Machine translation from Viki

Shockingly, they didn’t just send it to the CMs and French moderators… but EVERYONE. On many of these channels, I received over 20 messages yesterday, I’m not CM and obviously not on the French team.

I’m completely appalled at what I read. First and foremost, why? Are there French viewers throwing up a stink? Are they using the French subtitles as a test? Why didn’t they first go to the CMs of these channels and/or French moderators first to find out why the teams were slow…

I can tell you why… because of the English teams. This is why I’m so adamant that the English edit teams to get the ball rolling. It pisses me off to no end that many dramas are slowed down by the English teams, and all of you know that my peeve is to get as many decent episodes out in a timely manner. I don’t expect perfection, but readable, understandable, non-Engrishy subtitles. Because I know what it’s like to wait for subs for a drama I love the most and having to wait…

I hang my head because I feel like we failed the French teams in some way and they are being punished. Ugh…

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I don’t think this is because the French viewers are so massively complaining. Not at all. After all, then the translations to English would have been affected first.

I simply think the developers of the bot chose French to test out first. And unfinished projects seemed to Viki as a good enough and logical playground to release the bot.

Why couldn’t they wait for the next new drama, place someone as a French moderator/editor and tell this person that the entire drama will be translated by a bot, so her job is to correct where necessary? That way the rules of the game would have been known from the start.

Major screwup from Viki’s side, antagonising the French community to this extent. Hardly even necessary.

No, no, that was the point I was trying to mke. The bot doesn’t delete finished subs. Just adds new ones.

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I didn’t receive the message but I am utterly shocked by this. This is depressing…
Did they just randomly pick certain channels or is there any condition on which they picked them? Because obviously from deval_chloe’s post that lack of progress is not the issue here.
And this is certainly not the way to deal with it.
What makes viki special is the quality of subs it has and the devotion of its volunteers. Now they’re killing that.
If they want to use the bot then just give that as an option. I’m sure some people might prefer it if they have more trouble subbing than editing. But don’t force it on devoted people.

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Well, as for the lack of progress, I think it depends on the drama. But I don’t think that’s the main point.
As I said it before, they did it on Mr Swimmer on which we were up-to-date. We subbed until episode 37, episode 38 was released this morning but the bot completed subs until the last episode…
Plus, if it was because of people complaining because if you go on the comments on Mr Swimmer, there is only italian, portuguese and spanish people complaining.

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And that’s another point to consider. How does the bot know if English language is okay before it starts translating? In your case it translated two episodes which were not released to other languages.

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So they even ignored, that the remaining episodes were not yet released? Oh my gosh!

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It completed episodes 38 to 46 not only two episodes for Mr Swimmer.
I said, we subbed episode 37 when it was released a few days ago. And this morning episode 38 was released but the bot was already there.

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Even more episodes to CORRECT once the English is polished and released :angry:

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Plus, it is in part Viki’s fault since they added the episodes already subbed in English for Mr Swimmer and segmenters had to adjust all segments so it was even more work for everyone.
Segmenters are busy everywhere, and adjusting segments takes a lot of time. They are doing a great job considering the situation.

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Do you mean that the English was a mess from 39 to 46 or that it wasn’t even there? :roll_eyes::roll_eyes::no_mouth:
Is it a super bot that listens and translates as well? :stuck_out_tongue:

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Well, the bot doesn’t even consider if it has to use formal or informal, if it is a girl or a guy who is talking etc. And there is so many rules in French with all that.

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Could this be the reason why they chose these particular shows? Because they came pre-subbed to English?

Could other CMs and French moderators confirm or deny this for their own projects?

Oh. My. God.

I know exactly what you’re talking about and I now know just how much you will have to correct after the bot!

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Well, from what I saw it was especially the segments which were a mess. When I was watching the first episodes which were not released, I didn’t even have the time to read the subs.

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No, because they did it also on One and Another Him, one drama I have as CM and on this drama I took over the French Moderation because our French Moderator was absent.
And for this drama, we did all subs ourselves into English and segments too.

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Age of Legends came “raw”, every single sub was done from my English team! So, they don’t do it only on pre-subbed dramas.

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They already deleted and replaced it yesterday night.
All the allnighters and time and sweat and hours spent…

I find it really inhuman because:
The teams and volunteers who are still subbing and still active are the ones who will read these messages and feel demotivated (not inactive volunteers, they are not there).
The remaining active volunteers will feel they are punished whereas they’re among the few ones who stayed motivated or liked the drama to continue subbing and subbed the drama until ep 20 or 30 or 40. V is stopping their efforts.

