New Style of moderating Viki's main page of a show's comments

Unfortunately the rate limits for :heartpulse: hearts, :speech_balloon: replies, etc. Affects not only @angelight313_168, it affects the many fans often here in community discussions. I suspect it is either a good breaking point for some fans, but an interruption to communication for other fans. This is also a good take away, for improvements.

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I discovered Viki in 2016 and spent prolly two years learning how to navigate the insanity of public comments, fitting in a few pithy statements here and there before I discovered . . . I could turn them off!! And then I discovered I could offer more than a few syllables with my Disqus account. And when I started paying for extras and discovered I could join “community discussions,” how happy was I?

I discovered Viki in 2016 and spent two years learning how to navigate the insanity of public comments, fitting in a few pithy statements here and there before I discovered . . . I could turn them off!! And then I discovered I could offer more than a few syllables with my Disqus account. And when I started paying for extras and discovered I could join “community discussions,” ​how happy was I?

But when I think about it, why are there THREE modes of discussion on the website, and why are all of them tinged with chaos and confusion?

My understanding is that Viki was originally the “baby” of college/university students. It was an all-volunteer operation run by people who knew each other. These folks had special skills and interests and took pride in working behind the scenes to enlighten and educate others about Asian culture as seen in movies and television programs.

From my evolving perspective, Viki was for a long time, and still is, a very special type of post-production company devoted to putting subtitles on movies and television programs for the benefit of a very special, very narrowly focused niche market.

Then it evolved into a movie theater showing the results of that post-production devotion.

Then it developed into a fan club for the results of that post-production devotion.

And then a group of people came along and bought the post production company, the movie theater, and the fan club. And they discovered they could make a lot of money by maintaining the illusion that Viki is some sort of . . . university-run entertainment network, movie theater, book store, coffee shop, and clothing store, all fueled by participants’ love of Asian culture.

And despite the constant communications turmoil created as a result . . . despite the constant bickering, finger-pointing, blame-placing, virtue-signalling . . . despite the constant struggles among self-perceived leaders, experts, and Viki “true believers” . . . there are never any real, serious reforms, changes, improvements instigated by the current people in charge . . . because if a cow is giving you a lot of milk, what difference does it make if she makes a lot of noise and leaves “cow pies” where people step in them constantly?

Even if the wisest, most common-sense person in the world took over and proposed drop-dead simple and useful changes to the format of discussions on the community board . . .

Figured out a way to encorage public commenters to act like rational adults and not rude, selfish middle schoolers . . .

Put in place a community standards review board made up of individuals of proven integrity . . .

Proposed reasonable compensation for the subbers and segmenters and others who make Viki’s popularity and profitability possible . . .

Nothing would change as long as people are in denial about what the issues really are, who is responsible for their continuing, and who benefits from things being a bit of a mess.

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Links seem to be often suspicious for them, so they have to make sure that it’s an innocent link.
Not always, though. Youtube, Wikipedia and such always pass through the filter.

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I never like such shortcuts when it comes to translations, especially in shows where it’s obvious they do not speak modern.

:laughing: Ha! I take it with a grain of salt :salt: when I see the same name, or expression written differently throughout a show. I have to :smile: it sure is a relief when the continuity is throughout the show. :slightly_smiling_face:

You’ve answered in the right place, the place the issue was raised. :slightly_smiling_face:

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I will keep this short. @irmar, it seems that we agree on most points. However, the examples I cited deal purely with the preferences of editors, such as the use of Korean honorifics versus English equivalents. If the editors truly want uniformity, I urge the editors to set aside their differences and come up with a single set of rules for subbing and not ask subbers to spend any extra time, which we could better spend translating, on reading and adjusting to different rules for each project.

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Sadly so, I would like to see that fear debunked. Maybe they need the right tools to combat whatever fears, real, or imagined exist. There’s always a solution, the task of finding it, is the challenge.

@choitrio, @irmar,
Uhmm. . . Is this something that is missing from the Academy training?

Ha! :rofl::joy: So right! They are scattered! We need a :bridge_at_night: good bridge at this juncture.

A true observation, hilarious none the less! :joy:

This is the dream, I do believe the fans who left, who genuinely contributed, would surely appreciate such a :gift: gift, something that should be considered.

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As a subber, for each project, I have to read the Team Notes to find out whether or not the use of Korean honorifics is acceptable, whether all texts appearing on screen should be in brackets, when to use italics or breaks, etc. It may not seem like a big deal to read and follow each Team Notes but for subbers with multiple projects, it does get tiresome.

