TGR Subtitling Project: current status, information

[freefall]

This thread was a bit re-routed to reflect current project status and contact information (if I remember to update it accordingly).

Current status: We couldn't be arsed to do it any longer, no more translations. Sorry.

Episodes 1-8 of the first (and only, so far) series have been completed and released.
Second part of series 1 (episodes 9 - 15) is currently on.

Vacancies:
We are looking for translators who are willing to actually do something.
PM me or MXM, or post in episode-specific translation threads.

Original post contents were removed.

[Shawn]

Fantastic... what's with the weird word wrapping?

[freefall]

Does it look that bad? I did it man-u-ally

[dragonboy3000]

As long as we eventually get them it doesnt matter how long it takes.
I hope it doesnt die off, im really enjoying the russian version top gear, and despite being an aussie and having watched the aussie version i actually prefer this to that.
Cheers guys for all your work.

[lukenwolf]

Well, I'm willing to help. Just don't know how much I can really be of use, because I'm not a native russian speaker so I tend to only understand about 70-80% of it - them speaking so damn quickly doesn't help at times

[Sgt Fox]

I too hope it doesn't die. I don't care how long it takes, just for it eventually to get done. Thanks so far for the efforts

[TechZ]

Originally Posted by freefall

Sad news for many of you, as of episode 01x04 of Top Gear Russia the
subtitling team is no longer able too keep up with the pace, and there
is a possibility that future episodes will not be translated for a while, if
ever (and I really mean it)

Some of the team had to step down from their positions and give up
their duties because of inability to spend so much of their free time on
this project.
I personally would like to thank them for what they did.

At the moment, we're looking at different options that would help the
project survive, but it's pretty obvious to me that there will have to be
at least four or five translators involved simultaneously to reduce the
amount of time spent by every person per episode down to a reasonable
value. Keep in mind that during this time, a main priority for most of us is
keeping our jobs. Well that, and the girlfriends, but that's implied

I reckon that as soon as at least a couple more people join, it will
kick-start the project and make it possible to release subs steadily (with
an odd delay or two).

P.S. Concerning S01E04, we'll make our best to finish it, so check back in
a few days.

I'm sorry, a bunch of people cannot find enough time in a week to translate 45-50mins of video from Russian to English? What do you guys do, work 80-100hrs a week in your day job or study more than that?

I can understand if it was just ONE person doing it, but if there are even 2 its doable. The 'pace' hasn't changed, it's still 1 episode per week, its not like they air one every day and we expect you to translate it within a matter of hours of release.

Suedschleife has been doing the DMotor translation for ages now, and he does it regularly all by himself, only recently has he asked for help.

Considering how many thousands of hours have been put in by the people who keep finalgear.com running smoothly and getting you all what you want, I can't believe you can't find a few hours a week to help back doing something unfortunately not many people on this forum can.

[freefall]

Originally Posted by TechZ

I'm sorry, a bunch of people cannot find enough time in a week to translate 45-50mins of video from Russian to English? What do you guys do, work 80-100hrs a week in your day job or study more than that?

I can understand if it was just ONE person doing it, but if there are even 2 its doable. The 'pace' hasn't changed, it's still 1 episode per week, its not like they air one every day and we expect you to translate it within a matter of hours of release.

Suedschleife has been doing the DMotor translation for ages now, and he does it regularly all by himself, only recently has he asked for help.

Considering how many thousands of hours have been put in by the people who keep finalgear.com running smoothly and getting you all what you want, I can't believe you can't find a few hours a week to help back doing something unfortunately not many people on this forum can.

Nice attitude.

[TechZ]

Originally Posted by freefall

Nice attitude.

I'm being blunt is all. It might be alot of work, but you don't give up after 4 episodes. You and so many others EXPECT finalgear.com to have things done every week, how about helping back?

If you guys have a problem co-ordinating things, get on irc and make a channel, ask us for help, we'll do what we can. You already have no trouble with releasing the episode, i.e. seeding it for everyone. And final grammar/spellcheck is something I can help out with as well.

Starting a thread "We can't do it anymore" is just weak. I'm telling it how it is.

[MXM]

TechZ is just having a bad day

What can I add, this thing is a lot of work. The translation itself doesn't take a whole lot of time (maybe 2h a week, if there are 5 or so people on the team), but we lack organization.

There's a LOT of work on the shoulders of a head-guy. And I'm sure Suedschleife can agree, managing a team isn't easy, so he basically does it by himself now, in his own pace, as far as I understood.

Out team-leader doesn't have time to deal with it all, so he threw a towel. And I can't blame him, after being "in charge" for the ep3, I don't want to spend a good part of the week worrying about some shitty show that, as most people agree, is barely watchable.

freefall painted a grim picture, but things aren't that bad. Ep 4 will definitely be out, probably this weekend, the rest will be delayed until everything gets sorted out.

[lukenwolf]

Originally Posted by MXM

TechZ is just having a bad day

What can I add, this thing is a lot of work. The translation itself doesn't take a whole lot of time (maybe 2h a week, if there are 5 or so people on the team), but we lack organization.

There's a LOT of work on the shoulders of a head-guy. And I'm sure Suedschleife can agree, managing a team isn't easy, so he basically does it by himself now, in his own pace, as far as I understood.

