I have seen the followings on one or two shows - When the show first becomes available there is no English subtitle. And they would release the full subtitle (100%) when it’s ready. I don’t know if that would make everyone happy, but it would eliminate the types of questions about “why the subtitle disappears at certain points of the episode”. However, it could be a couple days or more sometimes before the subtitles is 100% complete. What’s your opinion?
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So you would like a feature that allows the moderator (or CE) to release the subtitles only when they are at 100%? But some people like to see the progress and even watch an episode with only a few subtitles. For those people who complain, they should just check the percentage before watching an episode.
Anyway, I think there will always be complaints. Sometimes, it comes from people who doesn’t even know how Viki works.
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I have been using Viki for the past 3+ years and it amazes me everyday when I see those complaints. I wonder if they are all new to Viki or they never figure it out. 
I do wonder if it’s up to the individual subtitle team to decide how to deploy the subtitle
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The subtitles aren’t “uploaded” (exception: pre-subbed dramas), they are there at the moment the subber clicks “save” on a segment or switches to the next segment.
So when someone play an episode, the subtitles will be shown to them at the level as it is. And as long as they do not update while playing, it remains so.
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This is how it works:
https://support.viki.com/hc/en-us/articles/115015389988-Subtitle-Creation-on-Viki
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Sometimes it’s only lyrics missing or something, in that case the episode can be watched, but is still not at 100%. The same if a series is released presubbed. After the segmenters worked on it, it has like 85-95% depending on how much additional stuff they added. Still, that episode could be watched without a hitch before this.
Generally speaking, they might very well already work on that issue, e.g., by using paid subtitlers to avoid the delays (often seen in Korean dramas) or using them to presub (often seen in Japanese or Chinese or other language dramas except for Kdramas).
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Release should have all subtitles ready. Notice that some, if not a lot of fans who rate a series/film low, are those who are disgruntled due to unavailable subtitles which affect the show’s ratings. I, for one, get really irritated and frustrated that subtitles aren’t available. I often read why people rate a show very low and most of them are from viewers who wish the subtitles are available at the same time of its release. Do I make sense?
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No. If you rate a show, you speak your opinion about the show itself. That has nothing to do with the availability of subtitles. It’s about time that viewers learn how things work on Viki. Subtitles don’t just magically appear. It involves hard work by a team of people who give their spare time and energy so that you and others can sit back and relax and watch the show without having to wonder what the characters are talking about. This goes for presubbed episodes as well as for shows with no subtitles at all. The least you could do in return would be having some patience and let us work in peace.
And what message do you think you are sending to the makers of the dramas by giving them low ratings, just because 1 platform doesn’t present all subtitles ASAP?
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That’s a disadvantage we have to bear with. I used to watch a weekend drama raw without subs, so i would have hated it if I had to wait for the subtitling to get over before I could access it. Some shows have to be segmented and then subtitled. It takes time and some people dont want to wait while others choose to wait for good subs(if you wait for a few weeks, you’ll get the best subs - translated, proofread and edited).
Reviews are supposed to be for the show. We can’t help it if people want to misuse it. In the end, the ratings stabilize once all the work on the drama is done and enough viewers watch the show. If you compare websites, Viki has the most lenient ratings, anyway. MDL is much harsher.
One more thing - other languages. Other Language(OL) teams can work on a video only after the English team is done. It would be a huge mess if videos were released at different times for different languages. Since you’ve observed the reviews section, you probably have already seen the amount of low reviews because a language isnt available in someone’s language. These are things we can’t really do anything about. They complain if the subs aren’t ready on time and they also complain if the video gets released late. We’re never going to get rid of complainers.
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That’s what I’m trying to say. I have not rated a show due to subtitles, but I’ve read responses with ratings affected by the absence or lateness of subtitles. I can see and feel the same frustration.
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Obviously! Take a look at some of the ratings on shows where they were rated quite low by irate viewers due to late/missing subtitles. It’s not fair to the actors/producers/directors/screenwriters to be rated so low due to the lateness of subtitles but some viewers don’t seem to care.
My thought is this - have the subtitles ready and available before releasing an episode or so.
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You know that due all the complains some really good subbers have left Viki because they where sick and tired about all the complains we where getting? As for myself I also recently took a break and one of the reasons, but not the main reason, was because Viki is quite toxic at times. People should get themselves educated on how Viki works and Viki should step in more to educate people and stand up for their volunteers against the malicious complaining viewers who can’t be bothered to read the comment sections and keep asking for subs over and over again. And on top of that there are trolls who made it their fulltime job to annoy the volunteers. So stop complaining and be grateful!
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As I said before, the ratings are weird only in the beginning, and then they stabilize. So it isn’t really going to impact the popularity of the drama. Those who are deterred by the lower ratings could be convinced to watch by the press releases, MDL, other viewers and the general social media hype surrounding the drama. Soon, the number of people who give it high ratings will overpower those who give low ones. Doom at Your Service was filled with complainers because of “slow subbing” but as you can probably see now, the ratings have stabilized.
Did you fully understand what I said, though? I seem to be repeating myself again and you’re saying the same thing 
Also, you can help the shows and the community by flagging reviews as innapropriate. They get taken down and the rating goes back up 
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Yes if you see reviews that are not reviews flag them. If enough people flag they will get removed and hopefully the reviewer gets a warning from Viki to use the review section properly.
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If episodes were withheld until subs were 100% you’ll get different kinds of complaints from ppl who likes to watch raw (no subs).
In the end, there’s no perfect way to do this. The demand of humans are neverending.
Sometimes an episode is 99% because there’s 1 sub that’s missing and it’s literally just a board sign that says, “Mary’s restaurant” or a building number like, “B2”.
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I shall flag them from here on. I saw the injustice of those reviews due only to late subbing.
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I understand where you are coming from. All other sites will release the content only when the subtitles are already there. But those sites have paid translators who are on strict deadline to complete the subtitles as soon as the show is available before releasing to the general public. But Viki’s model is different. I’m not going to get into why Viki doesn’t follow other sites and pay the translators. There are tons of other threads and discussions about that. But no matter what, nothing will ever make everyone happy.
Exactly!
Viki pays for for the license to stream these shows, with or without subtitles. Users pay for Viki for contents without any ads, not for subtitles. So they have the right to watch it even before subtitles are completed.
Some people are bilingual and do not need the subs to watch. Others are learning the language and have partial knowledge of the language, and they like watching even when the sub isn’t complete, so they can practice (or test themselves), and then they re-watch it with the subs later to check their progress.
Some shows that are not as popular take weeks and months and even years for the subtitles to be completed, and some others are never even completed. So then should these show never be released even though Viki bought the license to show them? (No need to answer. It’s just a rhetorical question. 
)
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I am glad that we have a friendly and open discussion of this topic. Because Viki has its constraints, I agree that there will always complaints no matter what.
I did notice certain shows do not have subtitle team listed. For examples, My Teen Girl (on air) has the subtitles complete 100% the next day the show was available on Viki. I also went back to look at some of the year end Awards show, as well as a few others. They all do not have subtitle teams listed. Does Viki hire professionals to do the subtitles on those shows or do you think the license include subtitles?
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All drama that doesn’t have a team is managed by Viki and is subbed by Viki Staff or maybe the license came with subs. Who knows…
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The shows you are talking about are indeed managed by Viki staff and not volunteers as @dudie said. It’s shows coming only with English subs. Because of the license contract, some shows are only available in US and only with English subs, so Viki staff is managing these channels.
You can see for example on “My Teen Girl” channel, there’s this sentence written " This show has English subtitles only. Learn more"
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