Later edit: My post was flagged by some people. I’ll let you decide what kind of people, given the situation this volunteer community is in, but I have nothing to change. There’s no lie in what I said, and it’s not my fault if some childish people can’t accept the truth.
Dear Lily, I’m quite certain that most volunteers, if not all, enjoy volunteering on Viki and certainly have at least one personal reason for staying here. Although many of the known and very well-known users are no longer active or are becoming increasingly inactive, it’s surely hard for them to completely let go of Viki.
As for the personal part of your message, there’s nothing to dispute; it’s absolutely true that Viki has had and still has a really great community of volunteers, but that’s exclusively at the volunteer level and only among volunteers, because let’s move on to the second part of your message.
As for the second part, the one involving the Viki team as well, I can’t share that same perspective, and that’s precisely why I’m choosing to reply to your message: to offer a counterpoint that more and more volunteers resonate with, even if not all of them choose to speak up. Some because they don’t want to get so involved, others because they don’t want to lose their status as favorites, others because they’ve built their entire existence on Viki around a false image and need to maintain it, others because they’re no longer here, and the list goes on.
Basically, you’re telling us that we should turn a blind eye to the utterly offensive way the Viki team has come to treat the volunteer community. Well, to be accurate, a large portion of the volunteers, because some still have the privilege of being favored by Viki.
Basically, you’re telling us to take it all as a challenge, but let’s not forget that a challenge is only acceptable when it’s fair for everyone, only when we’re all on equal footing. Which isn’t the case right now, as several people have pointed out in other threads.
Basically, the rest of the volunteers who are witnessing the Viki staff’s inadequate and utterly unfair behavior are growing weary of seeing that their voices aren’t being heard, and that, right before their eyes, the Viki team seems to be rubbing it in even more by refusing to communicate and continuing to treat a large part of the community unfairly.
I’m sure that everyone outraged right now understands that Viki needs to make some changes to remain competitive, but that doesn’t excuse the favoritism or, above all, the total lack of communication about what this volunteer community means, and will continue to mean, to Viki. I’ve been active online for years and have been, and continue to be, part of various communities, but the indifferent and condescending way Viki has been treating its community for some time now is utterly and boundlessly offensive. How can they still have the nerve to claim they’re a platform “powered by contributors”? How low has Viki sunk in its treatment of people who, out of enjoyment and love for this type of content, have chosen to dedicate their free time to it? Let me repeat: it’s perfectly fine for there to be changes, and not all of them will be to our liking, but absolutely nothing they’ve done or will continue to do excuses their total lack of respect toward us. There were staff members who wanted to build a relationship with us and help us however they could, but what happened? They were quickly pulled back or blocked from interacting closely with us. What does this mean? That there’s a boss at Viki, in charge of us, who thinks it’s perfectly fine to disregard us? I just hope this person or team isn’t a long-time member who knows the community’s history, because then it would be even more deplorable that things have come to this.
I know, it gets tiring to see more and more people speaking out, and, in a way, your privileged position of remaining on Viki’s list of favored CMs feels threatened; you just received a channel recently. That’s exactly why I really appreciate that you found the courage to post this message, but, sadly, it’s solely to ensure you keep your spot on the whitelist. Because yes, Viki indeed has a blacklist that, for several years now, people seem to be added to without any logic or justification whatsoever.
No, what we’re saying isn’t “yelling”; it’s a fact-based exposé of practices that show an increasing lack of respect for the entire community.
If even we, those of us who believe we must speak up when things are unfair, are considered to be “yelling” at Viki, what are we supposed to do? Should we just be lambs so we won’t be excluded by Viki? Should we be fake? Should we pretend that everything is fine?
No, nothing is okay right now; in fact, this is practically the most unpleasant period this community has experienced in the last 5–6 years.
I have total respect for your love for the work you do here, because that means you’re passionate about it, which leads to commitment and quality, just like the rest of us. But when it comes to the stance toward Viki, I can’t agree. Because that essentially means sweeping irregularities under the rug and perpetuating the same unfair and unjust practices.
The ones who should be defending Viki are Viki themselves. Because they are the only ones at fault for this situation. No one has forbidden them from communicating with us, those of us who have been and continue to be eager to communicate with them, but they alone have decided that this community deserves so little, if anything at all, from them. At this point, with absolutely no communication with us and an enormous focus on AI implementation, they can be considered among the companies that have come to disregard the human workforce and volunteer efforts in favor of AI.
I refuse to accept being labeled as someone who “yells” at Viki, since I have always been among those who spoke up when Viki did not act correctly; and for that, my entire history on this discussion platform is available for anyone to see.
We may be at the biggest turning point in the volunteer community, where most of us are asking for just one thing: to be told what our future holds. Because from what we can see from Viki at this moment, we’re heading toward extinction, but in the most abject way possible. A project is handed out now and then to the “favorites,” just to keep us around a little longer. And no, these aren’t assumptions, as long as we can all see the situation and as long as we aren’t told anything officially.
As I said earlier, this reply isn’t an attack on you, but simply a perspective representing the other side of the community, one that shouldn’t be disregarded for the sake of a company that has chosen this dishonorable way of treating us. Many think like me, but they are afraid to confront Viki or just don’t want to say it, yet they still think this way.
So, I must say Viki has become even more than that. Thus, I have become even more grateful towards Viki to give me a reason to get up every morning, to challenge myself to do a better job on all my projects. 
