lol I don’t come to discussions that much, so I am not sure.
Problem is that many subtitlers will not take the time to read and learn. sigh
And possibly you want to use the same choppy and less sensible breaks usually found in the hard subs that come with the dramas?
I prefer full sentences where possible, both as a segmenter and a viewer.
Take Nirvana in Fire. Had THAT been chopped up into tiny little segments, it would be a horror show and impossible to follow.
It’s easier for everyone if the sentence can be complete within a segment. With a slow speaker, segments get longer. Right now one of my dramas has long-winded, slow speaking Shaolin Monks. If we chop that up, it becomes idiotic and ends up with 2-3 words at most in a segment. (“Amitabha…”)
The problem with the br comes in with the mobile, roku and other platforms. Viki wants to not just be on your laptop where all of that cute formatting code shows up nice and pretty.
When I personally segment longer segments, it’s to be sure the intention of the sentence is complete where possible.
Crouching Dieter, Hidden Donut
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on roku, the breaks don’t do what they should do at all. you just get a weird space. two person dialogues end up the same line. you just get the - in front - that’s how you can tell it’s a two person.
when I view the same scene on laptop, it comes up on 2 lines properly.
that’s another reason i use my roku to view it big screen to catch flow issues between the two formatting styles as well. 
when I do a final edit of an episode, it’s very helpful to see the flaws presented by both ways it can be seen.
Crouching Dieter, Hidden Donut
ShiJie, Venerable Master of Segmenting,
The best will always take the time to continue to learn, and know they do not know it all.
They are also the ones who are best to work with and bring forward our best efforts in segmenting and editing to support their efforts.
Shifu’s Pet
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The Guidelines I had copied and which are on the google document were not made by viki, as I discovered later on, but by veteran English Editor @cgwm808.
The other sentence, which started with “Per viki official, 3.14.2016” still remains a mystery.
I don’t remember when but I am sure I have received a pm from a viki staff member regarding this issue and there it mentioned the rule about the break lines
https://support.viki.com/hc/en-us/articles/218654277-Adding-breaks-in-subtitles
or in the viki newsletters (30 August 2016) :
Use of HTML Tags
Regarding break or “br” tags, our engineering team has asked that, if tags are needed, to only use one tag. Using two consecutive tags affects the performance of our third-party apps, where subtitles will not properly appear. More information can be found in this FAQ.
So only two consecutive br tags seem to be a problem
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The two consecutive breaks were used in the “old” days by the subbers because the synching of the segments was so off. The two breaks in a row caused the system to “jump” to the next segment. But the subtitle editor and segment timer no longer function like that. ( Often the out of sync was not caused by the segmenter but because of a subsequent upload of the video to a different server. ) So putting in two breaks in a row is truly a thing of the past.
Viki staff told me a few months ago that when a break was the only thing in a segment, on Apple and Roku, the apps would “misbehave” – ALL subsequent subtitles would not show. So viki engineers programmed the subtitle editor so it is no longer possible to have a segment with just a break or just and italic signal and nothing more. This was meant to deter the subbers who are fixated on 100% at any cost. Unfortunately, it won’t stop them from putting a period or hyphen or other small mark in an empty segment. Some people still find anything less than 100% offensive and do not realize our segmenters are trained to cut a segment if there is a possibility a subtitle is needed and there are some human utterances which are simply to hard to hear or to understand to create a meaningful subtitle.
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I’m one of these people who puts a dot in a subtitle where a person sighs or some other onomatopoeia happens. Honestly, my compulsiveness to reach that 100% takes over, I have no control over myself. I’m the severely picky type who looks that every dot, space, italics and so on are in the right place.
I know I’ve asked this before someplace, but why is it a problem to delete that one segment before releasing the episode to other languages?
Or we have one sign we could not sort out but released the episode rather than hold it for one really cool sign so far no one has managed to read. So we left the segment there in the hopes a future person - fan or subber - will figure it out and put that in there.
That is another reason we might have one blank left intentionally in place.
I can also attest to the roku problems, that’s why I do my final using that to be sure it’s not going ballistic for users other than on laptop/computer.
