The project finder had the potential of being a great resource, except the fact that it doesn’t filter closed or completed projects by language. Nor is it intuitive enough to offer a direct link to the show’s homepage so, if in doubt about a project’s availability, one can review the episode completion percentages. Am I simply using it incorrectly?
The first year after I graduated the academy I sent an innumerous amount of inquires and applications to segment. Most responses, the better portion of them all, let me know the project was complete or full. And, that is if I got a response at all. Now,I do attempt to reconnect with people of past projects but those individuals don’t always hold the same moderator position.
My schedule, like many others, has limited flexibility. A great deal of time is wasted on fishing for projects for these poor results. The frustration and disappointment I feel are taking their toll. Wasn’t the point of the project finder to simplify and streamline this process? To develop functioning communities and not exclusive cliques? If I am doing it wrong, I will gladly cop to that because I really want to contribute and I would love for someone to explain to me exactly how to do it right.
My first advice would be: don’t use the project finder. Project finder messages go to the CM and not the CS. I don’t think anyone uses the project finder except for new volunteers.
The best way to secure a project would be to message a CS directly and offer your services on a show. Even if they might not need you for that show, they could message you when their next show comes along.
It’s very hard to find segmenting projects as most things come presubbed. But as @damiechan said do not use the project finder for this. Go to the channels you want to work on and contact the chief segmenter if there is one. Also check if the project really needs help. The finder also lists projects where only a teaser is not segged. When someone contacts me to be added as a segger just because of a teaser I ignore and think are you kidding me?!
But if you are really up for a challenge go check variety shows, they usually lack seggers as they are a pain to seg. I know After School Club is not fully segged yet.
Thanks but my issue is not with contacting the right person. That was a rookie mistake when I first graduated and it is now the easiest part. The issue I am having is finding open/incomplete projects to work on in the first place so I can apply in the first place. I could hover over the new and coming soon lists but then what is the point of the finder? I thought this when I first started and was too wary to vocalize it.
Obviously, I am just frustrated. I have spent the last week and a half of complete free time looking for a project and getting squat. I have a week of break left and was reminded of how I sat out my entire vacation last year because of this very issue. I will get over it when I find my next project, but until then it feels very defeating.
I can definitely try to reach out in that direction. I figured the academy is always so busy with recruits and I would hate to step in where someone else could use it as a training opportunity. I graduated so long ago, I could have also not thought to do that before out of shear embarrassment of not being able to do it on my own. ButI will just have to suck it up and ask for support. I am still frustrated at the finder, but venting has given me a much better perspective. Thanks, this helped so much!
See, I am the one that would gladly seg the teasers… I would want those to be subbed so my daughter can have the similar anticipation experiences that I do (she’s Deaf). But I understand why most don’t think thing like that are necessary. We live in an auditory society and often take those experiences for granted. Thanks so much for the insight. I will definitely broaden my scope.
Sometimes we do and sometimes we don’t seg and sub teasers or other clips. It’s fine if they are segged but if not it’s no issue either because the episode is subbed anyway.
But I get the frustration, I’m quite annoyed about the fact almost everything comes presubbed so there is not much to segment. Only editing and combining segments which takes me way longer then starting from scratch.
As @dudie says, segmenting projects (as in “cutting segments from scratch”) are not easily found right now. These days, segmenters are mostly involved with A&C (adjusting and combining existing segments to presubbed shows). There are many projects around and Chief Segmenters are always looking for people to help. If you start with A&C, you’ll get to know people. This will, in turn, open doors to future projects. Good people to contact whom I know are constantly in need of A&C seggers are: @miss_rochester, @porkypine90_261, @kitty100, @bjohnsonwong, @deval_chloe, @bepina …just to name a few.
I remember a project you applied for through the project finder and you did get into the team… but even though the CS specifically asked you at what times you could be there and was willing to wait for you, you never once showed up, nor did you tell us why you didn’t.
