I donate my time subtitling popular YouTube videos for the deaf and hard of hearing at www.amara.org. AMA.

I just want to thank you so much for making these videos accessible for the deaf. I can't thank you enough of how kind you are!

blushes Thanks. That's really sweet of you to say. I hope, someday, having YouTube videos with closed captions become the norm. We'll see.

Much appreciated!!

Glad you like the videos!

Raises hands and wiggles fingers

:) I love Deaf applause the best.

As a deaf person who uses a cochlear implant, I just want to say thanks! A lot of my friends think that my CI is a magical ear (I've had it since 2, I'm 26 now). The reality is, I can only do one-on-one conversations well, but with movies and group conversations, I'm totally lost and I rely on outside help (interpreters/captions/etc). People like you make the world a lot easier for me!

Question: Is there a genre you see that's usually in popular demand?

You are so welcome. I teach a group of hard of hearing children in Taiwan and know, first hand, that cochlear implants are not magical cure-all for hearing loss. As of right now, I don't get enough requests for me to be able to say which channels are really in demand. But I do get a lot of requests for Smosh and tend to get a lot of views after I put up one of their videos. I also had a request to do a Jimmy Fallon music spoof. Maybe, as I continue doing this, I will be able to better understand what people really would like to see captioned.

Hey - I think this is fantastic. I would love to help out. In fact, I've just realised one of the major channels I subscribe to relies on the automated YouTube captions and in less than 5 seconds, I realised it's a massive fail.

Can you point me in the right direction on how to get started with videos of my choice?

I can! Go to www.amara.org. From there, you can set up an account. After that, copy the YouTube video link of your choice, click on the "subtitle video" box, and paste it in there. Once you've pressed enter, there will be a tutorial that will show you how to caption the videos you want. Does that help?

That's awesome. Thanks :) I'll give it a go!

Sweet! I hope you have a great time doing it. And maybe, once you're done, you can show me your stuff ;). I like seeing what other subtitlers are doing.

I've been curious... are there defined sub-titling "standards"?

Like [music note][song title in italics][music note] to describe background music, etc?

Or is it all up to the experience/personality of the sub-titler?

It depends. I try to follow www.amara.org's paid project subtitling standards. If someone is singing, I'll surround the lyrics with musical notes. I put meaningful noises like (car screeches) in parenthesis. If I absolutely can't understand what's being said, I'll type [inaudible]. If an off screen narrator is speaking, I'll italicize what they say. And if someone is talking, but they are off screen at the time, I'll make sure to make note of it by saying something like, (Anthony) What the frickin' frick, man?!

I also would like to give a shout out to /r/TranscriptRequest/ as well!

Whoa! That is awesome! Who is the owner of that page? Is there just one person who transcripts all that, or is there a group of people involved?

You can feel free to make a contribution/subtitles to videos in posts (in Requested threads) and if you do, you'll be given a "Successful transcriber" flair.

Thank you for letting me know. So once I'm done subtitling something, I just post it on your subreddit, yes?

As a Deaf person, thank you SO much for donating your time. You're fantastic!

Thank you so much for your kind words. I love what I do and I especially love hearing from those who get to appreciate the final result!

I'm so grateful for it. I am so used to having to fight like a dog to get accommodations made, so I am especially appreciate of people like you who see that something needs to be done and does it.

Thank you for your kind words. I'm sorry you have to fight so much for the rights to enjoy what everyone else takes for granted and hope, one day, that you won't have to fight anymore.

This is probably way late but I'm a Vice President at Maker Studios and we have over 50,000 channel and like 16 million videos on YT. I know its not much but if you've created caption files on our videos (its likely you have judging by the videos you've mentioned) I'd be happy to make sure they get uploaded directly to the videos so that the correct captions are more widely available.

I have no idea if that's helpful to what you do or not, just message me and I'll shoot you my email.

Hi! That would be fantastic! Just sent you a message.

