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Proposal: All Subtitles for DASH: Detailed – Now Cheaper!

amanda_b_johnson

Well-known member
Summary

The DASH: Detailed team wants two payments of 50 Dash to:
  1. Get subtitles in 6 languages: French, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Ukrainian.
  2. Publish Chinese-subtitled version of each episode on China's equivalent of YouTube, YouKu.
(If DASH: Detailed seeks to renew its employment when our current agreement expires in two months, we'll add these translation costs to the renewal proposal.)

Why It's Now Cheaper

Our trial month of the translations totaled 91 Dash per month [here and here]. We've slashed costs by:
  • We changed the format of DASH: Detailed, lessening total monthly content from ~88 minutes to ~40.
  • We've utilized recording software that cuts our YouKu video generation time significantly.
This proposal supports three additional languages – Portuguese, French, and Ukrainian – at a very small monthly cost per language (4 Dash) and drops last month's support of Cantonese due to feedback of people living in Hong Kong.

Cost Breakdown
  • 24 DASH – compensation to six translators (0.1 DASH per minute, 40 minutes per month)
  • 0.4 DASH – compensation to Mandarin translator for also translating each episode title/description for YouKu upload ($1 USD per episode)
  • 15 DASH – manual correction of auto-generated English .srt file, which is emailed to each translator
  • 8 DASH – YouKu remake and upload
  • 2.5 DASH - proposal fee reimbursement, split over two months
50 Dash total (rounded from 49.8 Dash)

Meet Our Translators

FRENCH – Daf, based in France, says he's “pretty fascinated by Dash’s virtuous circle model” and likens himself to a “geek” with a “strong taste for translation.” He notes that he's “thrilled by what Dash people are doing, which seems never seen-anywhere-before,” and a “great adventure.”

MANDARIN – Wu Xiaoning just moved to Seattle from China. She notes, “One day, my husband [a DASH: Detailed viewer] told me that your channel was looking for a Mandarin translator... I was very excited to begin learning about Dash and make a bridge for my people.”

PORTUGUESE – Edson Brusquelives in Blumenau, Brazil. He writes, “To put it simply, the more people know about the subjects addressed in DASH: Detailed, the better. And I would like to help spread the word.”

RUSSIAN – Dmitrii is from St. Petersburg, Russia. He says, “Translation is my hobby. [A] Hobby that can make you some extra money – that's good. When you can get some Dash from translation – that's superb. I do believe in Dash and its bright future.”

SPANISH – Kryztoval lives in Monterrey, Mexico, and says, “My dad watches the videos. I was translating for him in real time. When I heard you were hiring help, it seemed like a nice way to collaborate and get some Dash. I found the masternode network to be particularly interesting. I am saving to create my own masternode in the near future.”

UKRAINIAN– Svitlana Tryputen– who resides in Cherkasy, Ukraine – says, “My friend for whom I do some work wants to pay me in Dash. That's why I decided to know more about Dash. He advised me to watch Amanda's videos. I think that these videos will be helpful not only for me but also for other Ukrainians.”

Conclusion

Each DASH: Detailed video will be published on Wednesday at 12pm EST (17:00UTC). All subtitles will be viewable there on Friday at 12pm EST (17:00UTC). The YouKu upload will be viewable at i.youku.com/dashpay on Saturday at 12 pm EST (17:00UTC).

Thanks for your consideration. If anything is unclear or if you have additional questions please let us know.

- The DASH: Detailed team, Amanda B. Johnson and Pete Eyre

See/vote on this proposal at DashCentral.org
 
looking good - happy u guys are on it
1 question
isn't ukraine speaking 100% russian ?
 
My best wishes for success in translating DASH learning tools with a goal of serving more people on a global scale.
rc
 
looking good - happy u guys are on it
1 question
isn't ukraine speaking 100% russian ?

Great efforts and great results, Amanda and Pete!

Well, most of the Ukrainians speak Russian, but... some of them don't like to use Russian due to problematic political atmosphere between Russia and Ukraine in current period.
So - Ukrainian subtitles will help us to satisfy much bigger % of Ukrainians (patriotism and all that) - and as it is inexpensive - I think it is very good deal.
 
