Viki or/vs Dramafever Polls : a peek in viewers' opinion

General Discussion
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Hello !

Last night, I found polls debating over Viki or Dramafever and wanted to share them with you.
What viewers (hypothesis that most of them are not Vikian contributors who answered, nor employees) think about Viki and Dramafever and why they prefer one over the other one.
Personally, in my quality of volunteer, I can’t participate to polls debating about Viki or Dramafever, which one is the best for viewing experience, which website I prefer to watch dramas without being biaised because I participate in Viki. So knowing myself, I would do good advertising about Viki if someone has to ask me, I won’t be impartial xd

  • Here’s the poll which was done this year (June 2016) :

http://aminoapps.com/page/k-drama/4765981/viki-vs-dramafever
On this poll, 86 choose Viki and 52 choose Dramafever. It’s not really representative (40 comments) but at least, we have a little idea of what viewers think of each website.

  • Another poll done last year (May 2015):

https://www.reddit.com/r/KDRAMA/comments/36j18k/viki_or_dramafever/ : 50 comments

In 1 sentence (answer in 2015) :

“That being said, like a lot of people mentioned, both Viki and DF have pros and cons, and it just depends on your preferences in how you watch and what kinds of subtitles you like. They’re both getting more exclusives, so it’s unlikely that you can watch every single show on either site.”

A summarize of advantages and disavadvantages/ Like and don’t like, viewers found on each website to base their judgment to pick their website :

:heavy_check_mark: Viki :arrow_right: :heavy_multiplication_x: Dramafever :

  • Comments on Viki
  • Less dramas blocked in countries than DF
  • More Taiwanese/ Chinese dramas on Viki
  • Viki is cheaper (except when DF do sales)
  • Viki mobile app is better
  • Viki have the Kdramas some viewers watch (vice-versa)
  • More information on Viki
  • Audio/Video bugs on DF (answer in 2015)
  • DF likes to Americanize some of the phrases they translate (answer in 2015)

-Better quality subs on Viki (vice-versa, answer in 2015) :

“Viki subs seem to better translate the dialogue’s meaning, and not so much just a direct translation. I also love when there is some sort of reference that is common knowledge to Koreans, and the subbers will leave a little side note explaining it.”

-Viki on Xbox 360 (answer in 2015, coming soon on DF)

:heavy_multiplication_x: Viki :arrow_right: :heavy_check_mark: Dramafever :

  • Timed wrong on Viki
  • No subs sometimes on Viki
  • Slower subs on Viki, slow subs if the show is not popular
  • Viki doesn’t have the Kdramas some viewers watch (vice-versa)
  • Better video quality on DF (answer in 2015)

-Poor quality subs in Korean, inaccuracy in Korean subs, Google Translate sometimes (answer in 2015 from a Korean speaker) :

“In general, I don’t notice glaringly obvious translation errors on DF like I do on Viki. The ones I see on Viki make me stop in my tracks and do a double take. My guess is that it’s the work of Google Translate in some cases.”
Other answer to this : “At least, if you watch them after they’ve been properly edited, they should be pretty good. (Disclaimer - I don’t know much Korean, so I’m putting trust in the Viki translators and editors when they say stuff is correct.)”

-Glitch : Spanish subs when English subs selected, commercials repeating bug ((answers in 2015)

-DF doesn’t sub songs (answer in 2015)

"I have mixed feelings with this. Sometimes the lyrics play a role in the plot and sometimes it is just background music. I like when they subbed with the first, but otherwise they are a distraction.[…]“Oh good lord yeah, when people are talking and they sub both the dialogue and the music in the background. If it isn’t playing a role in the story itself, it doesn’t need to be subbed. At least that is how I feel about it.”
Other answer : “I think it would definitely be more agreeable if they just subbed it the first time like you’re saying. Sometimes it really gets in the way of the dialogue we’re trying to read though. And sometimes the lyrics are terrible haha.”

-Less problem on Chromecast on DF (answer in 2015)

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That’s interesting, thank you for the information.

