Did you mean, Sisyphus? Pretty good points, I don’t know where to begin. Incidentally I like that analogy.
You mentioned people would need to set a flag. Well as of today the subs will (should) be clearly marked, where the up loader can clearly click ‘
Subtitles are machine translated’ option in the upload page which should help and yes not everybody will use this feature unfortunately, but at least it’s a start.
We agree that translations are an abomination, but it’s impossible to satisfy everyone’s opinion and we thought this way it would be more of an impartial one by taking the said steps.
“Who's gonna go through all the subtitles and check whether a newer subtitle is not a machine translation in disguise? Isn't all that a mission impossible? “
Couldn’t agree more. That’s where everyone comes in. Its impossible to wade through every subtitle upload, this is where we’ll have to rely on the users help. After all this is all being done for them, too.
I have already seen reports being made in regards to deleting machine translations, so hopefully we can build from there.
NOTE: This is not a fool proof plan. In my opinion nothing will be perfect, but this is as close that anyone can get it (I think). There is another site which in my belief doesn’t even let you upload a machine translation, but that may be going too far, as no one will be able to get their hands on a raw transcript to edit.
“next question would be this: If you plan to delete inferior machine translations as soon as a better subtitle arrives, how about deleting all the other inferior subtitles as well? Is that feasible?
Sometimes there are 10 or more different subtitles for a film release, some are Google crap, some are transcripts in different stages of editing, finally there are retail rips, again duplicates and corrected versions etc etc. “
This is all ground zero at the moment. We are always open to suggestions and our opinions are subject to change, after all its all of us that make this community what it is, so its up to us where we go from here.
Everything said by me here isn’t concrete and is subject to change and I think it will remain that way for some time to come. Simply because this is all really difficult in regards to what approach to take.
But for now I think it’s a safe bet assuming ‘Google crap’ will definitely be deleted once edited versions appear. In regards to subtitles in “different stages of editing”? Well, for now I personally think they may be left untouched for the points you raised and we should wait and see where the future takes us from here (users opinions on them) before continuing in this course of action.
“someone already said, people tend to favour the subtitle with the most downloads, so how do we get them to download the best subtitles? I think by deleting the bad ones or by pointing towards the good ones. Checking all the different versions and decide which one's the best is a Sisyphus task. “
Hmmm… We can’t really make anyone do anything can we? I think all we can do is make sure ‘Translations’ are deleted and then its up to the individual what he/she downloads.
What I like about subscene is, everybody votes for the subtitle. Granted, often the up loader himself takes part which I think is folly, but that at least brings out the bad and the good rise above the rest. Over here you only get votes (mostly) if your subtitles been downloaded in the 1000’s.
“there are ethical and moral questions: If someone made a transcript which is pretty good but then someone uploaded an edited version....can and should the original be deleted just because it's inferior?”
That’s difficult, and I wouldn’t want to voice my opinion on that one just yet as I can’t make my mind up? As I said, we’ll have to see what happens in the future. For now we should at least concentrate on removing machine translations, once that field is mastered, if ever, then…?
For now there is a new way of marking the said translation subs, lets hope it helps, AND ALL MAKE USE OF IT.
