Is it only about the bot?
People raised concerns about other things, I don’t know if we should talk about them, too?
I don’t want to go on strike many times or other people to feel frustrated because we didn’t talk about other things on this.
Other things? There have been many things, such as my June campaign about lifting restrictions etc. But for now I understand it’s about the bot. It will be confusing to have too many pans on the fire.
BTW I have to leave now, I won’t be able to reply for some time.
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The thing I understand is:
- if they implemented this in French, because there were some inactive teams or not enough fast teams:
it raises problems about inactivity (inactive CM/moderators) - about English teams (I don’t want to throw rocks at them. In this process, we are dependent)
- abusive management/moderations: takes a lot but doesn’t help or doesn’t finish
- finding subbers to sub faster: the page Lutra talked about “projects”. Or a page to find subbers.
I see a link, but it might be too much?
I really like that you picked up abandoned projects. When I first came to Viki, I wanted to finish all the gazillion projects not fully translated to Croatian. And then I got a warning message from a moderator on one of the projects why am I trying to take over her project. I should butt out. Tough situation to be in when you’re a newbie.
Anyway, that wasn’t really my point.
Here are examples of actual cases where volunteers have been forced to be absent from the projects there were currently working on:
- Heart attack - person ended up in a hospital and then was partially imobilized for at least a year.
- Death of a spouse - nothing like depression to make you not only not want to do anything, but forget what you were doing in the first place.
No, that is not okay. We agree here.
However, it can also be like this. A drama may have been uploaded and fully translated to English 3 years ago. And then I come in as a Croatian mod and ask to translate it. I ask the current CM, she doesn’t respond. I ask Viki, they appoint me as a mod. Later you come in as a new CM and see that Croatian lies majorly unfinished as a language. Your natural and immediate reaction would be to think I’m irresponsible. As a CM you wouldn’t know when I started the project in Croatian, because that Viki feature on my project contribution page is not showing the beginning of a translation, and very often is not even showing the accurate time of latest contribution.
The problems we’re facing on Viki have several solutions. It’s not a bipolar situation where we have to either initially choose responsible people, or let bot do the rest.
Yes, my point exactly. Viki is focusing too much on the profitable bot, rather than spending some time and money creating an efficient tool for finding volunteers. A simple announcement board for the open positions would’ve sufficed.
Discussions is not a good place for this because new volunteers rarely find their way here (it is too hidden!) and some of the old volunteers are not regulars here because they don’t want to read a gazillion posts about irrelevant stuff to them. They just need a project or they need a volunteer.
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Guys, you’re scaring me. I’m only a humble translator and I don’t know anything above my level. I’ve been translating for years. Before I’ve got here I was a part of a group of translators. We were just a group of random people, there was no company behind us, we didn’t get a salary. But we were able to organize ourselves, create a well-functioning structure and have our work done. And now you’re telling me that we did, what a big company isn’t able to do? I always thought that there are people from Viki staff who oversee the work of CM. They check what is done and what needs to be done. And now you’re telling me it’s not the case? WOW! Seriously, I’m amazed that it’s running wild and didn’t collapse already. Nice way to run your business, Viki!
I have made a post for other problems at Viki, we are always asked to keep Viki a friendly place but Viki needs to give the base for that.
So please make it known where volunteers lose precious time, a lot more of countable contribution could be made if only:
we wouldn’t need to monitor comments, time comments, fake reviews. Waiting on Viki replies.
You know many more inconveniences since you are active.
Name them now:
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I second that.
I’m afraid I see the usual 3 problems of our volunteer community raising their ugly heads again:
- Trying to fill all our grievances with Viki behind a simple message and diluting its power in the process. I suggest we focus and put pressure. If and when we reach negotiations, we can bring more issues to the table, but at first we need a clear “demand”. (You know what, volunteers are the backbone of Viki, I’ll remove the quotes.) We need a clear demand.
- Making a Viki problem our problem. We are all passionate about what we do, but let’s not be more invested about Viki’s customers than Viki itself. Taking it personally does not help. At the end of the day, Rakuten Viki is a company and we are volunteers unrelated to the business model, if we are not prepared to walk away if our demands are not met because we take it too personally, we’ve already lost.
- Turning against our own community. Over and over again I see some of the more “passionate” volunteers, every single time we encounter a problem with Viki and try to squeeze a solution out of them, grab the opportunity to attack other volunteers and turn the whole thing into a civil war. Like clockwork, every time. And of course Viki knows and expects that. If our priority in a time of crisis is to point fingers to our comrades, we are part of the problem.
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Why did you go away and why did you come back today?