As a follow up. This is happening. Thanks reddit for helping make these introductions.

Wish I could upvote this twice :). I'm really excited to work with you and am really happy that more and more people are becoming open to captioning their videos.

So you're the reason my mother is able to enjoy YouTube more these days, thank you very much!

How did you get involved with such a thing?

You are so welcome! I'm glad your mom is finally starting to enjoy YouTube. I found out about www.amara.org from another CODA named Eric Witteborg. Do you know him? Anyways, for the longest time, I would leave comments on my favorite videos, letting the YouTubers know that I loved their content, but wanted to see them provided captions. I never got any replies and eventually got fed up and asked my facebook friends if they knew of a website where I could volunteer my time to subtitle videos. Eric gave me the link and the rest is history.

What has been your favorite video to subtitle?

Probably Smosh's "Longest Staring Contest Ever." I was cackling the whole time.

How do you decide which videos to sibtitle? Is it just based on demand?

I try to observe what's being shared and liked on Facebook. If a video has gone really viral, I'll caption it. I also have a Facebook page called Subtitle YouTube and get some requests from the members there. YouTube's Most Popular channel is also a good resource to see what's trending at any given time.

What software or workflow do you use when captioning YouTube videos?

I use www.amara.org's workshop space. They have their own program. Copy/paste the link you want to caption into their program box, click enter, and they'll take you directly to a workshop space that allows you to type, sync,and edit the video you want to caption. It's pretty easy to use.

Oh, wow. You might be my new favourite person. Whilst I am not actually deaf, I have hearing issues that make subtitles a necessity. Thank you for your hard, yet awesome work!

How do you go about doing what you do? What's your process?

You're making me blush. Seriously :). I try to pay close attention to what is making the rounds on Facebook. There are always videos that are being posted by groups like Buzzfeed and if they get shared by a lot of my close friends, I'll subtitle them. YouTube also has a channel called "Most Popular". It automatically compiles a list of the newest, hottest videos that are being watched at any given moment. I often subtitle those videos too. I also have favorites that I love to caption (such as Jacksfilms, Smosh, Ryan Higa, and Tobuscus). Finally, I run a Facebook page called Subtitle YouTube (www.facebook.com/subtitleyoutube) . I do get some personal requests from the people that have joined and I caption/post the requests I receive.

I too would love to help with this! I'll definitely sign up once the website recovers from the Reddit Hug of Death.

LOL. Awesome! I hope you have a good time captioning videos. I've found it really worthwhile.

So, I just finished subtitling my video, and I've got to say the program is insanely easy and intuitive to use!

I know! Getting the timing right took me a little bit of time, but I had it pretty much mastered in a week.

I have to slowly back away from Reddit to spend some time with my niece before going to a slam poetry show, but I'll be back tonight to answer more questions. I am so humbled by your positive responses. See you in a few :).

In your experience, what is the hardest thing about living with a deaf person? How did you meet your husband?

(And what was your favourite song today?)

I've been around deaf people my whole life, so I can't honestly think of anything that I find hard about living with a deaf person. When I was younger, I think the hardest thing was the embarrassment that came from other hearing people telling me that my mom and dad did odd things (like banging doors and cabinets) or when peers asked me, "How do you say this curse word in ASL?". Language barriers used to be the hardest thing with my husband. He didn't know any American Sign Language when I met him, and we had to rely on a Chinese/English dictionary a lot when we were first beginning our relationship. I met him through an American Sign Language/International Sign Language course that was being held at the Taipei Association of the Deaf.

And my favorite song is...maybe Thrift Shop? I love to hear it on the radio, but I don't listen to lots of music otherwise.

Just made an account. I type fast and I'm unemployed, might as well get some good out of my skill and time.

So. Awesome. I'm a-gonna hug you in three...two...one...HUG.

Woo!

dances

This is neat, good for you. You should re-do the matrix trailer, we watched one in film class, and we had a deaf student, the subtitles were ridiculous.

