I sent this to fsl_viki, the staff person responsible for determining qualification to be a channel manager via the viki inbox on April 12, 2024. I have patiently waited for more than two weeks for the courtesy of a reply but have received nothing! This is what I wrote:
"The new guideline on channel manager progression requires that in order to be selected as a channel manage of an on-air Korean drama, the applicant “Has managed at least three (3) on-air drama channels within the last 3 years.” This is a terribly unfair requirement because the applicant has no control over becoming a manager of an on-air drama.
I have been an active volunteer at viki since 2009. I joined when it was viikii.net and actually donated money in my own name and to honor someone who sponsored me as a volunteer. Since then, I have won numerous awards, including person who recommended the most people for QC positions, one of three viki-ans invited to the world premier of viki’s production Dramaworld in Los Angeles, Featured QC and Featured QC nominator. I have been designated one of the viki volunteers to be interviewed by the press more than once. I have actively participated in every single subathon at viki and have accumulated over 105 badges.
Despite all the accolades, I have not been chosen for an on-air K drama in years! Here is my last three appointment of an on-air drama:
- Devil Judge 2021
- Tower of Babel 2019
- The Last Empress 2018
In 2021, I was asked by viki staff to take over the management of Melancholia, for which I was Chief Editor, when Irmar, the manager, was hospitalized for several months with covid.
As you can see, even if you count Melancholia, I do not meet the minimum requirement for appointment as manager of an on-air K drama.
Can you imagine how disenheartening it if for me, a viki denominated “old-timer” (I have a badge to prove it), to see the repeated serial appointment of relative newbies to K drama when these newbies have never worked as hard as I have on K dramas?
I have studied the Korean Language and Linguistics since 2009.
I don’t apply for manager positions for Chinese, Japanese, or Thai dramas because I feel I would be doing a disservice to the viewers because I am not deeply entrenched in the culture. If someone makes a mistake in the subtitle, I am afraid I would not recognize the mistake. ( I have actually published scholarly articles on Japanse American acculturation, but that was my history long ago as a former academician, so I may be way more qualified to manage an on-air Japanese drama than some newbie with only 30,000 subs! }
Please discuss this issue with the staff. All other qualifications you list are within the applicant’s control and are relevant to the appointment, but the requirement to have been a channel manager three times in the past year of anything is clearly beyond the applicant’s control.
Yes, I have been appointed channel manager very frequently, but the majority of those appointments have been on old dramas, and for most of them, I was a very active subber, segmenter, and/or chief editor when the drama was on air, and I volunteered for the position when the original manager was no longer active. For those channels, I serve as a facilitator for volunteers who wish to sub the drama in a language new to the drama or as a place to complain to when something is technicaly wrong with the subs.
Connie"
On on-air drama appointments, I never failed to have the English subbing completed fairly promptly.
One of the criteria for channel manager selection is
- An applicant should not have another ongoing, incomplete, or immediately upcoming project.*
I have had one managership for a channel which was given to NSSA for segmenting training so obviously the subtitling in any language is not complete and never will be as long as it is used for segmenting practice. With respect to that channel, about two years ago, one of the current viki community relations staff actually flagged me for abusive subbing and wrote a scolding note to me about NOT using the video for segmenting practice. When I informed her that this was a NSSA training channel, she NEVER apologized for her rudeness and error in flagging me, but in reply asked ME to identify all the channels used for training by NSSA!!! (Why did she expect ME to know when she is in the department which set aside the channels?) If I have not been selected as a channel manager because of the training channel counts as an “ongoing project”, then shame on the viki staff for not recognizing that this channel was designated as a training channel by viki staff. My only function there is to occasionally name moderators (other mentors in NSSA) and to delete all segments in the videos every four to six months so the videos can be used to train another round of students.
If I engage in post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy, is the failure to appoint me as channel manager an unsubtle means of retaliation for my not meekly apologizing for “abusive subtitling” on the training channel.
I did some research on recent appointments to channel manager on Kdramas and C dramas. On the very first (and thus only) person I researched, the contributor was then a little short of four years at viki and had been appointed channel manager of twenty-nine (27) C-dramas and two (2) K-dramas in three years! Obviously the preferential treatment of this one person deprived 28 other more experienced, longer tenured viki contributors the opportunity to be a channel manager. In my 15 years at viki, I have never had the privilege of simultaneous or immediately contiguous appointments as channel manager, so that within a very short time gap after one drama ended, I was appointed to another drama.
I would appreciate comments from others regarding your own tenure and experience in applying for the position of channel manager as well as your opinion about the policy which will go into effect in May, 2024.
) or tell us to fill up the segments with nonsense, and that’s why most shows are nowadays released to OL right after QC. All this rushing ensures more channels for the lucky few and allegedly satisfied viewers for Viki.