And to add a bit to this convo, here's where viewers of YouTube.com/DashOrg over the past 28 days who opted for translated subtitles hailed from. Note that the mirrored upload to YouKu likely captures most of the Mandarin/Chinese viewers.

7gC175G.png


And, if you're curious, here's where viewers (or at least their VPNs) of YouTube.com/DashOrg were based over the past 28 days:

5yONTvC.png

Also, the six languages to be translated, plus English, are according to Wikipedia, together spoken by over 2.4 billion people.
 
@TrustThyself Thanks for the info!

I'm not sure I fully understand those tables and there is a ton of info there. Do they mean that of the 1773 views from Russia 650 used subtitles or they are additional to the 1773? Is there a way to get time series in youtube analytics (I'm sorry if it is a stupid question, I have never used it). It would be great to be able to see the evolution before and after the introduction of decently translated subtitles, controlling for those who don't use subtitles.

Anyway, I'm all in for translating anything, specially if it is cheaper than before. As a non English speaker, I can tell that the language barrier is real!
 
Summary

The DASH: Detailed team wants two payments of 50 Dash to:
  1. Get subtitles in 6 languages: French, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Ukrainian.
  2. Publish Chinese-subtitled version of each episode on China's equivalent of YouTube, YouKu.
(If DASH: Detailed seeks to renew its employment when our current agreement expires in two months, we'll add these translation costs to the renewal proposal.)

Why It's Now Cheaper

Our trial month of the translations totaled 91 Dash per month [here and here]. We've slashed costs by:
  • We changed the format of DASH: Detailed, lessening total monthly content from ~88 minutes to ~40.
  • We've utilized recording software that cuts our YouKu video generation time significantly.
This proposal supports three additional languages – Portuguese, French, and Ukrainian – at a very small monthly cost per language (4 Dash) and drops last month's support of Cantonese due to feedback of people living in Hong Kong.

Cost Breakdown
  • 24 DASH – compensation to six translators (0.1 DASH per minute, 40 minutes per month)
  • 0.4 DASH – compensation to Mandarin translator for also translating each episode title/description for YouKu upload ($1 USD per episode)
  • 15 DASH – manual correction of auto-generated English .srt file, which is emailed to each translator
  • 8 DASH – YouKu remake and upload
  • 2.5 DASH - proposal fee reimbursement, split over two months
50 Dash total (rounded from 49.8 Dash)

Meet Our Translators

FRENCH – Daf, based in France, says he's “pretty fascinated by Dash’s virtuous circle model” and likens himself to a “geek” with a “strong taste for translation.” He notes that he's “thrilled by what Dash people are doing, which seems never seen-anywhere-before,” and a “great adventure.”

MANDARIN – Wu Xiaoning just moved to Seattle from China. She notes, “One day, my husband [a DASH: Detailed viewer] told me that your channel was looking for a Mandarin translator... I was very excited to begin learning about Dash and make a bridge for my people.”

PORTUGUESE – Edson Brusquelives in Blumenau, Brazil. He writes, “To put it simply, the more people know about the subjects addressed in DASH: Detailed, the better. And I would like to help spread the word.”

RUSSIAN – Dmitrii is from St. Petersburg, Russia. He says, “Translation is my hobby. [A] Hobby that can make you some extra money – that's good. When you can get some Dash from translation – that's superb. I do believe in Dash and its bright future.”

SPANISH – Kryztoval lives in Monterrey, Mexico, and says, “My dad watches the videos. I was translating for him in real time. When I heard you were hiring help, it seemed like a nice way to collaborate and get some Dash. I found the masternode network to be particularly interesting. I am saving to create my own masternode in the near future.”

UKRAINIAN– Svitlana Tryputen– who resides in Cherkasy, Ukraine – says, “My friend for whom I do some work wants to pay me in Dash. That's why I decided to know more about Dash. He advised me to watch Amanda's videos. I think that these videos will be helpful not only for me but also for other Ukrainians.”

Conclusion

Each DASH: Detailed video will be published on Wednesday at 12pm EST (17:00UTC). All subtitles will be viewable there on Friday at 12pm EST (17:00UTC). The YouKu upload will be viewable at i.youku.com/dashpay on Saturday at 12 pm EST (17:00UTC).

Thanks for your consideration. If anything is unclear or if you have additional questions please let us know.