I can put that down. Which trailer are you referring to? The one for the very first movie?

That muppet episode was hilarious. I don't know why you had to CC that one, though. I had a perfectly easy time lipreading the puppets mouths. ;)

LOL. Not everyone such mad lip reading skillz ;). I bow down to your prowess!

reminds me of lip reading nightmares by "that ddeaf guy" comic artist here Couldnt find his newer one, but talking puppets was in one of the panels!

I love his work. He's an awesome comic artist and I love it when he posts new strips on Facebook.

Not really a question, more of a high five in word form. It's people like you that make me try to think of creative ways to help people.

Heh. I'm a-gonna high-five you right back. Do you think you're going to try your hand at subtitling videos?

Just stopping by to say thanks for the selfless work.

Thank you! Your encouragement means a lot to me.

Does anyone ever do this for porn?

O.o. I haven't gotten any requests for that. And I'm not sure if www.amara.org would allow that on their website; I haven't checked.

How long does it take to transcribe a video? And how difficult is it to do?

It can really vary. A 2-3 minute video might take me about 30 to 40 minutes to type up, sync, and edit, and that's if all the actors are speaking clearly. A ten minute video might take me up to an hour and a half. I remember there was one video that was just 2 minutes in length, but it took me forever because the speaker was speaking in such a robotic voice and I had to keep playing everything back to fully understand what was being said.

Is there a way to search Youtube for only subtitled videos (not automatic ones)? I am hard of hearing and rarely use Youtube because I've found most things aren't subtitled.

There is! You can refine your search and look for videos that are truly Close Captioned. Search for a general topic/channel. After you get your results, go to the "filter" menu that is right below the search engine. Then click the section that says CC (closed captioned). It will filter your results and show you only videos that provide Closed Captions.

Hey! This is cool. As a Deaf guy, definitely useful to have people like you! I always find myself wanting some captions for movie trailers especially, do you do that kind of work? If not, I think it'd really be cool if you did. I know captionfish has them sometimes, but not all of them unfortunately...

Hi, DeafEnt. I subtitle all sorts of stuff and would be more than happy to subtitle movie trailers. Which ones did you have in mind? If you provide the links, I can try to get them subtitled for you. I post all my finished work at www.facebook.com/subtitleyoutube.

Just want to say this... Thank you so much!

You are so welcome! I love what I do!

Do you think that these videos with captions becoming the norm is achieveable?

It's hard to say. I think, long ago, people used to think that captioning everything on TV was unachievable. But the deaf and hard of hearing protested and fought until their needs were recognized. YouTube is a different animal. There are millions of videos and it would be impossible to caption every one of them. However, I do think it's plausible to have really popular channels, those with millions of subscribers, have captioned videos, whether through crowd-sourcing or hiring a team-member whose sole purpose is to caption their videos. There has to be a major push for it though. Marlee Matlin has lent her voice to this cause, but there's just not enough noise/exposure yet.

Deaf man here. Thank you so much for this!

:) You're welcome! I'm so glad that you enjoy my work. I do run a Facebook page called Subtitle YouTube and I like to take personal requests. If there's ever anything you see that you might like to see subtitled, you can always send me a PM.

Awesome! Is this the page? https://www.facebook.com/groups/177170789154591/

I was the owner of that group, but I now post my stuff on an official page that can be found here: //www.facebook.com/subtitleyoutube.

This is the first I've heard (hah) of you! I'm hard of hearing so now I'll be able to watch these videos without missing anything. Thank you so much, you're the best!

Awesome! I'm so glad to personally meet some of the people who watch the videos I caption. I've mentioned this in a couple of threads before, but I do run a Facebook page called Subtitle YouTube (www.facebook.com/subtitleyoutube) and I take personal requests. If you ever see anything you'd like to see captioned, you can always send me a PM and I'll see what I can do. I'm always curious to see what the deaf and hard of hearing want to see.