Yes, I agree. Just let someone you know that does CS work know that you are looking for a project and they can let you know when a new project is looking for segmenters or an existing one that they are the CS. The Project Finder is useless for finding segmenting jobs, especially now that most dramas are coming already segmented. Segmenting is more than 95% working with segments already subtitled and repairing them to fit Viki standard of quality before they are handed over to the English team.
Also, after logging on the main page go to the Categories tab at the top of the page and select New and Coming Soon. If anything looks interesting in the Coming Soon section, go to those channels and see if a CS is listed on the Team Wall. If no CS, but a CM, you can contact the CM as well.
You’re correct, I did apply for Behind Cut, made the team, and did flake out. I apologize for not taking advantage of the opportunity you were kind enough to offer at that time. I am working on how I can better handle these situations in the future. I also did not share with you the circumstances behind why my status at that time changed, it would have been the professional thing to do. I apologize for making you feel that the project was not important enough to do so, that was not my intent. I was overwhelmed suddenly with life’s circumstances but have since been prioritizing finding personal and volunteer life balance.
Also, I want to apologize to you directly. In wanting to vent my feelings of frustration about a tool that falls short of its purpose, I was hoping to find support or a work around within the community that is presented as a safe space. Instead, I insinuated that I was not receiving any support or offers to assist on projects at all which is completely untrue. I was careless and will be more mindful of my words in the future. Thank you for point out this opportunity of improvement.
I wish you well and hope to be able to work with you in the future.
Sorry, the project finder is mostly broken and applications don’t come to the Chief Segmenters. I was not aware that you were an active NSSA graduate. I’ve put you on my invitation list.
I am always looking for segmenters and I always hire new graduates. I am ‘hiring’ NSSA grads for some shows right now. Let me know which one you are interested in. These are all A&C shows. They come pre-subbed. We fix the timing. Straight segmenting shows are rare now. Since they are A&C, you are not compelled to be there at a certain time to get a part. You can work on parts when it is convenient for you.
Ok, guys, I did NOT intend for this to become a HUGE ISSUE! She was looking for a segmenting
job and I gave her some options.
Wu Lin Heroes - (drops Sunday)
A League of Nobleman - on now
City of Streamer - on now
Three Body - on now
3 Bold Siblings - on now
Never Grow Old - on now
Let me know via VIKI’s email message which ones interest you. I am not always in this discussion forum.
Ah, this is why, at a recent show I was working on, the segmenters sometimes took 12 to 24 hours to finish, while we editors were agonizing and checking multiple times per day, because Other Languages were impatiently waiting to make their translations?
Who made that rule that A & C can be done at one’s convenience?
Sub-whiners for English are content if they immediately see English subtitles, ANY subtitles, but Other Languages don’t exist for Viki anymore? Only I know the number of OL subwhining timed comments I had to delete, twice for every episode, before the OL languages finally could get to translate. (Saying “only I” because the relevant moderators never took the trouble to clean up their own language’s comments)
@Irmar – no wonder the subs were not unlocked sometimes 24 hours after upload. Even if it just to adjust the subs, the seggers should have worked promptly after upload. I never heard of such a rule to come at one’s convenience. Segmenters on raw video rush to get there so they will have a chance to segment.
For tweaking after segging was done by the paid subbers, the work is tedious and often the seggers get no contribution credit unless they cut new segments so no competition to get a part. Nevertheless, if they made a commitment, they should arrive promptly as soon as the subbed video was uploaded. ( Speaking as the sensei for Korean segmenting at Ninja Academy). If they don’t have the time to segment, then don’t volunteer.
A lot of things get uploaded in the middle of the night. Furthermore, there was a case where a CS was sleep-deprived because of getting up at 6am to unlock the episodes constantly. Even though the subtitlers only started hours later. I would get up for my job at 6. But I don’t stay up every weekend until 3 am just to segment a part of “Bold 3 Siblings” (not to forget that Viki wants us to wait first as well). If there’s no part left later, that’s it.
