I am right there with you. One does not need to be a genius to know " Dedicated employees/vonuteers do not need to be motivated. But you have to be wary of demotivating those."
3 Likes
I also translate and enjoy it, when my mother sees what we have done ^-^
1 Like
It’s not in your spam or junk folder?
Or untick the box, save and tick it again, save again.
(“you” = viki?)
I think:
- I think it’s more about defending what seems right, not particularly someone or an entity (or me).
Sometimes, it happens that we defend Viki or sometimes the team.
Most of the time, we see people defending the team in comments because the people who comment are eyeing at volunteers or talk about “subbers” so inevitably, you’re bound to answer in that direction, defending the team.
Defend oneself on this website, against what exactly?
In our life, we’re bound to meet some people who will call us out in the streets or drunk people or dogs barking at us, what do we do? Will we bark at dogs, reason with drunk people or begin to make a fuss with the people who insult us in the street or even turn our head?
If they want to speak, then they can speak.
Why should you care and be touched by it or play at the same level?
I mean it’s strangers and for whatever reason they have, their vision is reduced to “I pay so you owe me something.”
Why should we care more than that about their reaction when we know who we have in front of you? Do we take everyone seriously?
It’s just comments and in our mind, it should stay “it’s just comments”. Of course, there will always be more important things than answering in comments.
- We have our opinions that might be divergent, but it should stay harmless (and it’s like that in my mind, having different opinions on some matters and voicing them should be harmless).
It’s more beliefs or principles or what seems right that we “defend” or voicing out, but each one has his beliefs, principes or what seems right in their eyes… so each one is free to delete comments that ask for subs or not if they see it useful. We’re free, there’s no 1 best way.
If it seems right for you, then just go for it.
- About usefulness, it's just a matter of vision or different interests from parties. Different opinions don't kill on this matter (I hope so) :slight_smile: Any boss would like that their employees cost them less whereas any employee would like to gain more for their work. Viki would probably prefer to have less wages to pay than having to pay subbers. Some think that editing is not really necessary, we're doing it for fun, so they skip that part whereas some others think that it's really important. Some judge that a cover page is not really useful compared to... answering is not useful... etc.
In all cases, if it’s useful or not, it’s up to people’s opinions finally.
If people don’t see it’s useful, they will just not do it.
If some can’t do it, they can’t.
We’re free, no contract or whatsoever. We manage our timetable, our resources, our comments as adults. The only obligation is the one you fixed for yourself and the obligation that viki stated in their rules or their future statement on it.
About deleting comments from Viki, Youtube is not able to do this, so Viki… I have no great hope for that. “Flag” is kind of unavoidable.
- Relative: deleting comments or not, compared to…
Each one sees these comments in their eyes.
And so each one will rank priorities differently.
For me, it’s not what is the most important to delete comments, etc. Of course, cleaning walls is useful, but compared to many things everyone has to do in a day, if I could pick one, this one won’t be in my top priorities list and I’m sure this list is different from everyone.
Some will take it really badly, like insults.
Each one finally reacts differently depending on our sensibility to certain things.
They might feel that it’s insults because they’re doing the best they can already or it’s a miracle they could find time already and viewers are being ungrateful, etc.
It’s because they did many sacrifices already or their work is not recognized the way they wanted.
So obviously, if you’re going to criticize someone about their work whereas they have, not proud maybe, but let’s say… high esteem, it’s normal that you hit something delicate because it’s in them.
It’s about what you give, how precious you see what you give and your sensibility to how the thing you give is perceived from others, their reaction to your “gift” (recognition or expectation of… something coming from someone).
Some volunteers need some recognition in what they do.
What is right and what is wrong?
I don’t say it’s right, it’s wrong, but just that this is what I could observe.
- Knowing that, the recognition shown by gifts is only for 50 volunteers who sub or seg the most.
The counters are unfair already, so the “reward” gift can only be unfair.
Being fair for 50 counters and unfair to other 1000 counters doesn’t seem what I call fair.
It’s for this belief “fairness” that I thought wasn’t being respected.
(could be with viewers, volunteers and Viki):
It’s bothersome to spend time on this. We’re bound to spend time in everything, now, I don’t want to spend time on this anymore, it’s the same feeling when you talk with some viewers. Useless.
I feel Viki and volunteers have different priorities lists and different visions (we’re in the micro vision and the ones who use their tools whereas if it works enough, it’s enough for them, I suppose), so it’s normal that finally, we can never agree (on many things) and the way we would build things differs. We always see it differently, it would be good for once to understand why or their vision better so maybe we can really talk.
I read the QC newsletter this morning and the Quarterly gifts might motivate some, go for it, but I won’t be participating in this race.
- I don’t like accumulating things and 2) I don’t think it’s fair to those who do a lot of behind the scenes work, like editors, chief segmenters (or segmenters who correct segments), page designers, channel managers, seg academies, etc. 3) I promised myself to spend less time online, so
.
Edit: I do acknowledge that a lot of oldtimers make up the top 50 list and they make wonderful contributions, but sometimes those who value quantity and put in whatever, make it to the list as well.
6 Likes
I agree, but there is a time for everything.
For instance, sometimes I come to Viki in the evening, very tired, or very very early morning, just after waking up, when my brain does not function well enough to translate or edit. Then I enjoy deleting timed comments or flagging fake reviews. They are not the priority, but there is a time slot in which these things are the perfect thing to do.
2 Likes
Definitely. I will name no names, but I know a volunteer who made it regularly to the weekly top list. She was lightning quick in translating but never looked at her translation again, leaving lots of typos and other errors. When I complained (I was moderator in that project) she said “we are here for fun, we shouldn’t stress out, you sound like a school teacher”. I never worked with her again, although we were otherwise in good terms at the time.