I don't have any questions, I'd just like to thank you for donating your time to do something like that. You are very kind and make a huge difference for people, thanks!

Thank you for your kind words! I enjoy what I do and hope it will have a positive impact on how accessible YouTube becomes for the deaf and hard of hearing.

Thank you for your effort

Thanks for your kind words :).

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I'm glad you find the captions helpful. I do run a Facebook page called Subtitle YouTube (www.facebook.com/subtitleyoutube) and I take requests. If there's ever anything you'd like to see subtitled, you could PM me and I'll see what I can do :).

Is amara a non profit or do they sell your subtitles to youtube?

Amara is a non-profit, crowd-sourced project, so YouTubers can use the subtitles that are put onto their website at no cost. There is a different, smaller section called "Amara on Demand", where they subtitle particular videos from companies who prefer to have their videos subtitled by a paid team that must adhere to a very strict set of guidelines/rules. But, by far, almost everything on that website is done for free.

I've worked for a relay company for 5 years assisting deaf and hard of hearing people make everyday phone calls to loved ones and businesses. The customers are rarely very appreciative. I've received a few thanks over the years but for the most part they are pretty rude. Why can't they be more appreciative like the people posting in this AMA?

My brother works for Sorenson and has had similar experiences from time to time. I don't know how to best answer your question :(. I think VP interpreters such as yourselves provide an awesome service and deserve more respect. I'm sorry you're treated that way.

This AMA inspired me to try out captioning a video of my own, thanks! I was wondering if there's any safeguards to prevent anyone from turning a video's captions into spam after it's been crowd-sourced?

That's probably one of the drawbacks of the crowd-sourced part of amara.org. Anyone can go in and make corrections/edits to your videos. Most people are good intentioned and will do this to help you out, but if someone wanted to be malicious, they could go in and completely ruin your work. If that ever happens, write down the name of the person who "edited" your video and report them to the people who run The Amara Project. I'm sure they would do something about it. That has personally never happened to me. I have subtitled a ton of videos and each video has, generally, been a great experience.

Do you do it with regular computer key board? I am going to school for broadcast captioning and use a stenograph machine and wanted to start captioning my favorite you tubers!! Thanks!

You're going to school for broadcast captioning? That's awesome! Do you find it hard to use the stenograph machine? When I use www.amara.org, I use my laptop for every video I subtitle.

Thank you so much for doing this, as a Hearing Impaired person, it really helps. Thanks a ton!

:). You're welcome. I'm glad that what I do can have such a positive impact for the deaf and hard of hearing community. There are not enough videos out there for you to enjoy and I hope that, as time goes by, that will change.

I saw in your proof that it says the Swedish Chef is speaking Swedish. Is that accurate though?

Hah. I don't know exactly what the Swedish Chef is saying and it would be hard for me to write his dialogue down, syllable by syllable, so I just annotated that he was speaking in "Swedish". The " " lets the viewers know that the Swedish Chef is pretty much speaking nonsense, but that everyone should just suspend disbelief and think he's speaking Swedish.

Thank you so much. I am hard of hearing and your subtitles are amazingly helpful.

How long does it take you on average to subtitle, say, a 15 minute video?

Sorry, just got back from lunch with my family! It's so nice to hear from someone that watches my stuff. Depending on how clearly the actors speak and how much dialogue is involved, it could take me up to two and a half hours. Most of the videos I do are within the 3-6 minute area, but I did the Rudolph Christmas special, which runs an hour. If you are at all interested, I do run a Facebook page called Subtitle YouTube (www.facebook.com/subtitleyoutube) and take requests from the members there. If there's anything you'd like to see subtitled, I'd be happy to see what I can do.

Have you ever put in an easter egg or subtitled something incorrectly on purpose?

Personally, I would find it unethical to subtitle something incorrectly on purpose, so I do my best to keep the dialogue as accurate as possible. But...while I'm not the best writer, there are time where I try to describe sounds in a humorous/creative sort of way. For example, (Anthony gobbles his gummy snake like cookie monster). Not exactly clever, but still fun nonetheless.

