I’ve been thinking about this topic for a while. Doesn’t this seem like those cases when I want a job, but i don’t have experience and i won’t have experience if i don’t get the job? lol do you know what i mean?
At the same time, how can I work with someone who’s bad at translating? Or doesn’t make an effort to get better and just use google translate?
If the person didn’t make any contribution yet, how could I know?
That’s why I usually ask for QCs only to sub a new (popular) drama, but at the same time, I don’t think that’s fair somehow? Am I wrong?
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Number does not mean quality.
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I think it’s not fair. You can be a very experienced person with bad skills. And you can also be an inexperienced person but with skill. If you have the time to test the newcomers then you’d know. I can understand if you refuse if you don’'t have the time to check and edit (which I think is not okay in the first place if you’ve decided to become a moderator, because it’s one of your duties to edit)
Speaking of this, someone once sent me a message asking to join the team. I made a visit to this person’s profile to see how their latest contributions looked like as an evaluation. The sentences looked fine and well-structured so I agreed. Afterwards, I discovered they were bad with words (used the wrong words in translations but good with grammar). I couldn’t tell on their profile since I couldn’t see the source. So I guess you can’t really know until you try and evaluate for yourself.
So yes, if you ask me, I think it is unfair to not accept non-QCs. Also, I find newbies to be more fun to work with because they are usually more excited and flexible. 
If you find it so, just remove them from the team after giving a couple of subs trial, or you can test them by making them translate a small article or something and seeing what they’d do. 
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Usually I accept any rookie in my Chinese teams, as long I have free positions. They can make a “trial” part and try out, if they like subbing or if they have some problems. To translate and to create subtitles is not the same. Chinese dramas, because mostly you don’t need the QC. I check the trial part and give them a feedback, what’s good and what’s not so good. And they can tell me honestly, if they want to be part of my team for the respective drama.
For Korean dramas you need the full QC very often and for those hyped on air dramas, I don’t like to accept rookies. My teams usually work with a deadline, everyone gets one part per week. The newbies have to keep up with the team, but tend to forget their deadline. If their subs are not of an acceptable quality, I need more replacement subbers or fill in myself. This costs time and messes up my own schedules.
So I accept rookies for Chinese dramas and if they gained some experiences and prooved their skills, I take them in for Korean dramas, too. I think, that’s a fair solution.
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I totally agree! But I thought maybe it’d be a little too much if I test the person before… as if i’m doing something Viki doesn’t even care that much about, maybe? idk
Yes, I agree. I say “QCs only” but I end up accepting everyone, tbh xD And if the person wants to help I tell them how it works. But if they’re just starting and want to practice, I think maybe it’s better if I offer another project I’m working on. Since we have bigger demand for new and popular k-dramas.
And, yes, I edit all dramas I moderate. I’m really concerned about Viki’s subtitling quality in my language, that’s why I spend hours editing.
Sometimes i wish Viki had some rule about recruiting other languages subbers too…
I’ll think about giving them subs trial. Thank you! ^^
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A totally agree. I am “just” a Hungarian subtitler and moderator and there are just a few hun subtitlers so I don’t receive much messages from rookies but if I were the moderator of a more popular language, I would not ignore those who are not QC and would spend time to test the beginners with some sentence given them to translate. I mean if you do not have experience YET, let’s give the beginners some opportunity to show their skills. Because nobody registrate and automatically become a QC.
However, if they recruit subtitlers for a popular drama that has high ratings, it is somehow understandable that they want experienced and often fast subtitlers. But yet, you can be both even if you never made a single contributon in this website. Furthermore you can be a bad translator as well even with 50.000+ contributons who use google translator or does loan translating or has five typos in only one sentence. But as a mod/subtitler I know that we have life too just like the viewers and we do this in our free time so not everyone has time to test the beginners.
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When I state “must be QC” then that’s usually not because I don’t welcome newbies in my team but I have other reasons for it. Some people still tend to think that when they are part of the team they can see the videos because they are in the team but that’s not how it works. Recently I had an increase of PM’s of newbies who thought it worked like that. These days when someone new PM’s me for a position that’s still open the first thing I ask is: Can you watch this drama on Viki?