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Don’t know about this, but I noticed that comments that exceed two lines go for moderation while others get posted visibly immediately…
I posted a paragraph-long comment and it became visible after about three days. I once mistakenly posted wrong information and that got deleted, but I got a notification saying Viki deleted it. I personally don’t have much of a problem with the moderation thing; as far as I’ve seen, it’s pretty reasonable.

This is for new users. I had it in the first few months and then I was granted unlimited(?) likes once I reached Member/Regular status…I never get that notif now :slight_smile:

seen this, it’s just a suggestion. click the “close” button at the top right and it closes and lets you write whatever you want.

I agree with you! I love going back after the CE has finished edits to see where I went wrong. It helps volunteers who really want to learn and get better.

Not every subber goes through Academy training.

aah, I’ll remember that! :sweat_smile:
Please, anyone who decides to leave, inform us somewhere so we could send you off well^^

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When I talked about uniformity I meant uniformity within a single project, not for all editors to comply to one person’s likings. That’s impossible and I wouldn’t welcome it.
As a long-time subber myself, I agree that it can be bothersome to adapt to different rules for each project. But I never found it too daunting. I have a separate tab with the rules and from time to time I consult it.
All of us do agree on most basic things as the use of italics, the use of a single note for live singing, not using cosmetic breaks, putting the family or job appellation before the name (unlike in Korean) etc. Most shows use cgwm808’s rules. But yes, there are differences: some of us, for instance, like using “oppa”, “noona” etc. and some others don’t. When I am editor, I strongly advocate for Revised Romanization, whereas others prefer to keep the “English-centric”, colonial style romanization.
However, we cannot force our own preference to others, because Viki is not centralized, there is no higher power to set rules for everybody, like a publishing house or a newspaper or commercial streaming platform.
I, for one, would resent it and would probably quit if there were a moderator who would want to play dictator and impose his or her rules here.

The Academy, any academy, is just volunteer-made, not an institution that can impose rules to editors. And rightly so. If we are not talking about obvious grammar and syntax mistakes, there’s no “right” and “wrong”.

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I started college as an art student, then switched to English lit as my major. I lived in a neighborhood jammed with students in apartments who were always out and about being serious and creative. My friends and I were always rushing out of class to go to the Biograph Theater to watch foreign films or read poems we wrote to each other. I cherished the independent, creative spirit, but when someone I never suspected of being a diva suddenly took over the conversation and got snarky because he or she had a bad hair day (or whatever), that always simultaneously annoyed me, amused me, and generated a lot of sympathy.

Being a creative is not all it’s cracked up to be. And Viki is loaded with creatives.

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By three modes of discussion, if you mean TCs, Comments and Discussions…
I think each is important standing on its own. We couldn’t have the discussions we have here on the Comments pages. We couldn’t have the Comments in the TCs because you can’t reply to TCs and there are show-related discussions going on in some Comments pages. No one would understand TC jokes if they were in the Comments.

I liked the setup on the mobile app- Discussions are easily accessible from the Channel pages.

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Maybe they should? A place where everyone knows the inclusive rules.

:sneezing_face: :laughing::joy: The fans who watch shows with a box of tissue :roll_of_toilet_paper: or roll of toilet tissue, :sparkles::wink: K-drama style :smile:

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I guess there’s no academy for English language. Although there are academies for OLs.

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There is an old saying in English that, if there are several possible solutions to a problem, the simplest one is the best.

From my point of view, Viki is terribly centralized in terms of money and profitability. There certainly is a higher power to set rules, etc., but it is to their corporate advantage to let the unpaid volunteers duke it out because it saves them time and money.

I posted a long post some time ago about how the value of what subbers contribute exceeds the net worth of some of Viki’s owners.

From my perspective, it’s a variation of the “whistleblower” K-drama. People who should take responsibility for running things don’t. People who should be thanked and compensated for keeping things in order aren’t. Only with Viki, there is no heroine or hero to make things right.

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Actually, what irmar and I are discussing deals more with preferences of different editors, not subbing skills. I, personally, would like to see a single set of rules but it may not be possible.

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Asked about this before, and I agree with whoever replied to me, it’s just tiresome for someone who is well-versed with their language.

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Got it! Room for individual expression,
within limits. :ok_hand:t5:K!

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True! The :bridge_at_night: bridge :bridge_at_night: is for crossing over :joy: I would not expect to see fans all congregated, and having any type of discussions on the bridge. :joy::face_with_hand_over_mouth::laughing:

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