Yes, you didn’t understand what she said. When she talked of availability because of “their own professional and personal life” she meant things outside of Viki. More work than usual, family things like a marriage or a funeral, exam season if it’s a student or teacher, tax season if the person is an accountant or has a business, high season if they are a bed and breakfast owner, Christmas season if they have a gift shop. An accident. Getting hospitalized. Winning the lottery. A new love. A new baby!
Those things can make a usually very committed Viki volunteer less available for a while. They don’t depend on their number of dramas, so they cannot be known or seen by Viki nor by anyone else here, unless the person chooses to inform us.
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Viki specifically asked us to do so. I find the request unusual, to say the least, but we are just following the rules we got for this drama so you can’t tell us that we are abusers. Besides, it’s only temporary. The English team will fill in the right translations as soon as they can. In the meantime, there is no difference for the viewers, except that they won’t get frustrated about their drama not being fully subbed yet.
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OK, thanks, I didn’t misunderstand, I just didn’t see how this is relevant to my point. We don’t know the future, we only know the present. If someone applies to be a CM, I assume they consider themselves to be available. They could have a baby. They could get a new job. They could move. Yes. But at the moment of application, in their own judgement, they have the capacity to be a CM. So they apply. The person selecting the CM can do only one thing: check how many ongoing roles that person has. If that person is full of ongoing jobs, their application will be ranked lower. It is to ensure rotation and even distribution of projects so that no-one becomes some sort of project magnet, accumulating multiple roles at any given time while others have nothing to do. As the selection cannot be made on potential future eventualities, I don’t really understand (still) why this is mentioned as an obstacle to developing a fair system. If someone is unable to finish a project (because life happens), they need to let the relevant people know and new people should be recruited. I suppose you and @bozoli may have meant that maybe these things happened to someone in the past and this may make them look less reliable now and so they may get scored lower than others?
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No, I didn’t mean things that may happen after the application.
What I mean (I am not speaking about bozoli, that’s my own interpretation) is that Viki cannot know how busy we are in real life. Someone might still apply, and technically Viki thinks s/he is a very free person. But in reality this person is not free, but has lots and lots of things going on in real life, but still applied anyway because s/he is a hoarder. While someone else has 4 ongoing projects but is a pensioner who spends most of the day, every day, on Viki.
I hope it’s more understandable now.
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But there is always a period of time between the application and being chosen and the potential CM can’t know how long this period will be cause it’s different each time. And even if they could, all kinds of things might happen in that period to either decrease or increase their availability. The CM can’t predict the future, and Viki has no insight in the CM’s life outside of Viki.
The amount of projects is not that black-and-white, either. Due to many factors, the actual time and energy put into it can vary among people with exactly the same amount of projects. Plus, for some roles, like TE, we simply don’t have that many people.
Just excluding the people who have been chosen as CMs recently would already result in rotation.
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Thanks for explaining. Now I understand. In reality (I think), hoarders don’t look like they are free. At least I’ve never encountered this problem, but maybe it is a bigger issue than I think. For me, the opposite seems to be true: there are hoarders, but they manage to hoard all these jobs because they do everything at an incredible speed and that is a guarantee for Viki. That’s why they get chosen all the time.
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I really admire you because you have given so much information and suggestions that if the CEO/Owners and staff at this site read them and care enough (technical department?) they can find a way to resolve this issue because no matter how many if or but’s they want to mention here; I think is time to take the control out of the hands of volunteers/paid subbers that are selfish (hoggers), and don’t care if their actions are so unfair towards others in any given language, and worse yet, they’re even affecting the Quality that RVIKI shined for (many years back).
In my opinion, the way they reward at this site the volunteers through ‘‘contribution count’’ has to be changed. There HAS to be a better way to reward volunteers without having them becoming obsessed of ‘‘hogging’’ more projects so they can keep those numbers way up.
There has to be a way to stop/block people that are (hoggers) from preventing others to have a fair distribution of volunteer work to do here at this site. Like I always say; Quality and Quantity can work hand in hand, as long as EVERYONE has a fair chance to prove their worth as a volunteer.
PS. I use hog/hogger in my slang/Spanish translation: ‘‘Afrentao’’
Synonym of hog
- (take greedily )
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If you were to take only the status quo statistics, you would miss out on a lot.
For example, I have only 3 projects as a Mod and am not a subber on any unfinished project. Looking at the snapshot of my active projects, one might think that I have capacity for 2 more Mod projects and a CM project on top of that. In reality I’m currently really low on time I can spend contributing on Viki, and these two out of these three projects have been on a standstill because of my personal and professional life. So, actually I don’t have the capacity/availablity to do any CM project at the moment.