Personally I don’t have a choice, as from Europe one cannot view anything on DF. And I like having OST translations, it makes the viewing so much more interesting, especially in some dramas where the songs are matched to the mood or situation even in their lyrics.
Not to speak of some, like Soulmate, where the songs are a character in the drama, and an important one at that!
Of course, as everybody else, I do watch on other websites series that are not available here. And yes, there are websites with no ads (dramakimchi, kissasian) and there is a website (dramalove) which very often has the subtitles more quickly than we do.
BUT I feel so lonely and frustrated when there are no timed comments! If everything is equal, the timed comments make the difference! At certain crucial points I start putting my hands on the keyboard only to remember that I’m not at viki - and raging!
It’s the companionship that makes viki unique. The rants, the heated discussions, the humour, the users you want to slap because they’re so annoying, the ones who spam the comments with hearts and squees… All those amazing viki people who have become like a drama family.

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2 big con’s of the other site is that they are US & Canada ONLY, they have claimed they will offer content for other regions like Europe for years but there is still none. Next to that you need Flash installed while there are better more secure streaming options HTML5.

For the Flash many think what’s the big deal about it but you don’t want to know how many times there are security issues and leaks which can be abused by criminals.

Next to that I see those listed as pro of the other site:

  • Timed wrong on Viki
  • No subs sometimes on Viki
  • Slower subs on Viki, slow subs if the show is not popular

I find that unfair and in most cases untrue.

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yes in the case of latino america in dramafever have more license while viki not have, according to viewers , second of the reason the people prefer dramafever is of quality of subtitle while the problem of viki is more new volunteer and more people wants subtitle in the air channel, and when they subbitle fast ,they tend to make mistakes and more people disagree in the case of subtitle in spanish, i prefer viki, first i can view the lyrics in my language, second i can converse with other people, third although viki not have licence in all of channel if you have contribute subtitle or seggment you can see this drama without you pay, and finally i have known more people who learning more things in my leanguage as in english. In english i have learned new words, i realized which are my mistakes.
I am very happy in viki.

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Ah no, sometimes it’s not really pros for DF but it was a reason that has brought viewers to go to DF / to prefer DF over Viki according to their comments in the poll. It’s not really DF’s pros but it’s to DF’s advantage.

I would have written “sometimes”, I just quote comments’ viewers in the poll as they were without adding more words to them because it’s not my pov that I wanted to summarize.
So I agree with you that :

  • Timed wrong on Viki
  • No subs sometimes on Viki
  • Slower subs on Viki, slow subs if the show is not popular
    These points are not always true, nor false.
    But I don’t really know if in most cases segmentation is wrong on Viki, nor if in most cases Viki has slower subs than DF.
    There must be some shows where the segmentation is not really correct and some shows where Viki has slower subs than DF (and vice-versa for subs speed).

So I think that for viewers who said that, they must have been confronted to this situation maybe not always but I supposed that it happened to them but we don’t know the frequency, which dramas etc.

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@piranna and @dudie you have reason the point when you wrote slower subs, if the show isn’t popular is more frecuency in the dramas of china and taiwan, many times the people wants to see this drama and they have during years , they have never can see the subtitles someone factors are:
-The factor the channel was delete (by abusers)

  • The channel haven’t moderator in-active
  • Not have more people that subtitles to china -english or this happen in the old k-drama too.
    All factors, not all the viewer know that, for example the old drama haven’t more of one month of viki put the channel and they have right now the subtitles, more people wants to see right now the subtitles, and it not because we don’t want, more times is for rules of viki.
    I think that new subbers should contribute in the old drama firts and depend on the situation to each subber after could be subtitle in dramas in air, and the people that subtitle more two five and more channel they should subtitle in the air drama.
    I said becuase the third drama that i subtitles, i did in drama to air and have more mistakes, should that i need more experience and for wanting subtitle fast, i don’t saw my mistakes, at that moment i prefer left to contribute of subtitles for other people will do.
    That is my personal opinion.
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What I hate about the other site is that, they don’t sub everything. I’ve been watching some shows there for the past two weeks and all the episodes that I watched were not completely subbed. That is damn annoying, and more since they leave it like that forever. I know in Viki it will hit that 100% some day, but I go to old dramas in DF and they still are missing subs. Also, I like viki more because it’s easier to talk to other fans. Love the community here.

