Unilateral Deletion by M_I_S

[agen_dealer]

My subtitle for "Darkness of Man 2024" was suddenly deleted. And I reported it. Admin replied that it was deleted by someone's account named M_I_S and admin didn't know the real reason. I was shocked and wondered where it went wrong. I created it with great effort, I didn't steal it, I didn't reupload it from any other site or grab it from any streaming site. So, I ask respectly to M_I_S, please explain here your reasons for doing so.

[SmallBrother]

Was it subtitles with name Darkness.of.Man.2024.WEBRip.HDRip.srt, posted anonymously on May 9th?

If so, the reason M_I_S gave when deleting:
Retail available https://www.opensubtitles.org/en/subtitles/10034788/darkness-of-man-en
(see https://www.opensubtitles.org/en/subtit ... -of-man-en )

[agen_dealer]

So if someone makes a subtitle from scratch, then posts it on this site, then after the retail subtitle is released, that previous subtitle becomes irrelevant, and must be deleted because it violates the rules of this site? In other words, this site is specifically for retail subtitles only?

[SmallBrother]

No - there is no general guideline which 'forbids' custom subtitles when retail subtitles are available.

On the contrary, as admin for the Dutch language section, I would not delete a custom subtitle just because a retail version is available. First of all, out of appreciation and respect for the subtitler who has spent time and effort for his creation. Secondly, nowadays many socalled 'retail' subtitles are not better than a good custom subtitle, sometimes even (much) worse. I would only delete the subtitles if they are too poor, but then I would do that also without a retail being available.

But again, this is MY personal opinion and valid for the DUTCH language section. Admins in other language sections may have other ideas and policies and have their reasons for that. So for this, we would have to wait for M_I_S to explain.

[agen_dealer]

Thank you for your answer and explanation, SmallBrother. Let's hear the answer from M_I_S.

[mrtinkles]

Just a cursory glance at the subtitle you submitted confirms that deletion was warranted. Some errors in format, such as off camera speech not identified was noted, possible line breaks in certain areas to improve the subtitle flow.

However, using OpenSubtitles to advertise is strictly forbidden:

39
00:04:41,994 --> 00:04:56,994
SITUS SLOT ONLINE TERBARU DAN TERGACOR DI 2023
PERMAINAN DAN BONUSNYA BIKIN PUAS MAINNYA, DITAMBAH ADA RTP YANG AKURAT HINGGA 98%
Gabung Sekarang di puasnyepin.net

40
00:04:57,018 --> 00:05:12,018
MAIN DI PUAS69 & JADILAH JUTAWAN
MAIN SAMPAI PUAS, WD TANPA CEMAS
Temukan kami di Google, ketik PUAS69

41
00:06:29,589 --> 00:06:34,975
Subtitle by AgenDealer

For future reference to all contributors, DO NOT advertise, request contributions or donations, make political statements, or try to exalt some befitting cause by using this site as a billboard.

Credits for your own work, and also including those whose works that you have built upon, are permissible. No scrolling, flashing or obtrusive banners stating such, please place all credits in an unobtrusive location.

[SmallBrother]

Just a cursory glance at the subtitle you submitted confirms that deletion was warranted.

I agree.
But then the reason given should be "advertising spam, syntax errors, missing parts" or whatever, but NOT "retail is available". If only to avoid apparently unnecessary discussions like this.

My conclusion:
- Deleting the subs was correct.
- The reason given was not correct.

EDIT:

@AgenDealer ( https://www.opensubtitles.org/en/profile/iduser-8625754 )
Apparently ALL your uploads contain the same advertising spam for puasnyepin.net. So I have deleted all your uploads, however without stating the same reason on every single subtitle, that would be too much work.

[pooond]

The moral of the story here being, sometimes let bygones be bygones.
The OS admins can take their sleuthing quite seriously.

[M_I_S]

Hi,
If your sub was custom, you should have explained what was done.

Usually I don't delete custom subtitles and I respect the time and effort of its provider..
But retail is retail and is ahead of other subtitles unless it is an extraordinary custom.
Therefore, as long as there is no retail version, non-standard subtitles(transcript /AI generated) will not be removed
Of course we try

Your following lines:

1: "Their meeting tomorrow." should be "They're meeting tomorrow."

2: "What do you mean?" should be "What do you need?"

Few differences I found with a quick look.
Although a very good attempted transcript, it can be misleading to the viewer, especially if the viewer is completely deaf.
That's why for certain languages "retail" can be preferred so users are directed to the best subtitle available for a good viewing experience. As I can see you spent a lot of time on it. In the future, if you're willing to
make the necessary adjustments on syntax and grammatical improvements to your subtitles when retail is available, we'll be willing to enable your subs as a version 2 as a good will gesture.

For this current subtitle, in light of mrtinkles' and SB's investigations, we'll leave this one be.
Do really appreciate your time and effort, though.

Thank you for your time.

Regards
M_I_S

[agen_dealer]

Wow, thank you for checking carefully in all the details. Very professional, tons of subtitles from many countries, checked one by one so that if there is a slight error, when retail is available, it is immediately deleted. Kudos to the incredible effort and energy you put in 25/7. And my bad, I didn't know that advertising would be a problem on this site, because when I opened it, I was immediately offered to remove ads for VIP, Openai, Hockey Arena, the names of Youtube, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, HBO Max, it was displayed very clearly. Sorry, my hopes were too high thinking I was still at subscene.com.

[scooby007]

Takeaway points for you.
An offer would have been made to reinstate the subtitle, retail or not, as a good will gesture, but in the end was declined due to SPAM/Advertising in the middle of the sub. So in the end this isn't about retail vs transcripts, as a compromise would have been possible.

Transcripts do exist.
Aladdin: https://www.opensubtitles.org/en/subtit ... aladdin-en
That subtitle has 1.4 million downloads, do you seriously think the now defunct website you mentioned had that level of traffic for that one subtitle? Wasn't the reason of its demise lack of traffic? That same subtitle probably had 10-20k downloads on the other site?

https://www.opensubtitles.org/en/statistics:
Just one user in this list, hadilan, has had his subs downloaded over 10 million times in the past 6 months, do you seriously think his subtitles were downloaded that many times on other websites?

What's my point?

The more traffic, the more users, the more downloads = the more user complaints.
Site admins' actions have mostly been defined by collated years of feedback. What is right for the site and mostly the community at large, this has been determined by talks, debates, discussions, feedback and complaints given over the years by said community. Generally the community has been at the heart of our operation and setup.

If you go through the forum, you can see swathes of topics where users have requested many features and adjustments over the years and our developers have been more than accommodating to engage with the community to get the best out of the website for all users concerned. I don't think there's many, if any, subtitle sites that beats that level of commitment for its users. Not to mention all the apps we and the community have created over the years to get the best out of the website.

We're OPEN to changes, adjustments and compromises. As long as it benefits the community at large and doesn't contradict past promises and commitments that we know to be detrimental to our users.

Alas, we're only human and can't always please everyone. I'm sure most of our users can agree that we do try our best and we are always there for them when needed.