(I’m happy you came back!)
Partial self-governing of this community is what is keeping a lot of us here and working efficiently and regularly. And, although it has some downsides, I prefer it this way.
There is not really a systematic Big Brother who monitors all the projects at all times. Too many projects, too little Viki employees.
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So you think I’m lazy who doesn’t care about her channel while you don’t know anything about what has been going on behind the scenes?!
I’m the CM of Sassy Girl for years and only recently it became fully subbed in English. People where thinking I did abonden the channel but really I wasn’t. I was actually trying my best to make it work and when I was about to give up Viki finally did help out.
The things I struggled with:
- Very limited license so 95% off all subbers who could help where blocked out so even though it was fully segged within a few days the subbing would take a while.
- Some abusers came in an copy pasted subs from Dramafever which is against Viki’s guidelines.
- Asked Viki for help many times and all I’ve got was “We will look into it” and that was it. I asked them to send paid subbers but none where send.
And then suddenly earlier this year I got great news. Hurray! After all those years asking Viki for help finally paid off. And now we finally had it all rolling again, English sub is complete, Viki steps in and is troubling the French team again who is working on Sassy Girl.
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The current system makes it so much more difficult than it should be to just do the job we’re given. It’s not even that much to ask to be able to easily do our jobs without all the extra struggle and stress. Like for real. : /
The strike issue was already a topic few weeks ago. I agree with lutra. If you organize a strike it doesn’t make sense just to name one thing when there are much more things that should be fixed.
Look at the ugly startpage now that is not what most volunteers wanted. VIKI said in the thread they’d “listen to our feedback” and what happened? Nothing. They just did it in the way they wanted, for mobile users and not for volunteers.
Most of the volunteers see their projects as a passion but in the end it’s also a question if and how long those who’re spending a huge amount of their time want to continue that under bad circumstances. There are other things how one could spend her/his time that may be less frustrating than working for free for VIKI.
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You are right. Maybe, that’s their choice. But I think no viewer will pay to see translations like these (I mean, it’s not about grammatical or other, it’s about comprehension). They will lose a lot.
Example in french on “age of legends”
Vikibot in french: “J’ ai initialement pensé à dire à Rong Rong tout une fois que Zhen Wu a terminé sa mission avec succès”
This sentence is a huge mess! I do not have the English sentence but I suppose this sentence need to be: “J’ai pensé tout révéler à Rong Rong quand Zhen Wu aurait terminé sa mission avec succès.” ou “J’ai pensé tout révéler à Rong Rong lorsque Zhen Wu aura fini sa mission avec succès.” It depends on the situation.
Vikibot french: “Déposé pour la retraire, et est retourné à Jiangbei”
Well, this sentence is really difficult to understand, maybe “Il a pris sa retraite et est retourné/rentré à Jiangbei” ? “À sa retraite, il est retourné à Jiangbei” ? Need the english translation to understand, sorry. In the vikibot sentence, we don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl… But ok… X=
Vikibot french: “Les laisser se réunir tous les deux”.
This sentence: “Laisse-les se remettre ensemble” ? It depends on the context for signification. It depends on the person for formal or informal “Laisse-les” or “laissez-les”…
So, why would someone pay for this? X)
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Hola me parece contra producente lo de no subtitular los dramas al aire, porque eso da paso a más quejas y a que Viki llegué a utilizar el Viki bot y haga así todo de ahora en adelante. Y sobre todo con dramas viejos. Entonces, pienso que eso es decisión de cada equipo y cada moderator si quiere o no dar go. Yo por mi parte tomaré una decisión.
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@camiille @giant_sean
We want a decisive response on this. Please respect the volunteers and Fans by delivering a better translation of this bot and sincere apologies from Viki to them this is necessary. maybe later it will be generalized to other languages, which makes everyone fearful of the next has begun to limit the basic languages of the site only 10 and now this bad thing and the next perhaps much worse 
waiting for reply 
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As a CM you are technically fully on charge of the project. There is absolutely no one (besides viewers) who are telling you what and when to do what. If you don’t gather and “hire” a good team, the channel doesn’t work. We as bozoli says. a basically a self- governed community, that’s why we have so many rules and we created them to keep a balance or else will be chaotic here. That’s part of why we are mad here. Because we keep this website running in some many ways and they just do this.
Over the years, WE have being the ones asking viki for restrictions, locks for the editor, blocks to protect our work and stuff, not THEM but us. Little by little we have built all this and they have responded with tools that we needed.
