Re: [Debconf-video] subtitling 101

On Mon, May 2, 2016 at 11:58 PM, shirish शिरीष <shirishag75@gmail.com> wrote:

I have no idea if anybody from the subtitling team would be there. If
there are, they could also do some training sessions and hopefully
this debconf would have some more subtitles as well as a slightly
bigger team.

Look forward to hearing replies on the above.

The wikipage is more or less up to date with current practices :)

https://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/Videoteam/Subtitles

I dont think there is anything technical preventing more people contributing with the subtitles. In the past contributors were expected to know git and have an alioth account, but last year we moved (mostly) to web, removing any kind of hindrance new contributors might have or technical knowledge they need to start

As I see it, the main big problem is that people that is able to make great subtitles, usually dont need them. The fact that these users dont overlap with the people that see great need in subtitles reduces the volunteer pool greatly

The second big problem is that making subs is a lot of hard work that not many people realize. I estimated that it takes from 1h to 2h for every 10min of finished subtitles. And this takes into account that you are proficient while doing it. It can be even slower if you are a slow typist. People starts with a lot of energy, but get discouraged soon when they realize the pace to finish a single subtitle for a single video

Another problem is that debconf subtitles 'hotness' is highly volatile. Workshops and tutorials are maybe the exception, but talks value decreases over time, aka, less people is interested on projects updates one or two month down the line

And the final problem, looking at the numbers in the past, the volunteers and casuals people interested to help peek during the actual debconf and the week after (maybe when lwn publish the link the talks). This was slightly fixed last year by the hard work of people form the video-team by having the video available on the same day they happened... :)

...but even long-term volunteers had to divide their attention between helping with subtitles and watching that day's talks live or meeting new people or eating cheese...

We are open to new ideas to improve the way we work or new hands or both :)

Well see how it goes this year :o)

Cheers!