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I can’t compare cause most of DF content isn’t available in my country.
But I know that what I like on Viki is the fact I can contribute by segmenting, translating and reviving some lost drama.
I’m agree our work isn’t always perfect however we always try to do our best. And we learn from each other. It can’t be done on DF.

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someone forward this to Viki since they don’t seem to know
Sadly I don’t know for how long this will hold true since DF is moving on this market and Viki is slowing down. Now with only licensed cdramas being available, I dont think this will be true moving forward. Just in the past month and a half DF got five new cdramas.

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It will be a good news if DF could be more open toward Europe.

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Since I am a Korean-English subtitler I can say with confidence we would like as many hands as possible!!! People started going back to school, personal life etc. I haven’t seen anyone new really (boo).
So forcing people to only work on old channels isn’t productive unless they want to (as we do have some solo subtitlers).

For training purposes we do have a Ninja Subbing Academy that hasn’t really gone off the ground. What newbies have been doing is looking at the subtitles of the other id’s and self-adjusting because they choose to.

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I was most annoyed by skipped lines!!!
We never skip lines here.

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yes, this the problem not more people knows Korean and i understand that more people have other activities for example i am a student, and i understand your point but my commentary was not for the subbers of korean-english, my commentay was my comment was from how they see the outside Viki people regarding who can not force people to take an old drama that comment I made more as suggestion other foreign languages to peronas that subtitled in Japanese-English, Chinese-English, English koreano-, taiwan-English, and others are translating from English into other languages obvious that in these cases it will be more complicated as people who contribute are counted, not really look at the case of other languages but it was only as a suggestion not everyone has to forcing that because as there are people new to the language, many new arrivals have more knowledge language why I said before is depending on each person.
I’m sorry I generalized for all languages because if in your case you’re absolutely right.
(P.s sorry i belived the grammar of my comments is bad because i touch myself google traductor for traslate spanish-english i still i not think I
still do not fully think about English, I do but when they are short
texts or when I’m not tired but I hope that when I graduated my career
can at least write and read in English, because I talk complicated by
that if you play with someone native, not meet nothing so that it can practice, because it managed to speak but often end up thinking in my language and I tangle)

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I personally like Viki better because we’re a huge, open community while DF is just so… quiet. Not only do I enjoy the company of fellow volunteers, but I also get to fangirl with many other people from around the world in timed comments. This is one of the best features Viki has, and I adore it.

Not only does Viki have some great features, but they have amazing volunteers. Most of the volunteers are continuously working very hard to get segments/subtitles as perfect as it can get. Now, I’m saying this because I have some fear of wrong grammar, and I cannot watch a drama with poor grammar. It just irks me. And so, the editing teams on Viki are my next favorite thing! They are truly gifted in what they do, and I’m thankful they can keep me settled and not cringing from bad grammar. Too bad there are too many mistakes of the translations and segments on DF.

Overall, I’m very biased towards Viki. :sparkling_heart:

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Korean-English, Chinese-English etc. is a completely different matter. They are so few and the demand is so great that it is natural that teams have to lower their standards and accept anyone, hoping they will get better with time.
With other languages, though, it’s a totally different question.
But we’re digressing here.

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@anamaria_13_392 no te preocupe su ingles.
My Spanish is horrible. I forget genders, I forget words and conjugations @.@
I use google a lot to look up a lot of those things I forgot.
I practice with Lupita and any poor spanish speaker I can find, like you!

I do agree that separate guidelines are needed for the teams who use English as a bridge/aid language and then translate from there.

My only experience was trying to write Korean subtitles using the English and then starring at how to get the traditional chinese (we use same text this is like using latin vs. the vernacular).

