure you we have here ppl working as editors that do all their work with Goggle translate and get away with it.
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True… so true
So true. Something that shoukd not be judged.
Ich kriege da jedes Mal “Aggressionen”, wenn es solange dauert und man sich nirgends anders bewerben kann.
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