The way my mind works, I tend to see Viki’s choice of Discourse as a “framework” for the Community Discussion Board as some kind of . . . necessary abdication of responsibility for overseeing part of its business?
I do keep in mind that there are essentially three parts to the Viki Community that somebody has to be responsible for in order to keep Viki performing as a materialistic income stream for Rakuten. They overlap somewhat but are distinct.
There are ALL the people who watch what Viki streams, whether for free or on a subscription basis. The “discussion” that many Viki fans take part in occurs through the timeline comments. It’s what I think of as the comments people make when they go to a movie theater, watch a movie, and respond to what they see on the screen. But because time-line commenters are not constrained by the social expectations placed on people in a real movie theater, those commenters can end up doing some pretty heavy trolling.
Then there are the paid subscribers who have access to the Community Discussion Board. Discussions about Viki dramas can get pretty wild because there is more opportunity to express ideas and feelings in depth. There is, I think, more opportunity for people to “go off the rails” on the Discussion Board, but there is also much more opportunity for Viki fans to get to know other people and develop relationships of trust and support.
Then there are the volunteers who take the plunge and get involved in segmenting and subbing. And of course because these are highly technical activities requiring extensive training, and because Viki’s financial success rests on the skill of trained volunteers, it is imperative that there be maximum hard work and minimum irrelevant chatter.
But ultimately, whatever subset of Viki fans is under consideration, and whatever the reasons are for those fans to have to interact with Viki’s corporate representatives. I find it sad that a variety of questions get asked about a variety of things, and it takes way too long (n my estimation) for Viki’s real money-makers to get answers. In fact, sometimes it seems as if the simpler the question, the longer the delay in answering.
Discourse has a part to play in this whole process because Viki has chosen Discourse to provide the Discussion Board framework. I assume that, if something goes wonky with the format or content of the Discussion Board, ultimately Viki will defer to Discourse.
Discourse doesn’t have a part to play in time-line comments, reviews, or issues related to training of subbers and segmenters.
I understand that Viki fans, whatever their status or function, are going to have questions about how things work and how they SHOULD work because Rakuten Viki has a much different behind the scenes setup than the “old” Viki. And obviously it is important to have a good working relationship with “Viki corporate” because so much is at stake.
However, since Viki would not have a product to sell without its fans (especially its volunteers), I see Viki fans as having the ability to be just a little more demanding and a little less servile in tone.
I think this is one of those things, again, where my coming out of an individual-oriented cullture, rather than a community-oriented one, has me focusing on things that others might find irrelevant or offensive. Or they just have never thought about them.
I am not very familiar with the social aspects of how Viki works, but I am learning and (I hope) growing in that regard. In terms of the behind-the-scenes and more technical aspects of how Viki conducts daily business, the more I learn, the more I have to wonder why Viki keeps making it hard for Viki fans to support Viki, and why Viki fans aren’t asking more challenging, but still professional and respectful, questions.
It’s my perspective, and it’s not meant to be an offensive one. I am willing to learn. However, since childhood, one of my constant cries about anything in life has been, “But why?”
As an eldest child, another constant comment out of my mouth has been, “Just tell me what to do, and I’ll do it.”
I hope the two comments balance each other out eventually.