Furthermore, I think someone already mentioned this issue. I apply for a project as a CM. Two whole months later I get a response I got the position. But, oops, I have a deadline at work and can’t deal with Viki now, I’m barely contributing lately. And I still have those two moderator slots available, making it seem like I’m good to go. But I’m everything but.
But let’s say we would like to see the past actions of a user to predict availability in the next week. We would have to take ca 3-5 snapshots over time:
- On the day of reviewing applications (Day 0).
- One week before (Day -7)
- Two weeks before (Day -14)
etc.
And then calculate the rate of contributing - how many contributions/episodes per week and how steady the rate has been over weeks.
Now, if I were sick for a week or on a vacation - that would show and diminish my chances as a CM candidate.
If I were a pure segmenter, the rate of contribution would seem so small compared to a subber or editor/moderator. So I couldn’t even compete for that position.
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Thanks, I didn’t realize the waiting time to find out if your application has been successful can be so long. I’ve never applied to be a CM, I’ve always just wanted subbing jobs.
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Thank you, but it’s just because I’m a bit autistic and love well-run systems.
Yes, I think if there is one thing most of us agree on here is that it’s always the same people who get to be CMs.
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This is another variant. There are more than one type of hoarders!
And not only among CMs and moderators.
I know in the Italian community hoarder subbers, people who have more than 20 projects going. They have to keep a weekly calendar to mark the schedule of when they are supposed to finish which part of which project.
Of course they don’t have the time to watch the dramas they are subbing, so they don’t know the story, the characters, who is who, they don’t remember who is supposed to speak formally to whom and there’s no time to bother to look at the spreadsheet either, since they have to rush and then go on to the next project. As a result they make lots of mistakes, because of not knowing the context. As an editor, I am extremely pissed when this happens.
One example among many (not even from a drama but from a 2-hour film): a professor was mentioned, and was translated as a he in Italian, with all adjectives and verbs in masculine form. But if the subber had watched the beginning, where the professor had appeared in a couple of scenes, she would have known it was a female!
What’s more amazing, one of those ladies has quite a busy life, she works in a school and is also the carer of her elderly ailing mother.
But she’s not the only one, I know quite a few people like this.
That’s why I often say I would like to see the slot system for subbers too. Maybe a bit more than five slots, but still not … infinite!
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Many here will give you the million and one story (in full detail too) as to why the same CM may get ‘‘picked’’ all the time, but have in mind that’s all in the control groups we have here in ALL Language. Once the ‘‘team’’ is made of these controlling groups of people they jump from project to project without giving any chance for newbies or any other volunteers outside of their group to be able to work in projects (dramas/movies/shows).
The good thing that some of these old controlling groups have been kicked to the curb by these new controlling groups, and now they feel the pain and whine all the time bc they don’t have as much work to do as they had in the past. The old saying ‘‘what goes around comes around’’ prove to be true.
But no matter what; the vicious cycle continues, and it needs to be stopped because it’s affecting a lot the Quality of the subtitles, and there’s no need for that to be happening. This site can have the best of both: Quality and Quantity. They just need to divide the work FAIRLY and EQUAL for all the people willing to provide their volunteer services whether is for FREE or as a PAID subber.
PS> …I came upon this by chance, and little old me don’t know how to added here so I resort to this. I don’t like to write things unless I can prove I was right. So the new controlling groups are taking over and some are feeling the pain of rejection now . Being rejected while HAVING all the qualifications is not a fair or justified thing to do. I hope the new controlling groups give others that are more than qualified a chance, and work towards a better QUALITY in the subtitles here at RVIKI. I refuse to watch dramas/movies/shows here; until this issue/unfair practice gets resolved.
Exactly.
Every now and then, I find myself watching shows with subtitles like these. They can be unintentionally hilarious, and when I’m fed up with just being frustrated with them, I figure it’s better to have a good laugh instead. It is abundantly cleat that the subber was not watching the show. The problem is, there is an “Editor” on these shows. Who obviously did nothing.
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Sorry to continue to quote your writing, but like I said you always hit on point the things that are messed up in here.
In the case of the Hungarian Petition to address unfair practice …
This is a perfect example of Hungarian native speakers, writers, readers that ARE more than qualified to provide a better Quality work in translations, Editing as Editors, etc., and they are denied/blocked from doing just that.
In the English Language we have the same situation going on right Now; someone that has to work with translation tools for their Editing work are added in so many dramas/movies, and I can’t understand why that’s still going on in here.