I have also seen that some teams operate differently as Spanish teams I have heard has some internal deadline of 2-3 hrs from start to finish vs. some teams have one week to finish because if no deadlines = no progress. So some teams like French have started writing guidelines for NSSA specific to French teams on viki.

@irmar lol that is chief’s job. I tell her (so far all been a “her”) what I see and I ask what I can do to make the situation better. Some chief’s would write to subtitlers to adjust their behavior if there is something that causes team unhappiness. An easy job would be to take all the id’s with over 80% proficiency (consistency defined as being able to subtitle over 80% of a part by him or herself) and then only accept people who reach that bar…but then like a chief told me, we don’t need editors then.

I’m not sure I actually enjoy editing vs… it being like scratching an itchy spot. BTW W 16 has been completely gone through by co-editor :smiley: Currently I am enjoying segmenting.

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I have a lot to say but I think we’ve gone too much Off Topic, so I’ll shut up for now, LOL!
(you got your Ninja graduation? Congrats! I’m still waiting for my grad videos to be reviewed)

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@irmar No I haven’t graduated, yet!!! I should’ve last month!! But no… I ran away from level 5 and then I almost delay my grad video a bit because I wanted more practice! (should do that)

Let’s be good and respond to topic.
I hate dramafever because they steal my work line by line.
I hate dramafever because despite being paid and plagiarizing us wholesale (I only know about me because I wrote the darn lines and segs!), they still have missing lines. <= I can’t tolerate this. I shut it off and stopped watching right there.

I dislike the fact that they commercialized kdrama the way they did causing this viki exclusive dramafever only thing to appear. I am a bit annoyed at viki (though I understand why) for getting rid of fan channels causing all my subtitles to be in limbo. I may have to get Korean vpn to get my Korean subtitles (far and few in between some done by ID’s I know from Kor-Eng team) elsewhere <= Annoying.

I am on viki for non-Korean shows (obviously). I speak, write, and read Korean-okish so of course I don’t need to rely on viki for any subtitles. My illegal websites created for the Korean immigrant community served me well. Before that I used to torrent dramas illegally as they were ripped from the broadcaster for the higher quality than illegal streaming sites (of course no subtitles).

Now… I am forced to do this (go to dinosaur times: find my own codec files, pay the dues/whatever is needed, resync to videos, find the darn videos, and pray to c-drama gods the fansub groups keep working) for c-dramas and rely on fansubs. Oh fans of Kdrama I know how you feel now. I wish I knew Chinese grammar because then… I would definitely make more progress in Chinese.

We also have real life to deal with, so… this means much much effort must now be exerted by me to watch non-Korean shows (including chinese language shows and whatever perks my interest).

I do use viki more than dramafever to watch older shows that have been off-air because I am too busy to watch in real time (on illegal sites with 24 hr turnover). After I learned about dramafever’s labor practices… I now go out of my way not to watch on that site if I can help it.

What dramafever is good for: For me that is shows that illegal sites don’t have and I can’t find and are there. that’s it!

What I like viki for: The friends that viki enabled me to make, the EXCELLENT tools, teaching me Korean (by giving me a space to subtitle), and teaching me segmenting.

Conclusion: I prefer viki far more than dramafever. I use illegal sites because it’s easy but it is annoying since i cannot watch them in 24 hrs of airing (then I go to viki if possible).

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yes lupita is writing well in two language sometimes she cans some mistakes, but she put punctuation marks while i sometimes i don’t do, more time i saw the dictionary of spanish (Diccionario de la Real Lengua española RAE).
My writing in english, i practice in the page that call duolingo because i can remember verb to be in, past , present, present perfect, future…etc, but i can see to spanish-english and something is very bad, and they can use spanish of spain for example, vosotros tiene que jugar that english could be they should play , in spanish for Latin America is ustedes tienen que jugar.
but you understand me when i write in spanish, is very well not all the people know spanish.
it is talk the good things of viki, you can practice other language when you want practice
Note: su is like when you use his, her. (possessive )
example - it is her house

  • it is his hat
    (if you see that i wrote bad tell me :point_up: )
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is the second time that i saw that df steal subs, i thought that they have professionals traductors.