5 Likes
Yup, while waiting for the subway, I confirm 
I think some volunteers have a trauma with comments (that could explain a lot, comments WWIII) 
We must cultivate our garden.
The question was: changing the world or changing us or both?
Or “Another interpretative possibility is that Candide cultivating “his garden” suggests his engaging in only necessary occupations, such as feeding oneself and fighting boredom. This is analogous to Voltaire’s own view on gardening: he was himself a gardener at his estates in Les Délices and Ferney, and he often wrote in his correspondence that gardening was an important pastime of his own, it being an extraordinarily effective way to keep busy”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candide
We pick what we want to believe when we read comments 
1 Like
@piranna you as “one” as “the volunteer” Now reading further, okay LOL you got that right.
After reading your thoughts, and keeping in mind what actually comes back from Viki, we probably should just ignore comments at all. Less trouble, one could open a thread here to discuss over the drama since in the comment it is quite impossible. We would really just leave that field for Viki to operate on. What a wonderful world this could. Lalala la la la lala history … I will just spent some time with Sam Cooke tonight
1 Like
You know, that’s not a bad idea at all!
1 Like
Works of art are rich of all possible interpretations, including those the author didn’t think of - at least not consciously. And of course one can find different layers when reading multiple times, at different stages of one’s life, and every historical era can read it through the lens of its own preoccupations.
I chose to read this passage in the sense that every action has its effects, and cultivating our own self and taking good care of our immediate environment, even if it’s a small, isolated corner of the world, can have an effect in changing the world.
I put this into practice a lot in my own life. I feed the cats under my house, I have saved and taken in my house quite a few in the course of my life and I also give 40 euros every year to a foundation for strays. That’s all. I do know that there are thousands, hundreds of thousands for whom I do nothing about, dying on the streets. But, distressing as it is, I say to myself “that’s what I can do in my immediate environment. I’m not ready to give up my life and go around the whole neighbourhood or city to help”. In the same way, I volunteer for an organization for unaccompanied migrant children. Not actively, every week. Just every now and then, when I have time, and I get an email about a child needing company or care.
Also I recycle stuff, and use cloth shopping bags, reusable Tupperware water bottles and lunch boxes. But I don’t give up my only Sunday to go to the beaches to pick up plastic bags. Although I know it would have been great if I did that, I have bad knees and a bad back, and I weigh the double of what I should, so I get breathless very quickly.
In the same way, I don’t pick up all the Viki projects that are given to me, just those I really like, and only a few at a time, because I don’t want to do it as a chore and be overwhelmed by deadlines.
That’s what I can do in my present situation, as a middle-aged woman with children, a job and an elderly mother to take care of. I refuse to stress and think of the overwhelming quantity of things I am NOT doing but desperately need to be done. I do what I’m comfortable doing with whatever I see in front of me, knowing that if everyone did just that little, the whole world would change.
3 Likes
[@anna79_9 Excellent suggestion!
About once every few months I get a short note out of the blue from a viewer who just writes to thank me for the subs and that is great. But If I needed those random occasional notes to work, I would have quit a long time ago and just vegged out, paid for viki pass plus, Netflix and other services and just watched. I think probably 99% of us contributors do it for the personal satisfaction we get and not for recognition or for the trinkets we get as QCs.
My hat’s off to the top 50 or top 100 contributors. The only time I’ve done more than 1000 contributions per day was when we had contests and my wrists ached afterwards. Viki used to have weekly top ten (or maybe 20?) by languages and even segmenting was broken down by source languages. I think it was uploaded on Mondays. It was a great recruiting tool too. Even though I have no chance of ever making it to top 3, I think it’s nice to recognize these people.
7 Likes
I MISS THOSE! Precisely because of its the recruiting potential, particularly vital for small languages such as mine (Croatian).
5 Likes
The gifts are getting pathetic.
6 Likes
lol I’m glad I’m not the only one that thinks that,too. I think is disrespectful to treat volunteers like that. . If they really appreciated the work the volunteers do here, they would show that by giving better thoughtful gifts.
I think totes with Rviki Logos would be pretty and useful. The gift should be a display to promote the site and at the same time something that the volunteer can use on a daily basis.
Unfortunately the promise of special gifts for top contributors has already given birth to at least two abusers who are current # 1 and #2. #2 put periods in over 10,000 subtitle blanks and nothing more. #1 is industriously copying English into google Translate to translate to Bengali and then entering Bengali into the sub editor.
6 Likes
2# has gone to room 404, as it seems
3 Likes
I’ve been keeping track of my ranking in het list for a few days and #250 was the highest place I got. In the pace and time that I contribute to subbing, I don’t think I’ll make a chance to reach the top 50. That’s why I think there is a fairer solution, that gives everyone the chance on prizes.
Instead of a ranking system where only the top 50 subbers get a prize, Viki should give out rewards for certain milestones a user receives.
Certain milestones could be 50.000 segs/subs, 100.000, 200.000, 500.000 etc.
In this way no one needs to stress about the time limit, because as long as you stay long enough it’s perfectly possible to reach such milestones.
And to reduce the chance of abusing this function, Viki’s algorithm should only count the subs/segs that were made for drama’s where the subber was officially part of a team. Although people still could abuse, especially when their language is not widely known, if they get caught and kicked out of the team or get their account blocked, it will be much harder/impossible to reach their milestone.
8 Likes
I want to let you all know that my QC gift of 2018 was in my mail today!
LOL - If someone is still waiting for it to come, there might be a chance left. I don’t know what happened maybe the ship was hijacked with the mail on board …
It’s the 3rd of September 2019 and the stamp is from the 15th February this year. Don’t know why it took so long … When I flipped the envelope over it I saw a bad readable stamp of “LUSAKA”?
So maybe my mail was on a world trip …
4 Likes