Re: Sugestion about new BH style for subtitles
Posted: Fri May 11, 2018 10:46 am
I think I have been listening (reading) your proposal with an open mind - why follow standards if they are not good? Why not try something new? But I am truly convinced some standards ARE good and your method is not better but really worse. I gave you reasons and examples why, also some others.
I don't want to follow grammatical rules simply because they are grammatically correct, but because they make the reading faster and easier to understand, which is crucial with subtitles. Contrary to reading a book, where you can go back and re-read the line, with subtitles the reader has only one and very often a very short chance. That was the point of my example about the dot after Mr and Mrs: this is grammatically NOT correct, but much easier to read, so that's why it is common and preferred in subtitles.
You are saying: why not try?
Why try something which I am convinced it is not better but worse?
You are saying: what harm can it do?
Continuing on the 'fact' that I think your method is worse, the harm is that 1. people get worse subtitles, 2. other (beginning) subtitlers may think that this is how things 'should be'.
You are saying: let's try and see if people like it.
How can we know if people like it? Rating? I have seen amazingly bad machine translations getting (multiple) 10/10 ratings. The number of thank-you's? Same same, people thank for getting something, it's not a measure of quality. Number of downloads? Same same, typically the first upload gets the most downloads. And many people choose for subs with the most downloads, so it has a snowball-effect.
A poll or an open discussion - that could be something. But look at THIS forum topic. So far it's five against one...
I don't want to follow grammatical rules simply because they are grammatically correct, but because they make the reading faster and easier to understand, which is crucial with subtitles. Contrary to reading a book, where you can go back and re-read the line, with subtitles the reader has only one and very often a very short chance. That was the point of my example about the dot after Mr and Mrs: this is grammatically NOT correct, but much easier to read, so that's why it is common and preferred in subtitles.
You are saying: why not try?
Why try something which I am convinced it is not better but worse?
You are saying: what harm can it do?
Continuing on the 'fact' that I think your method is worse, the harm is that 1. people get worse subtitles, 2. other (beginning) subtitlers may think that this is how things 'should be'.
You are saying: let's try and see if people like it.
How can we know if people like it? Rating? I have seen amazingly bad machine translations getting (multiple) 10/10 ratings. The number of thank-you's? Same same, people thank for getting something, it's not a measure of quality. Number of downloads? Same same, typically the first upload gets the most downloads. And many people choose for subs with the most downloads, so it has a snowball-effect.
A poll or an open discussion - that could be something. But look at THIS forum topic. So far it's five against one...