- The DASH: Detailed team, Amanda B. Johnson and Pete Eyre

See/vote on this proposal at DashCentral.org
Hey Amanda, great proposal.

I'm curious, was the dash school series translated into Chinese?
 
@TrustThyself Thanks for the info!

I'm not sure I fully understand those tables and there is a ton of info there. Do they mean that of the 1773 views from Russia 650 used subtitles or they are additional to the 1773? Is there a way to get time series in youtube analytics (I'm sorry if it is a stupid question, I have never used it). It would be great to be able to see the evolution before and after the introduction of decently translated subtitles, controlling for those who don't use subtitles.

Anyway, I'm all in for translating anything, specially if it is cheaper than before. As a non English speaker, I can tell that the language barrier is real!

Good question Fernando. Those two numbers you cited -- 1773 and 650 -- are not mutually exclusive. The bigger number -- 1773 -- was from a table that shows all views titled "Original language & translated". The smaller number -- 650 -- applied a filter of those who used subtitles, titled "Translated". The YouTube Analytics area also displays a third option -- "Original language", which is below.

YouTube Analytics choices based on location.png


You'll see that the stats given for Russia on that table, plus the 650 already show, approximately total the 1773. It's only approximately now as the 28-day timeframe is different on the table below verses those two tables I shared on Wednesday.
YouTube Analytics views in original language.png


And yes, I strongly agree that some assessment that details the use of the subtitles by views across a date range, could be invaluable. Though some subtitles have been created for DASH: Detailed videos for some time -- I believe some funds from the International Outreach & Marketing budget originally compensated Alex-ru and his team to do Russian, for example, we've only brought the translations in-house recently so any conclusive data may not yet be present. However, in a month or two I'll certainly devote some time to share longitudinal data.

On a related note, one thing I hope to accomplish is to discern how to get the existence of the subtitles on the radars of native speakers, as that may cause an update in views. Perhaps incentivizing translators to post on related sites and forums, etc. would bear fruit...
 
Good question Fernando. Those two numbers you cited -- 1773 and 650 -- are not mutually exclusive. The bigger number -- 1773 -- was from a table that shows all views titled "Original language & translated". The smaller number -- 650 -- applied a filter of those who used subtitles, titled "Translated". The YouTube Analytics area also displays a third option -- "Original language", which is below.

View attachment 2879

You'll see that the stats given for Russia on that table, plus the 650 already show, approximately total the 1773. It's only approximately now as the 28-day timeframe is different on the table below verses those two tables I shared on Wednesday. View attachment 2878

And yes, I strongly agree that some assessment that details the use of the subtitles by views across a date range, could be invaluable. Though some subtitles have been created for DASH: Detailed videos for some time -- I believe some funds from the International Outreach & Marketing budget originally compensated Alex-ru and his team to do Russian, for example, we've only brought the translations in-house recently so any conclusive data may not yet be present. However, in a month or two I'll certainly devote some time to share longitudinal data.

On a related note, one thing I hope to accomplish is to discern how to get the existence of the subtitles on the radars of native speakers, as that may cause an update in views. Perhaps incentivizing translators to post on related sites and forums, etc. would bear fruit...
Thanks for the info, really interesting for a data sucker like me :). If you are ever able to do that time analysis I can guarantee I'll be a reader.

As for ways to promote translated subtitles, I'm not really sure. Although I'm a native Spanish speaker, I never use subtitles because I have a good enough command of English and most people I know are the same. There is, however, a real need for translated materials because most people don't speak English well enough. I think the problem is the isolation of translated pieces. Nobody looks for a translated video/subtitles if he doesn't have a translated platform he is using to learn/discuss. Your idea about sites and forums sounds good, but they need to be outlets that are used by people who don't use an English one (for example, the 'local' subforums here require you to sign up to the forum in English, so in all likelihood, most people also speak English... that is not what you want). Unfortunately, I don't know many of those because this part of my life has always happened in English (I believe this is true for most people who use more than one language in their day to day, we compartmentalize and use only one language per topic/person).

Another thought. In some countries people are used to watch foreign content doubled, so they will feel less attracted to subtitles (I know doubling is a totally different animal, I'm not saying you should do it... in fact I don't think you should! just mentioning because it is important to consider). Maybe some research there will help to understand trends.
 
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