Many Thanks to Viki's Volunteer Community!

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Sending warm regards from New York, please accept my tremendous thanks and gratitude to every volunteer, you are the heart and soul of Viki. Thank you x infinity!

May I also add thanks to you @aznative : nearly everywhere I go on Viki, be it discussions, actor pages, etc., there you are posting fantastic bits of info about upcoming or new shows, images of poster, links, news and so forth. Frankly, I think you are amazing, and such a positive force, sharing your extensive knowledge, vital info and sparkling enthusiasm! Now I anticipate and look forward to your posts, knowing I will learn new things to further fuel my love of K/J/C Dramas. Please accept my utmost thanks, sheishun

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Wanda, you don’t need to apologize! You always show appreciation, support, and advice to your segmenters. I’ve experienced that as a member of your team, so I know that to be the case, and I thank you for that!

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miss you … thank you for helping out so much, having the patience of a saint with me.

big cybernet hug,

Wanda

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The idea sounds nice but I doubt it is practicable. If VIKI wants paid segmenters & translators they’d probably hire some professionals and become something like Netflix with focus on Asian shows.

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Well, you have to be good and not everyone can do it. If they allow them for free, why not for more than just free membership?

There also seems to be a disconnect because I keep reading angry comments and that people give shows bad ratings because subtitles aren’t done fast enough. People don’t know that they are volunteer and not lazy workers. I think it should be more clear that it’s done by fans and not employees.

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Yep. Some viewers don’t realize that it is all fan-subbed. But maybe even when they know it is fan-subbed, some may still complain.

You may have a look at this thread/discussion about good/bad quality and participating as a volunteer:

https://discussions.viki.com/t/are-you-being-honest-in-your-advice-to-channel-managers-about-moderators-and-translators-in-your-language/23573/1

If they start paying for segmenting and subtitling, they need to proof the quality first. Probably, not everyone who may be participating now would be paid. If only some get paid and others don’t or if only certain languages get paid and others don’t, I fear the whole community system could fall apart.

Let’s assume every language has at least 50 active members, maybe more. 10 languages x 50 = 500 people. Some dramas have almost 20 languages => 20 x 50 = 1000 people.

Remember: VIKI is free to watch. For some dramas (episodes) viewers without a pass need to wait longer, and just very few dramas are VIKI pass exclusive.

So they should pay for licenses, for segmenters & subbers and offer free Asian dramas to viewers worldwide. I don’t think that’ll work on the financial aspect if they need to pay for ~1000 volunteers. It would be more efficient to hire professionals who do segmenting & translation for their living/as a daily job, bc they won’t need ~1000 people then.

Besides that I understand VIKI’s idea as a platform for fans from fans. A legal place to watch Asian dramas worldwide for free (In contrast to other fan projects that do subs for dramas but without having a license for it).

Many communities with fans are built around a company and a certain kind of interest, e.g. around games. There are some games that wouldn’t be that popular without a huge amount of fans who create content that is usually 100% free. Some fans (now) have their own patreons as supporters but mostly because the created content needs so much work for a 1-fan-factory and the fans do need to earn money for a living as well. So if a fan content is really popular they start a patreon page to be able to continue that fan content. Sometimes the fan content work becomes a living job, when the fan project is large, ongoing and with many supporters.

When VIKI viewers want faster subtitles, they should start to support a/their team to do so. (I don’t know if that is against VIKI’s guidelines/rules but I could imagine this as a method for a “paid” volunteer system that rewards volunteers with money and keeps VIKI a free to watch platform).

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Yes, you’re probably right - there is more to it then just offer payment. I just thought they deserved more :heart_eyes:

As for the free episodes; before I upgraded to paid membership I tried a couple of free episodes and noooo hell no! Those ads were doing my head in and a great way to make people upgrade because I pulled out my creditcard real fast lol
I started watching a show on youtube and only a few early episodes had subtitles. The rest automatically subbed and it was funny, terrible but funny, how wrong they were. So coming here for real subs was a no-brainer so I could continue watching the show.
But I still think subbers should be paid more so maybe add a tippingjar :kissing_closed_eyes:

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Mahalo to you for your unfailingly positive and informative comments.

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About paying subbers

I have written it many times on comment pages, but…
If Viki starts paying volunteers and turns them into professional employees, it would be able to do so only for segmenters and subbers of a few languages. Maybe just English, Spanish, Portuguese, maximum one more - and this, depending on the show’s popularity.
Members of other language teams would feel it’s not fair, especially those with popular languages such as Italian, French, German, Indonesian etc. They would get pissed: “Why some of us get paid and some don’t?” It would create a bad feeling in the community and many would stop contributing. The viewers of other, less popular languages, would suffer.