Awesome. You are.

I like your Yoda speak. Thanks for your encouragement!

Must be some quiet holidays'.

LOL. While my hubby doesn't speak, he is far from quiet. He "thuds" on a regular basis.

YOU, You're the one doing this! Awesome.

Thank you so much for your encouragement. I'm not the only one; there are many, many people who use their time to caption videos, and they deserve acknowledgement for it to!

As a student of ASL, I think you are awesome!

Thanks! And you're awesome for learning ASL. Are you hoping to become an interpreter?

How does one get into doing this? I wouldn't mind doing it every now and then when I'm bored.

That's awesome! You can create an account at www.amara.org. Once that part's done, you can copy/paste the link of any YouTube video you want to subtitle, and then you'll be brought to a workshop page, where you can use their software to write, sync, and edit everything you hear. The organization has tutorials for new users, so they'll be able to walk you through the steps needed in order to caption a video.

Cool beans! It'll be something fun to do and helpful at the same time. Had no idea that people did this, so thanks for the AMA!

You're welcome! I'm glad that this is getting so much exposure and it's also neat to see people wanting to sign up and make some captions for themselves.

Keep up the good work.

I will try. Thank you!

Whats the weirdest thing you have had to translate and how do you pick the videos?

Funny you should mention that. The absolute weirdest thing I had to subtitle was "The 12 Rapes of Christmas" by The Bedfellows. One of the members on my page requested it and the title really threw me off and made me a bit uncomfortable. There was no rape in that video, but it was pretty lewd and not something I would subtitle otherwise. I subtitle a lot of my favorite YouTubers, but, as noted before, I take requests from others, scour Facebook to see what's trending, and also look at YouTube's Most Popular channel to see what videos are most popular at any given time.

In your opinion, what does the fox say?

LOL. searches Google copies/pastes from transcript Wa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pow!

Now for you. What does the panda say?

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Hi, gabesaporta. I use the software that is provided by www.amara.org. All I have to do is copy/paste the link of the YouTube video I want to subtitle into their system, and then they'll bring me to a "workshop space" in which I go about captioning the video.

As someone who relies on subtitles, thank you!! Now, when do you think we'll get subtitles on our spectacles?

LOL. I have no idea. Go bug some major electronic software companies, like Microsoft, Apple, or Samsung. They might be able to whip up something for you!

When I click the CC option and the words are nothing like what appears to be coming out of the person's mouth... is that automatically generated? If so, do those have any less or more priority for your subtitling than others?

Hi, 7069. Yes, those awful subtitles are the result of YouTube's automatic captioning system and are used for almost every video on YouTube that does not provide captions that were made by a human being. Most of the videos on YouTube rely on that system; I try to find the most popular videos and subtitle those first. But most of all, I prefer to take requests from deaf and hard of hearing people. Their requests are my first priority.

Interesting! I noticed there was some sort of crazy made up language hidden underneath your muppet video. Silly youtube captioning system! Well thanks for what you do and getting the word out that amara exists. You might just inspire a few more people to volunteer to subtitle some videos! :)

LOL! That was observant of you. I hope more people become subtitlers. They are needed.

How do you do it? What kind of tool are you using?

I wanted to subtitle videos too and I always download and reupload them because the built-in youtube subtitle tool is quite comfortable. It stops while you type and continues after a second after you stop.

It's just kinda annoying to down- and upload a video.

I use the workshop space that www.amara.org provides. You just have to copy/paste the link to the video you want to caption, then they'll automatically direct you to a page that lets you type, sync, and edit everything you hear.

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And I hate that you have to go through such frustration. I hope someday, in the future, that closed captions on YouTube become the norm and that you'll get to click on any video and enjoy it just like hearing people do.

This is awesome! My fiancé has a cochlear and needs subtitles. How can I donate my time too?