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De acuerdo con los "términos " de uso del vikibot, ellos no pueden hacer eso en dramas al aire. El supuesto uso del vikibot es para dramas que no estan moviéndose aunque nosotras sabemos que eso no es asi, porque estan borrando subtítulos que estaban bien. Solo es contraproducente porque los espectadores no saben lo que pasa y no saben porque no estamos subtitulando, pero eso ya se está solucionando con un correo que estamos preparando a nivel general en caso de que en Viki se hagan los locos. Cada una decide que quiere y que no quiere hacer ante esta situación, pero esta pelea no es solo del equipo de Francés, es de nuestra comunidad. Sé que el equipo inseparable, sita, eun_soo y el resto se han unido al paro por ahora, muchas subber de nuestro idioma no están trabajando así se envíen los GO porque entienden que esto nos puede pasar a todas el día de mañana, le levantas y tu subcounter bajó porque vikibot reemplazo todos tus subs en cierto drama. El vikibot desaparece todo tu trabajo, no lo edita.
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She doesn’t agree on adding some things besides your topic but I’ll stick with you anyway because I’ve learned that already translated dramas were all “re-translated” by Vikibot and the We Can’t Let it Slide :)) Let’s fight for the Respect We All Deserve 
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Sim,tínhamos feito uma greve de duas semanas, mas fazia uma semana que havíamos traduzido, e isso sem contar que durante todo o projeto fomos rápidas, assim que os episódios eram disponibilizados pela equipe inglês-coreano, em menos de duas horas no máximo, estava traduzido. E muito bem traduzido, diga-se de passagem. Viki não tinha razão /desculpa para fazer o que fez e sem sequer avisar as moderadoras. Ainda me sobe o sangue, quando lembro. Bem vinda à greve. Claro, independente de divergências, estamos lutando por respeito, por nosso trabalho, totalmente desmerecido por eles. Há um grave problema de confiança, já que Viki perdeu credibilidade por não manter as promessas e regras que eles mesmos fizeram. Sem contar a falta total de comunicação e respeito pelos voluntários! No momento me sinto como um objeto que Viki está usando e pode jogar fora quando não quiser ou não for mais útil. Creio que é o sentimento geral.
I think it’s important for you to understand how vikibot is horrible in French language. Meaning, sentences, grammar, conjugation, formal / informal. Nothing is right. Nobody can understand. We can’t correct that, because it would not be “correct” but rather “translate again”.
Here are some example for you to understand. We will try to make them understandable for people who don’t speak our language too.
Screens from https://www.viki.com/tv/36324c-aino-mating-agency-inc?locale=fr :
Information : It’s writing like that in english because when she pronounces the word, she says it by insisting on each syllable. It’s a choice of the English team.
Correct translation is: “C’est suspect !”
Vikibot: “ça c’ est trop. C’ est délicieux!” -> meaning in english “This, that’s too much. It’s delicious!” + In french, there is a space before the "!" and as you can see, there is two space after “c’ est”, it’s not correct.
Correct translation :” - Une femme mignonne ? <br> - Tu ne peux pas me duper.” (Depend on the situation : me duper (fool), me décevoir (disappoint), mentir (lie to me). “tromper” can mean in french: “cheat, betray”. Generally, it’s use for someone who “cheats” someone else with another person. As you can see, vikibot put “tu peux” (“You can”), but the english one is “You can’t”.
Correct translation : “Ce genre d’information, il m’est facile de le savoir.” + [Aino Shingo : Directeur de l’agence de rencontre Aino]
Vikibot put more this into french “This kind of information is clearly (distinctly) approaching me.” But it’s not that. She can learn, easily know this kind of information. She may know that he is lying to her. For the “Aino Mating”, they just ignore the “Mating”.
Correct translation : “Dossier 4 : Scène de combat au marathon pour femmes ! Épouse qui fait de la course à pieds VS Méchante femme.”
Vikibot put “case” (that’s not french), like “runner”. “Marmarathon” isn’t an existing word. In english, the vikibot say something like that into french “Fight to fight at Marmarathon of women! The bride Runner against the falcon woman”. For the second one, it’s like “ Fight to fight to women at the age of the bride.” + space are false.
Well, this one, I think vikibot gave up. It’s just “Hé, that hurts.” so just the beginning of the segment. Plus, it’s a modern drama so we can use “ça” but if it was an historical, we can favor “cela”. Like, “Hé, cela fait mal.”
There are just examples, but it’s like that everywhere. It’s just horrible. And in these example, there is no conjugation or formal speaking. So there are really easy examples and translations to do. But if it’s on some historical drama or fantasy one, it would be something ridiculous.
Kylamia, Anna79_9
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