They are giving volunteers a free Vikipass, which is like 5 dollars per month, equivalent to like half an hour of subbing. I’m okay with that, I didn’t come for the money.
BUT

I would really appreciate that they lift all regional restrictions for volunteers.

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Oh yes, a big thank you to all those volunteers - segmenters, subbers, moderators, channel managers, pagedesigners! Without your work and help I couldn’t pursue my passion for asian dramas! :heart_eyes:

And thank you so much, Aznative, for providing all those helpful informative links and posters! I appreciate your engagement so much and I would like to mention iris78, too :slight_smile:

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So sweet, thank you. And yes, thanks to @iris78, who does a great job bringing news to the community. :blush:

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Thank you for the mention, @aznative
Just trying to help a little. You,and other volunteers do so much here…

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@aznative , Thank you dear for the wonderful post, thanks from the heart to all the volunteers who without their effort and time did not allow us and fans to see programs and dramas in our languages :hugging::rose:

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You are very welcome. Thank you for dedication and for being a volunteer.

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Once again, I will take the time to express my appreciation to the Volunteer Teams here at Viki.

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Hallo :slight_smile:
also from me, a heartfelt thank you, without you translators, Segmentierer. I wouldn’t enjoy watching Asian dramas you are sooo great in what you do spezieller Dank an das deutsche Team :slight_smile:

you do it all voluntarily and at your time and with so much enthusiasm, because it has to be, otherwise it would not be as wonderful to understand as it is here, honestly and naturally, from the heart and soul and that only works have fun and love what and how you do it … thank you for sharing :slight_smile:
I hope you understand me * laughs * because with me the machine for translation is a big help :frowning:
best regards
Gaby:)

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Ahh I can’t believe 2020 is actually over! They say, “Don’t judge a book by its cover”, and that’s completely true for this year…we’ve all been hit so bad by this pandemic, but there have been so many wonderful things I’ve experienced because of this situation, and I’m so thankful to God for helping me see them.
This was my first year as a drama fan and Viki volunteer, and its been a fun rollercoaster! Thank you, Viki, for the amazing selection of content, as well as Viki Discussions, the place to meet this beautiful community. A huge thank you to all the volunteers here-- segmenters, channel managers, subtitlers, moderators, editors, graphic designers…for all the hard work, giving us the best experience watching and making Dramaland accessible to us foreign viewers. :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: A heartfelt thank you, धन्यवाद, 감사합니다 and 謝謝你 (hope that’s correct, I don’t know any Chinese :joy::sweat_smile:)
Thank you, @jeslynl and @mariliam for getting all our support questions answered so quickly, y’all really work tirelessly :gift_heart:. Thank you @aznative for all the updates and @marykarmelina for the new drama updates. Thank you @lutra for the amazing recommendations and @sheishun too, I’m slowly going through your lists and almost all of them end up as favourites :star_struck:. @kaorikazehaya and @keeraaa or being my first team, even though it was hard, thank you for welcoming me and helping me enter and enjoy this community. Thank you, @rose_shn nd @justine_desmoulins or the designing advice and inspiration.

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@choitrio and @irmar for being the best Korean teachers and making everything so much easier, I’m so thankful! @twinkling, my sunbaenim, thanks for all your work in the Hindi community and making sure I don’t feel alone in the 18 Again campaign :wink::gift_heart:. Thank you @mirjam_465 @frustratedwriter and @ninjas_with_onions or being the sweetest people and making me laugh so much , @mirjam_465 meet me in @frustratedwriter’s closet, I’m sure she’s got a whole batch of the yummiest Christmas cookies! :joy::sunglasses:
Thank you @angelight313_168 or all the meaningful reviews…and all you other amazing people at Viki Discussions, both new-comers and old members, you really made my days, I looked forward so much to discussing about everything here. I’m really sorry if I’ve missed anyone, there are so many special people here! :sweat_smile::smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

And the biggest lesson I learned-- AGE IS JUST A NUMBER, HAVE ALL THE FUN YOU CAN!! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and have a happy new year! :star2::sparkles::smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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Awww… thank you! @vivi_1485, I think everyone would agree that you are our number 1 cheerleader.:kissing_heart:

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As far as I know @vivi_1485 is the baby here in discussion, right?

Is good to have a young person that is so mature, and is willing to talk to us the older crowd. Most young ppl avoid older ppl. lol

Thank you for joining this community and keeping us entertained bc this year hasn’t been easy and coming here to discussion helped me keep my mind busy on something else and that’s a lifesaver in its self.

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