I'm glad to hear you want to donate your time! You can to go to www.amara.org and make an account. Once that's done, copy/paste any link to the video you want to subtitle into the "Subtitle videos" box. You'll be led into a "workshop space" where you can write, sync, and edit everything you hear. Does that help?

Add "people whose first language isn't English" to the list of those you help :) Thanks for doing what you do!

You are so welcome! That's another reason why I like www.amara.org. They allow people to translate English videos into other languages, and by doing so, making other videos accessible to others who don't have English as their first language.

Thanks so much! You make YouTube possible to understand(:

Rock on! I'm glad you get something out of the videos I caption.

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There is some smart technology out there. I often use talk to my phone when writing text messages and am surprised at how accurate it can be. It would be great to see Google update their automated captioning system and give it a "next generation" feel.

Have you ever worked with Deaf actors Russell Harvard, Lexi Marman, or Michael Anthony Spady of The Hammer fame? I just directed a film with those three. I could've used your services, actually. In any case, this is the film trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt06-8__-S8

I'm bookmarking this subreddit for future reference!

Unfortunately, I have never worked with those actors. I live in Taiwan and am pretty cut off from American Deaf Culture most of the time. Thanks for sending me a link of the trailer. I'm opening it in a different tab and will look at it soon.

where do i find french videos with french subtitles? --thanks

obtenez-où les émissions français avec les sous-titres français?-- merci

www.amara.org does let you choose a language preference. Do you have an account there? That might help you find some videos that are translated into French. Are there any particular YouTubers/videos you want to watch? Go to their search engine and type, in English, what you want to see. After that, you'll be brought to a menu of different videos, some captioned, and some not. Further down on the left hand of the screen, you'll be able to modify your search and look for videos by language (in your case, French). And, hopefully, after doing that, you'll be able to enjoy some YouTube videos that have been translated into your language.

How long does it take to subtitle a 5 minute video?

BTW, you're awesome

blush Thank you so much for your kind words. I think, on average, a 5 minute video would take me anywhere from 45 minutes, to an hour and 15 minutes, depending on how much dialogue is spoken, and how clearly the actors speak. This process includes typing up everything being said, syncing the subtitles to the dialogue, and editing for mistakes and timing. I'm kind of a perfectionist, so it takes me a bit longer.

Do you do any other transcribing work? I am currently training as a transcriber through a program called Typewell. I will be sitting in on lectures with college students for a local community college and doing meaning for meaning transcribing for the deaf and others with learning disabilities. I am totally going to volunteer for Amara as it will really help me with my verbatim work and help others!

Meaning for meaning is pretty tough. I basically summarize a lecturer's main points rather than every word they say. I get to use a program FULL of abbreviations which is super convenient. Thank you for your work! You are awesome!

Thank you so much for your kind words! As of right now, I only subtitle YouTube videos through The Amara Project. What made you decide to chose a career in transcribing?

My boyfriend's mom is an interpreter and referred me to the transcribing program as I'm a quick typist. I've always worked with the mentally ill and those with disabilities of all kinds so it is a perfect position for me.

I've always been interested in ASL and Deaf culture/community but haven't really had an "in" and I've finally found it!

Working in mental health as a counselor you encounter many people who don't actually want your help but are required to have it (I've worked for state funded programs and those that house the "criminally insane"). I find it MUCH more fulfilling and better for my own mental health to actually help those that want it, rather than the people who are resentful they are receiving any kind of help in the first place.

I checked out Amara's website and it seems very cool. I will definitely be lending some help when I have some free time. Thank you for introducing people to it!

I'm so glad to hear from you. I'm still shocked at how most people have no clue about what The Amara Project is. They need better PR. Seriously. I hope you enjoy your time subtitling videos.

How do you do this? Anyway for us to volunteer for this?

Hi! I volunteer at www.amara.org. You have to create an account first, but once that part's done, you can copy/paste the link of any YouTube video you want to subtitle, and then you'll be brought to a workshop page, where you can use their software to write, sync, and edit everything you hear. Does that help?

awesome!