Out team-leader doesn't have time to deal with it all, so he threw a towel. And I can't blame him, after being "in charge" for the ep3, I don't want to spend a good part of the week worrying about some shitty show that, as most people agree, is barely watchable.

freefall painted a grim picture, but things aren't that bad. Ep 4 will definitely be out, probably this weekend, the rest will be delayed until everything gets sorted out.

While I don't agree with TechZ's choice of words I might have to wonder about your point a bit. Yes team management is a tad tricky - I have my own experience in that. But there'e some simple solutions that could be applied. The show is pretty much structured the same every week, so everybody on the team selects a segment and gets going. Maybe if you outline the most difficult problems that occur, some people might come up with ideas to help you with the organizational worries.
The other thing is your very own approach. you say

"I don't want to spend a good part of the week worrying about some shitty show that, as most people agree, is barely watchable."

If you regard the show so badly, why did you bother doing the subs in the first place I mean if I take on some work with that sort of approach, it'll be a sure fail. And considering the marks TGR gets in the weekly polls it can't be so bad by everyones evaluation. as I said, if need be, I'm willing to help, but my translations won't be 100% accurate and will need revision by a native russian speaker. So - I'm deliberately blunt here - before tackling the managing probs, maybe your own approach to the project could need a bit refining. Not meant to offend you

[MXM]

About the show being bad... everything is relative. But the show is not great. And that doesn't add to motivation. People don't want to be restricted by deadlines, and when they are not, and the motivation is lacking they start procrastinating.

That doesn't mean I don't want to translate, I do. What I don't want to do, is lead a group of busy and unmotivated people. I don't think anyone does... And even though I'm discussing organizational issues here, I can't sacrifice 2-3 evenings a week, so I can only agree to do a translation of one part and let someone else worry about other things.

It's easy to underestimate the effort needed when observing from the outside. But let me clarify, I've uploaded translated script of my part of an ep 4 on the next day after the airing, freefall uploaded his on the day after that. 2 weeks passed and the release is still not out because some parts weren't done and it wasn't clear if anyone was doing them. The group admin said he doesn't have time. Nobody else is stepping up to take the huge task. So who can you point the fingers at?

[TechZ]

I can admit I was a bit harsh, but that's because it appears (to someone on the outside) that after just 3-4 eps it seems everyone gave up on the project. It's no secret that Viper/Quiky/etc on Finalgear are always happy to help with resources or helping find them to keep a FG related project going. A lot of work to keep this site going happens without anyone here noticing, that doesn't mean it doesn't cut into their/our personal time as well, we don't give up though.

Ask, and let's see if we can do something to help. The right post (even with a not-so-great TG show) can attract supporters who can do parts to help out.

[Shawn]

I would help out if there a Top Gear: Iran, but there sadly isn't.

Translating is a very time-consuming process though, you should know this of all people TechZ... assuming you do speak Arabic.

[lukenwolf]

Originally Posted by MXM

About the show being bad... everything is relative. But the show is not great. And that doesn't add to motivation. People don't want to be restricted by deadlines, and when they are not, and the motivation is lacking they start procrastinating.

That doesn't mean I don't want to translate, I do. What I don't want to do, is lead a group of busy and unmotivated people. I don't think anyone does... And even though I'm discussing organizational issues here, I can't sacrifice 2-3 evenings a week, so I can only agree to do a translation of one part and let someone else worry about other things.

It's easy to underestimate the effort needed when observing from the outside. But let me clarify, I've uploaded translated script of my part of an ep 4 on the next day after the airing, freefall uploaded his on the day after that. 2 weeks passed and the release is still not out because some parts weren't done and it wasn't clear if anyone was doing them. The group admin said he doesn't have time. Nobody else is stepping up to take the huge task. So who can you point the fingers at?

Tell me which parts are missing, I'll do them and all you have to do is proof read if I did them correctly. Seriously, I know what you're talking about. I've been a project manager professionally for quite some time now, so I can understand about the "herding unmotivated people" thing

[freefall]

Ok, enough counselling and patronizing, this is getting nowhere.

I thought I've put it clearly enough as to what sort of delays to expect and which resources exactly we lack. That's about it for the informative part of the thread. We still have a dedicated thread in the subtitling subforum, any specific help offers should rather be posted there. I'll consider asking for spell checks on the irc.

[MXM]

Originally Posted by lukenwolf

Tell me which parts are missing, I'll do them and all you have to do is proof read if I did them correctly.

Translating is not the problem. In fact I have already translated the missing part today. It takes time to cut it to reasonable pieces and time it. Been doing it for over an hour now...

[freefall]

Originally Posted by TechZ

<cut> it appears (to someone on the outside) that after just 3-4 eps it seems everyone gave up on the project <cut>

What you are missing here, is that the people speaking in this thread still haven't given up and still care. Would you rather I didnt create this thread and let the project die off silently? So stop giving us grief.

[lukenwolf]

well, didn't mean to be patronizing folks. I really care for this show. there's a lot of people caring, so just don't give up on it. TechZ - although you have a point you just hammered it home with the wrong words. as for the timing of subs. I think I can help with that. I noticed that once I read the subs, it becomes all obvious - the problem for me is - I've been living in siberia for a several years, so I'm used to the Omsk accent, but the moscovites' twaddle is just modem noise to me. if you want to offload some of the timing malarkey on me - no prob at all. I'll do it

[MXM]

Don't worry for now, ep 4 is being handled. As for the future, we can continue discussing it in the subtitling thread.