Certainly, it’s favorable if the segmenting is done quickly, but you are both only focussing on Kdramas in the first place. The dramas mentioned above are (mostly) Chinese. They often drop 5-10 episodes within 2 days and while it’s nice to work on episode 1-2 fast, the rest won’t be needed within 2 days in the first place. Furthermore, Kdramas often provide better segments than some of the Chinese ones.
Since CS usually don’t assign fixed parts (I experienced one case, and it was horribly slow) everyone can jump in fast. Just like I barely received 3 Spanish applications for a drama lately, it’s not easy to find all the other necessary team members nowadays. Together with Viki telling us to only accept QCs etc.
CS such as @porkypine have a huge workload even though they invest many hours daily. Who will do it otherwise? Nobody. There were already CS who really caused huge issues because of delaying QCing for weeks (!), but this isn’t the case here.
Hello,
I was a bit hesitant if I should answer or not because Connie, Irmar, honestly, I respect you a lot for all your work, still I think you’re being a bit rude right now, not knowing what you’re actually talking about.
Connie, you’re not active as a segmenter, even if you might modify segments while editing on Korean dramas and I don’t see you being active as a sensei in NSSA since months now.
Or maybe am I wrong? I don’t know, I can’t be sure but on the workload of senseis, I see you with a “0” as the students allowed number. You probably have your reasons, it’s your choice anyway, and I respect it.
I think Porkypine was simply saying “you can come when you want” because most of the projects she has are A&C Chinese projects on which several episodes (if not all episodes) are uploaded at once. So of course, you can’t expect from a few segmenters being part of a team to come and adjust segments on 40+ episodes in just one day, especially when they are on several shows at the same time.
As for Korean projects, lately, for lots of them, we are forced to wait because the staff says it’s coming presubbed and when episodes are uploaded, there’s no subs nor segments. And they are in the segment timer segmenting when we are here, we can do nothing but wait, and it’s quite frustrating. So we often lose hours with that when we could have just segmented, but we’re not allowed to. Still, as soon as we are said we can start, segmenters come and are doing the episodes quite fast (as fast as they can trying to do their best for the quality).
So yes, sometimes subs aren’t unlocked after 24 hours, but it’s not only because seggers aren’t willing to come.
Segmenters who don’t have time to segment just don’t come. Others are doing their best to complete projects as soon as possible.
Yes, most of the segmenters don’t like to adjust segments, but those who really don’t like it at all usually won’t even ask nor accept to be on A&C projects.
Yes, we are currently in lack of active segmenters. And as a sensei of NSSA myself (not only on level 4 but also on level 1 and 3), I’m trying my best so students can become graduated segmenters as soon as possible, answering them as soon as possible.
Hope this can clear some things up.
In that case she should specify. This an answer to a relatively new segmenter, and things should be made clear to avoid misunderstandings, otherwise that person will think, even in their next projects, that “this is how things are done”. It should be clarified that there’s a difference between an on-air 16-episode k-drama with 2 episodes per week and a super-long Chinese one where many episodes are released at once. Because yes, it’s an important difference, as you rightly say. But even in the case of 4-5 episodes together, the first one or two at least should be promptly segmented, so that the next people have something to work on, right?
In the drama I was talking about, I was counting the hours of delay for segmenting AFTER all English subtitles were completed by Viki paid subbers. I saw in TD one segmenter announce that she did one part (this means that it was unlocked for our segmenters, so clearly the Viki people had finished their part of the work), and then 6-7 hours or more could pass before the next segmenter came.
In the meanwhile, it was locked for us editors and we couldn’t even correct glaring mistakes. 99,9% of the viewers had already watched the episode when we finally could come in to do our job (sometimes with delay in my case, because by then it was my sleeping hours or my work hours), and all our hard work was never seen by all those viewers. Of course it will be seen and enjoyed by the next people who will come to watch the drama in the future, but all the on-air crowd watched it unedited. But you can understand how this was sad for us.