:)

My parents are both deaf and I've grown up around deaf culture my whole life! Just want to give thanks me and also my family appreciate what you do!

It's awesome to hear from a fellow CODA. I hope, as time goes on, that your family find more and more videos to enjoy from YouTube.

I know I'm late to the party, but I've got had a niggle inmy mind over this exact thing. I'm getting into doing Let's Plays on Youtube, but I wanted to know how to include a good experience for the deaf and Hard of hearing. I was thinking about subtitles, but I also know that many games have purely auditory clues, and I was curious as to how I might better seperate and clear distinction between gameplay and my commentary. I doubt I'll ever be popular with it, but I'd like to make it, and the video game experience, as accessible to as many people as I can. I've been teaching myself sign language (I'm not anywhere close to good, but practice makes better). Sorry for the wall of text.

Hi, ijimtm. Subtitling "let's plays" are tough and it's something I've shied away from, mostly because the subtitles from the video games often clash with the captions I write. There are some games that might be easier to do than others though, especially indy games that have conversation bubbles towards the top of the screen. That way, any deaf or hard of hearing people watching your video can follow what's being said between characters at the top of the screen, while you subtitle your commentary, along with any meaningful noises, at the bottom of the screen. That's what I would do...I'm not sure if that's helpful to you or not :/.

I am hearing impaired, I just wanted to thank you for your part in assisting those like me, you certainly make our lives much much easier and more enjoyable.

You are welcome! I hope that Youtube continues to do more to accommodate deaf people in the future.

I make howto videos on Youtube that are semi-popular (not in the millions of views or anything). Would it be worthwhile for me to put subtitles on my videos? As in, would enough people find it useful for me to go through the work?

In my opinion, yes. But...for me, if one deaf or hard of hearing person watches my captions, I find it worthwhile. So I guess that would depend on what your definition of worthwhile means. As a plus, their community is small, and if there is something out there that is captioned and awesome, I think they would share it with others in their community. That's been my experience in the past.

Wow! Thank you so much for doing this! I'm sure people appreciate it! I tried subtitling my first two (I chose short ones for now...) but it's really, really easy to work with, especially so once I get down the keyboard shortcuts. It's kind of helpful for me, too, because I really have to buckle down to make sure all the spelling is correct! I'm sorry I got to the party so late, but I have a few questions...

Do you have a link to the paid project subtitling standards for Amara? I'm looking at the website and can't seem to find them for some reason! I've never done this before and would love a little guidance...

What do you do about dialogue that overlaps? Do you type it in the same caption? How would you format that?

Why is it that some of the videos in the "new" section of the site have 0 captions? Are people uploading these but not captioning them? Does the site upload the videos?

Is there a certain type of video that gets requested a lot?

Do annotations work on the videos in Amara? Will a video linked annotation take you to the video on the Youtube site or will you stay on Amara?

Thank you for your time!!

I think it's awesome that you're trying your hand at subtitling videos. Keep at it. It does get easier.

Here is a link to the Amara on Demand Handguide:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-RPQ2gN3Wz1oyAbZLQhcMg5EaWPSgF1IqYmfxv0W-Eo/

I hope that works for you :/.

When you talk about dialogue that overlaps, are you talking about characters that interrupt each other? If one character is interrupting the other, I might caption it this way.

-Dude, do you really think that's going to-- -Oh my god! Zombies are eating Miley.

Dumb example, but yeah.

If two people are saying things at the same time, I might subtitle it like this,

-And a thong that looks good on me. -And a thong that looks good on you.

Heh. Another dumb example, but that's how you'd show that both characters are saying different things at the same time (without interrupting each other).

The videos in the "new" section are probably submitted by deaf/hard of hearing members of the website and are waiting to get those videos captioned. There are many videos on www.amara.org that are uncaptioned; someone might make a submission, but wait months to see it captioned :(.