Whereas the ones who didn’t invest at all in the team or invested a little and left, they don’t care or are not touched by it.

It is targeted against remaining volunteers that they want it or no.

If volunteers knew all their work would be deleted by Viki, they wouldn’t even invest time on it to do things correctly.

There is no logic.

It is really demotivating for a contributor to have their contributions deleted and replaced by a bot contributions whereas the quality is better on the contributor’s side.
Plus, receiving they are not active whereas they are but not many.

We are a few volunteers on many dramas, so if you wanted us to leave, then it is well-done.
I’ve never seen a decision so inconsiderate.

It is really the pit bottom of what Viki could show to volunteers. You don’t bring us joy anymore, you’re putting brakes to our efforts to stay in a fun community and when you ask for help, we have to fight to get adequate help.

All the problems I got with Viki:

  • uncomplete scripts and I got an answer 2 months later, then a few months later. I have to ask them once in a while to know if they could send us these scripts. And still no more answer.
  • cut scenes, they changed subs, they changed parts timing, shifted segments while creating micro gaps whereas it has been checked 2x and they did everything behind the team’s back without saying anything before “we would begin to do this on… day…” they even ask us after they did it if they can do it, whereas they already did it.
    When you ask if they changed subs, they tell no. When you go check, you see they change.
    They don’t believe you and you have to take screens to tell them: it is Viki staff name under this sub and some moderators edit back these subs because obviously someone changed it.
  • when reporting abusive segments, they put solved and nothing has been fixed. Abusive contributions are still there.
    When you ask them to delete them, they told it takes 1 week.
    Then you tell them, don’t put it as solved if it is not solved or tell us the info before because if I want to work on the video, I can’t whereas I read you already solved it.
    Then when I go back to see how it was solved: all the part has to be redone because no more extensions that were butchered by the abuser. And Viki let the remaining segments not done by the abuser, but hell half of the segments and all extensions were gone = it means redoing it would be faster.
    So you have to tell them again to delete all segments, but how come they can’t ask before or see that before?
    It took 1 month just for that to be solved… was it difficult or?
  • we asked for designated channels everywhere since the beginning but they don’t listen. Then they continue to receive reports, that is normal.

I have lost >100 hours with them on 1 drama, it is crazy.

We are not carpets or slaves or dogs or punching-balls.

We are humans, treat us as such.
We are not going to say thank you and be all merry or recognize your hard work or your help if you don’t listen to our needs and find pseudo remedies that would add more work for us to fix your mess. It is incredible.

More I see Viki way of working, less I believe we are working for the same website.
It is like we don’t exist.

In front of our despair, you add more fuel… like you have no empathy or feelings or respect toward your community or volunteers who made this website possible with you.

I’d like to recognize Viki work in these situations, but it is asking too much.
Adding more and more each time, how can we remain patient?

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I spent “only” 3 years on this site for now, but what about the ones who are here since the begining?
What about all the time they spent here to be treated like that in the end?

I just can’t understand why Viki can’t listen when we’re trying to communicate…
They will lose a lot by doing that and I don’t think they realize it yet.

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Thing is, it is impossible that we correct translations of the vikibot. WE WON’T! Are we tools? If viki wants translations vikibot, google translation, incomprehensible, keep them! I hope French viewers will be shocked enough to complain about the misunderstanding of the subtitles. I do not even imagine what it will look like on a historical drama. Moreover, since viki does this, PERSONALLY, I will not translate any of my projects until they change their minds and I invite all the French community to do so. I hope that all the languages of the world will also support us. Because today is French, tomorrow it will be another language. All the efforts we have been making for years have been shattered in a day. They should be ashamed of them. How can we use a translation program on one of the most complex languages in the world, such as French? Are they really stupid?

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I wouldn’t correct bot’s subs if I were you, either. I hope the viewers do complain and in great numbers. And when that happens, it’s good to be prepared.

Can somebody open a Viki Ideas post to share among and get votes from the potential complainers? And us, of course.

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One CM contacted me to be Moderator of a drama on which the French moderator wasn’t present anymore so she was looking for someone to replace her, she asked if I could help as French Moderator (it was before going to sleep yesterday so I was thinking “I’ll see that tomorrow” I checked before sleeping “only” episodes 1 to 7 were subbed) when I woke up and checked again after all the messages from vikicommunity, all episodes were subbed. So I told the CM that I’m sorry but I won’t edit subs from a bot. I really like the community but I just can’t spend hours to edit a drama because the bot passed by.

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