Crouching Dieter, Hidden Donut
Nothing wrong with a blank that has a reason, and an archaic script character is a really good reason.
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When there is any writing in any language in a segment which should be blank and deleted, then all the languages have to be unlocked in order to delete the segment. Because some #*#!!! fool new moderator deleted hundreds of segments which had been subbed in a lot of languages on a drama which was really hard to subtitle, the engineers made it very difficult to delete any segment in which there is any subtitle written. So even though a period by itself is not meaningful, it is a “subtitle” because the segment is not blank. Putting the period in makes extra work for the channel manager.
Subbers are told not to write in anything when someone sighs so most of them leave the segment blank for eventual deletion. Unfortunately there are some segmenters who cut subs for laughter, sobs, and signs.
So please don’t put a period in a segment which obviously needs to be deleted.
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Amen to that!
I am CM of a couple of projects where I have to fix the segments, and do a lot of combining, because obviously the segmenter was going for quantity. The pain it is when there are languages already there!
By the way, as an audience, I love knowing what signs say when the camera focuses on them. It might be something unimportant, but the curiosity is eating me, because I don’t know whether it’s important or not. Therefore, as a segmenter, I do cut for signs. Not all the time, but when it is shown with some sort of purpose or whenever it shows a character looking at them with some sort of expression.
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I think then preferred course of action is not only not to put that dot in, but also to immediately alert the chief editor to delete the segment and not lock subtitles in your language until he/she is done.
I have yet to see someone put a period in an empty segment - instead, the really amazing subbers I work with tend to let me know where the darned segment is so we can have a look and decide if it’s timing segment left over or something that needs a subtitle.
Rarely a newer member of the team will put something there out of confusion - but that falls on editing in general and then a “this is what happened” discussion.
But then I’m running this sort of Debate Society anyway. Ancient generals, Tang Dynasty poems, and discussions about “wait, which of the 18 Dragon Subduing Palms is that one?” happen around my world a lot.
Good discussion here, by the way.
GeNie of the Lamp
In all honesty, I really think it makes no difference. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Are you replying to my initial question?
If yes, it’s not a question of beauty. They said that in some platforms for mobile phones, putting forced breaks results on very strange lines which cover half of the screen or more.
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Thank you very much for this post! I’ve been searching for this guideline myself, as my CM follows this policy, but the Chief editor did not.
I like to watch Viki cast onto my big screen TV with large subtitles, which are easier to read at a distance. However, when too many family members are on Wi-fi then casting takes too much, and I have to watch on my tablet. When there are four lines of subs on a segment, I barely see the actors! Hence, I like to follow policy guidelines and I do not use breaks unnecessarily.
Also, I think Viki support needs to be consistent with policy guidelines. I would like to see more consistency across the board so I know what to expect, as a volunteer editor and as a viewer.
I don’t believe CMs or moderators should hold power or authority to override policy guidelines. What kind of chaos would ensue if CMs decided that italics can be added haphazardly? Adding breaks willy nilly according to what every person considers esthetic opens the door to chaos. If the CM states policy guidelines in Team Notes and people do not comply, we cannot control other volunteers. However, I work best knowing what is expected of me. I choose to follow guidelines.
By any chance… is the font of your subs huge?
I lowered the size of the subs on my phone, from which I’m casting to the TV, and that solved that issue. Also, the subs were no longer cut off on the sides if they’re long enough to go from one side of the screen all the way to the other. Aka, when there is no break at all.
Breaks for me are more annoying if I watch something on my phone. Then I get sometimes 3-4 lines. I think it’s still difficult to handle breaks for every device out there. Perhaps that’s why there is no really firm rule.
I’m guided how to insert breaks mostly by what I see on the TV in my home country. The aim of the sub is to be a very unnoticeable piece of text on the screen. So, if the viewers in my country have gotten used to a certain way the text is shown on our TV, my theory is that that is “aesthetically” what I should be aiming at. Regarding the technical challenges with breaks, I expect Viki would inform us of them on time.
It was there in 2016, but it has been changed since. Nowadays, Viki says that breaks can be added for aesthetic reasons.