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From the very beginning I got the feeling that Viki doesn’t care much about the quality of the subs, as long as the empty segments are filled. And as long as you don’t copy other people’s work.
Everything else they allow. It’s us, the community, that get crazy with bad subs.
Everybody should get a chance, one way or another. If not on the project they applied for, then at least on another project. Also, plainly rejecting somebody just because they have zero contributions is against Viki’s policy.
If one mod doesn’t have anything available right at that moment, they should refer the newbie to another mod.
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If the quality is bad, people will complain. If people complain too much, maybe this system of subtitling will end soon. I really enjoy this community and I want people to know that there are people on Viki that actually care about the quality of their volunteer work. I’m not here just for the viki pass or whatever.
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Like moderator I think thats good because when we have a drama that all people are waiting, we want to have the most responsable subbers.So normally I offer to news subbers be parts of the teams in long dramas where you and the news subbers have to more oportunnities to get experience.
But I realice that a few of news subbers reads the instruccions of how works the teams so they no follow the rules of Viki and a few helps really in the teams that they are in. Im also was new and I have to help in dramas that I dont like but if I dont get expirience I could help in others dramas that I want. On the other hand you have to take in mind that in many dramas the new subber have to be QC for help since episode 3.
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I dont agree with you because with Spanish for example the community tends to demand subtitles within a few minutes of uploading the chapter. And especially with good translations. If we accept only the new ones they make many mistakes and that the community in Spanish criticizes us in the comments. So what do you want us to do? In addition many times they only enter the teams believing that they can watch the episode faster just because they are part of the team.
But you have to take in mind that we have a edition teams and if they watch a drama barely we subs obviously has errors so there is when they complain but dont take in mind that the edition in every language are in process and that we are volunteers so we helps with subs because we want anyone pay us.
Usually they say that for on-air shows, because if you’re not a QC you cannot access the videos.
That’s the only reason I would ask for the QC badge. Otherwise, 3000 subs are no guarantee that someone will do a good job.
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can i help 
Hi
In what way would you like to help? By translating or…?
I understand that but also how do you get experience if. O one wants you to participate! You have to give people a chance so they can learn and master it! I also wish they had a subtitles school like they have for segmentors. I am a segmentor and was a Modirator! Someone have me a chance that was how I learned and mastered those things!
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You get experience from translating old dramas nobody wants. If you see my “About me” page where I have a thumbnail list of all the projects I’ve participated to, you will see, at the very bottom, a number of dramas you never knew existed, some obscure and pretty awful ones. Then I was given the chance to moderate one of those obscure and pretty awful dramas, I had trouble finding subbers and I translated good part of it on my own. Little by little other people came to know and trust me and now I am able to choose my projects, and I only choose those which are interesting to me.
That’s how I learned, and that’s how everybody learns.
You can’t expect to come with zero experience and be put in the team of a popular on-air drama.
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Mastering a language is by far more challenging than mastering segmenting. There are professional schools to teach you language skills. Volunteers, who come to Viki, should have those skills to begin with.
Viki can teach you other things, such as translating succinctly and working in teams.
There could and should be a translating course. Of course it won’t include teaching the languages, the mastery of two languages is a given.
But there are so many other things to cover!
Some are about translation skills, and are also valid for books, articles, plays etc. The specific traps of the origin language, how to change it if needed to become truly like a sentence of the target language.
Some are about subtitle translation, which is a specific form (written transcript of oral language, with its needs for brevity, syntax simplicity and the dilemmas of how to convey cultural stuff that it’s not enough to translate and sometimes just cannot be translated. So some background on Korean and Chinese culture would be needed, and ways to express it should be discussed.
And some are about Viki itself, which is a separate universe, different than other streaming sites, with its emphasis on teaching the cultural stuff. When translating, it’s important to know the intended audience, and the translation will change accordingly. The Viki audience is very special so this should be taken into account. That’s why, when a drama comes already subbed in English, we need to edit it so extensively.
Last but not least, the subbing tools and the etiquette.
So there’s enough for a very intensive three-month course.
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