In the past the Moderators when through extreme, and made spreadsheets on how we should address each character as we subbed, but in my opinion by reading the about is enough to know who has to be addressed as formal/informal. That amount of work requires ridiculous amount of hours for the Moderator, and time is of the essence for this profit making sites, and that is why these moderators are no longer ‘‘needed’’ here.
Their ‘‘method’’ had people waiting for subs for days at a time; creating frustration for the paying subscribers and even causing for some to cancel their subscription.
Their hogging and controlling tactics came back to bite them in the ***.
So with that in mind, I can assure that no matter how many Editors a drama may have, if they are not qualified enough, but are kept in the controlling teams; QUALITY work here has completely DIED, and we might as well BURY any hope of these wrong things to EVER change at this site… 
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I never applied for the CM position in the past. As a CE, I used to look at the “Coming Soon” shows and message the CM of any drama that I wanted to work on. Now, if I don’t apply to be a CM, the CM is appointed and the CE position is filled immediately without anyone else getting a chance.
I see highly competent CEs like Jadecloud get rare CE jobs, while certain other CEs are always appointed. We CEs can look at a CM’s name and know exactly which CE will be appointed. It’s not like those specific CEs chosen have a good reputation for their work.
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The CM position should not go to one person more than three times a year.
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A CM must give at least three days for applications of Moderator roles before choosing the best candidate.
In Blossom: The episodes load in four days and the CM is taking applications. In Blossom | Watch with English Subtitles, Reviews & Cast Info | Viki
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Given the amount of willing people compared to the number of projects available, I would say per year:
- two series, independent of the number of episodes, and
- three projects in total (counting in the movies)
And all co-CM positions should be included into this total number.
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I decided to do a fact check.
Lovely Runner: CM Applicant count: 148
How many times has this person been CM?
Missing Crown Prince: CM Applicant count: 143
Reblooming Blue: Applicant count: 92
You are My Secret: Applicant count: 125
The Witch: Applicant count: 134
Boys, Be Brave: Applicant count: 30 It’s a BL.
Phro Thoe Khue Rak Raek: Applicant count: 103
Hide: Hide | Watch with English Subtitles, Reviews & Cast Info | Viki
How many times has this person been CM?
How many times has this person been CM?
P.S. I Hate You: The drama loads today. P.S. I Hate You | Watch with English Subtitles & More | Viki
How many times has this person been CM?
The facts prove that some people often get to be CM, while others do not.
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Let me correct you. While not every moderator has a decent document, a lot of us still do. And no, reading the about does not give you enough information to know who is formal/informal. That’s inaccurate information.The about section does not even give you information about all the characters. Even MDL sometimes does not have all the characters, adding to that is the fact that most of the time you don’t know the relationship between characters unless you watch it. As a moderator, watching and preparing ahead of time is the bare minimum. Now, going back to the topic at hand, it shouldn’t take hours and hours to prepare the document. It takes me about 1 hour to prepare each episode.
Unfortunately, it still hasn’t.
I cannot disagree with that point. =It’s sadder to know that some moderators defend those people.
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Well, I don’t know if we are talking about the same thing, but being that you are a Spanish Moderator of course, it will take you less time to do the ‘‘document’’ since the Korean/Chinese/Japanese Original Language Moderator did all the work already, and all you have to do is translate it into Spanish for your Spanish team.
@thaly1209
Unfortunately, it still hasn’t.
FOR YOU; it hasn’t because you are now dealing with the new controlling groups we have here now. I believe you are new around here, and that’s what you are dealing with the new controlling groups. I am talking about the old controlling groups which by the time you got here they were already feeling the bite in their ***. I saw time after time this same old controlling groups taking over dramas as CM/Moderators/etc., in Korean/Chinese dramas/movies, never giving many others a chance, and recruiting people in their teams that were less qualified over the ones that meet all the standard to give Quality work in the subtitles. Those are the one I’m saying that now are getting a taste of their own medicine: feeling rejected, unfairly treated by ‘‘viki’’ but when they were doing all the ‘hogging’’ it was all good.
@thaly 1209
I cannot disagree with that point. =It’s sadder to know that some moderators defend those people.
It’s in your face, and you don’t see it? That’s part of the controlling groups TACTICS; they DEFEND each other, cover for one another, and stand by their member of their controlled team, no matter how terrible they may be.
Now…who are we going to blame if this unfair practices continue to go on here at RVIKI in every/any given Language? Of course, not our dear ‘‘viki’’ not my dear viki… 
For all is worth; I believe the control is now in the hands of the Paid subbers. Hope is lost.