I don't know a lot about what kinds of videos get requested, but I do know that really, really viral videos are popular. I recently captioned a video by Ze Frank (it was a cat commercial about kitty litter). Once I uploaded the subtitles, it was translated into 7 other languages. I strongly believe that people want access to videos that everyone else is laughing/sharing.

I'm not sure about the annotations, since I haven't done that myself, but I do believe that if you add a link to the original video, that it shoudl stay there.

I hope I helped!

How do I go about helping out and subtitling videos?

You can volunteer at www.amara.org. You have to create an account first, but once that part's done, you can copy/paste the link of any YouTube video you want to subtitle, and then you'll be brought to a workshop page, where you can use their software to write, sync, and edit everything you hear. Does that help?

Very much so. Thanks.

You are welcome. I love what I do!

why does youtube not do this already?

I think the biggest barricade to not having more videos captioned on YouTube is time. A lot of time goes into making captions for a video. I also think that YouTube can't force different channels to provide closed captions for their work. Lastly, YouTube does have an automatic closed captioned system. It's atrocious and is rarely accurate, but I think some YouTubers might think it's good enough for their needs and, therefore, don't caption their own work.

any other ideas why youtube's auto captions are so awful?

I sometimes wonder if the people at YouTube have ever bothered to update their program. That could be one reason. Also, their automated caption system is especially awful when someone is speaking super fast/unclearly. For instance, the auto captions might work alright (still some errors) with a V Sauce video since Michael enunciates, but would overload with a YouTuber like Tobuscus or Ryan Higa, showing strings of numbers and profanity instead of anything that makes sense. Does that help?

their automatic one is laughable, hence why it's useless. Some youtubers make videos taking the mick out of it. (Rhett and Link). I'm glad you do this though. How many videos do you often do a week or try to do?

Oooh yes. I know all about Rhett and Link's caption fails. They are hilarious, but it also surprises me how few people are aware of the fact that those horrible captions are precisely what deaf and hard of people see when they watch YouTube. I probably add captions to two or three videos a day, depending on how short/long they are.

Ha good good. I think a lot of top channels know about that but don't have time to do it or just don't bother because they think that viewership is too low to worry about it. When they should worry about it. And wow, good on you :)

Thanks so much for the compliment. It makes me sad that some channels feel that way, especially since www.amara.org has an option of letting YouTube channels connect to their website. Once connected, all their videos show up, and any captions that were/are made become synced immediately. They don't have to lift a finger.

So awesome

Thank you!

I work as a transcriptionist who types live college lectures for deaf students taking those classes. Thank you so much for furthering their accessibility!

I love what I do. Thanks for your kind words!

This is very awesome of you. I tip my hat you you good sir. I shall also make a suggestion. Check out this guy's videos. They are highly educational and entertaining. You might want to subtitle them. http://www.youtube.com/vsauce

But I'm a good ma'am! ;). I love V sauce! I just subtitled one of Michael's newest ones, the one about what make bad words bad. I posted it at www.facebook.com/subtitleyoutube. I've also done a couple by Mental Floss. They are neat too.

Do it for the ShayTards!

This is the first time I've ever heard of that channel! Is there any video in particular you want to see subtitled?

They do daily vlogs and he lately met a deaf person and he wanted to figure out a way to get them subtitled so maybe if you do it he'll find the site!.

Hoo boy. I took a closer look at their channel and they have some lonnnggg videos. I'll go ahead and subtitle one, then send them a message about it. If they like what they see, they might be able to start an official Team for their channel at www.amara.org and a bigger group of subtitlers to get their work done. That might be a better option for them, considering their videos often run into the 20 minute range.

I think you pretty much covered it. Not many questions come to mind.

That's cool. If something does pop into your head later on, feel free to ask!

What kind of Vacuum Cleaner do you own?

Heh. Alas, I don't own a vacuum. My floors are all made of tile/fake wood.

Okay thank you for taking time and clearing that up.

No prob!