Hello!
As a segmenter and a CS. I can tell you that segmenters HATE all these pre-subbed shows. An experienced segmenter can segment a 10-minute part in maybe 10 to 20 minutes. (Depends on the density of the dialog)
But viewers were not happy having to wait for English subtitles, so Viki started dropping shows pre-subbed in English.
Segmenters have to jump through hoops to fix the segments on pre-subbed A&C shows. At least segmenters get credit for pasting subs together when we combine, but we aren’t creating segments. We are only fixing bad timing. The time to work on a part increased to 30 to 45 minutes per part. Many segmenters refuse to work on A&C and have dropped out.
A&C - Adjusting the timing and Combining segments and subs is very time-consuming Plus, it is prone to errors due to latency. Segmenters are from all over the world and the work we do is not instantaneously updating the Viki servers. Latency caused the paste and extension errors and the loss of some subtitles. Viewers complained. At least on A&C shows, the sentences are intact and there are no duplicate segments/subs.
Then, to make international viewers happy, Viki has started dropping shows with English AND Portuguese and sometimes Spanish and French subtitles. The time to combine both English and Portuguese subs increased from 1/2 hour to one hour. Add another half hour for each language.
Segmenters are not willing to paste together 4 languages per segment if they have to combine segments. They take too long plus latency ruins things. So, these multiple language shows are paste English subs only.
Other languages HATE working with broken sentences across multiple segments. A few have been rage-quit saying that segmenters are doing terrible work. - I agree with them! Segmenters hate them too. But segmenters are few and overworked. Overworked segmenters don’t have the time to devote to saving all the language’s subs. All we can do is paste the English subs together so the OLs know which ones should be grouped, and let the OLs fix their own languages.
More segmenters have dropped out. They don’t have an hour to give for one part. We tried reducing the parts to 5 minutes and that brought the working time down to 30 minutes on average. However, we have found too many errors due to latency when we are pasting subs together on multiple languages because the segment timer and bulk editor were not designed to work in tandem. The segment timer can overwrite what we just combined in Bulk due to latency in the sync process. We can’t see that unless we refresh everything and look, which increases the working time yet again. Multiply that reload time for every segment and it is too much time.
To avoid latency errors, we tried pasting English together first, then each of the other languages separately, then going back to English and deleting excess segments and extending the single segment. That is great for the Other languages and it is preferred by them and the TEs who need to hear the full sentences, BUT we can miss a combination here and there.
Even more segmenters have dropped out.
For the CS, (chief segmenter) verifying the combinations and the subs on multiple language shows take a tremendous amount of time to verify. PLUS, most CS do not speak the other languages so they won’t always know if a language’s subs are intact anyway. We depend on the OLs to verify the subs.
Almost all segmenters refuse to work on adjust-only shows for 3 reasons.
1: We can not earn our Viki pass.
2: Spending so much time fixing the timing but still having the broken sentences flash past too fast to read is unfulfilling, and dissatisfactory. And reading broken subs is annoying.
3: repeat #1 & #2
I watch shows on Ne tf lix and i Qi Yi that aren’t on Viki and I will tell you that I hate the broken subtitles and bad timing. I am spoiled watching VIki’s shows with good timing and decent subs. The other sites’ bad timing is all due to machine-cut segments and a lack of skilled human beings to fix them.
IMO the people in charge of Rakuten/Viki, the corporation, do not watch these shows, they do not see what bad timing looks like, don’t see the behind-the-scenes either, and probably don’t care. They are only interested in their bottom line $$$$. Happy viewers = $$$$$. We volunteers are just ‘free’ service to them that they probably don’t respect because we aren’t paid - since paid workers are often thought of as being more ‘capable’ than mere volunteers.
It is what it is. Unfortunately, Viki will end up losing a loyal volunteer base if this continues. Then Viki will become another streaming site full of broken timing and subs. But they probably won’t care because the fans who love this show aren’t flooding Viki with thank yous. Only the unhappy people bother to write their complaints about the lack of subs.
. I hope things will change and you can still have a chance to become one of us, volunteers.