Despite the detailed explanation of how automatic translations and algorithms will not supersede or interfere with the quality of subs coming out of the Viki community, I have to laugh at the automatic response to my wanting to post on this topic:
Revive this topic?
The last reply to this topic was 10 months ago . Your reply will bump the topic to the top of its list and notify anyone previously involved in the conversation.
Are you sure you want to continue this old conversation?
The answer is, “Of course!”
Ten months ago, when people in charge of political decisions all over the world were universally and uniformly handling COVID policies and procedures badly, when economies and families and hopes and dreams were being devastated every day, and when disdain and hatred for AAPI groups in my country was rampant, I barely had time to focus on the Viki Community I contribute to as a subber.
I had trouble keeping in touch with my family members 500 miles from my home; I was in tears from hearing the stories of “Asianese” friends who were ridiculed and threatened on a daily basis; I wept because bad COVID policies kept two dear non-Asian friends from getting medical help on a timely basis and contributed to their non-COVID deaths.
I personally was so stressed out last year from a combination of issues that my previously robust health declined rapidly and led to my spending two weeks in the hospital with COVID at the the start of 2022.
Do I want to revive a topic that has been near and dear to my heart since my joining Viki?
Making subbing easier for subbers, the people that I consider to be the heart of the Viki Community Team, is something I definitely want to revive! I always want to have it as a topic of discussion.
As I look around the “Viki-verse” (the Viki universe) right now, in the spring of 2022, I see that those who serve as liaisons between Viki and the decision-makers at Rakuten are still struggling as much as they were three years ago.
Viki is what some economic models would call a wholly owned subsidiary of Rakuten. It has the unenviable task of making sure Viki retains everything that makes it superior to Netflix as a platform for promoting and showing Korean television shows and movies. And this is because Viki will disappear just like DramaFever if it doesn’t provide Rakuten with a decent income stream.
I cannot imagine the pressure the most responsible members of the Viki Community must be under every single day to make sure the best source for Asian drama doesn’t disappear from the entertainment marketplace.
However, as someone university-trained in the mysteries of English literature of the past 1600 years, and as someone who has spent the past 35 years tutoring people in English as a second language, I keep having to shake my head when I look around the world of Viki.
Limiting projects that channel managers can work on is great. Providing automatic translations for dramas is great (even though I wonder what the difference would be between those and presubs).
However, when I look at a wide variety of dramas on Viki, the biggest problem I see is consistency in the application of already existing standards for subbing and segmenting.
Different channel managers apparently use or ignore those standards as they see fit. I was taught, for instance, that an off-screen monolog or an off-screen dialog should always be italicized. However, I am watching Master of My Own, a delightful show in all respects, and the formatting for dialog is much different. Off-screen monologs and dialogs are enclosed in parentheses.
Also, it is often hard to know if the particular choices of English translation in Master of My Own are the result of deliberate decisions to reflect the essence of Chinese culture and language . . . OR are they are auto-translations . . . OR are they typically bizarre and mysterious pre-subs that escaped someone’s notice . . . ???
Regarding the idea that there are too many dramas and too few segmenters and subbers to handle them . . . well, where is that Asian creativity and problem solving that gave the world writing, gunpowder, ancient medicine, some of the earliest forms of money, and some of the earliest forms of art and literature? Where is some brainstorming, some Google-style collaboration, some Apple-style ingenuity, some Samsung-style and LG-style and Kia-style precision and streamlining?
There will always be human beings who are unhappy, whether they are family members, neighbors, or strangers. That unhappiness in certain Viki subscribers/users comes from experiences that occurred long before they started watching Goblin or Devil Judge or Sh**ting Stars.
Their emotional trauma did not originate with Viki, nor is it Viki’s responsibility to function as their parent or therapist and give them the happiness they think someone owes them.
Viki’s job is to take care of Viki, to make it the best, simplest, most elegant, most representative venue for modern treasures of Asian culture that it can possibly be.
Viki’s job is to make sure the website works well, that the hardware and software and firmware and servers operating behind the scenes are up to date.
Viki’s job is to offer the best possible technical assistance to subbers and segmenters who freely and without any monetary compensation often spend twenty hours a week providing subtitling and segmenting.
Viki’s job is to help potential users and subscribers how Viki is distinctly different from Netflix and other websites and to ignite a passion for Viki-style entertainment.
That’s how Viki can really improve life for subbers and segmenters, subscribers and users, Viki paid employees and their managers, supervisors, directors, etc.
That’s MY feedback. That’s why I’m reviving this 10-month-old topic, and that’s why I will continue to talk about my particular view of how Viki can strive to truly be the “heart of of Asian entertainment.”