Amara.org Support Center

Gerrich,

You coud write to the Film & TV admins asking them to remove the page for subtitling the video from the team if they insist on implementing moderation. They probably missed its blocking implication for  subtitling pages added to the team that were not created by team participants.

In order to prevent team admins from inadvertently blocking other people's work by implementing moderation, as described by Gerrich, could Amara developers add relevant info about the implications moderation, workflows etc  in all teams' /settings/permissions/ page? 

For instance, just below the "Subtitling" header:

"Who can transcribe subtitles?" and "Who can translate subtitles?" MUST be set on "Anyone" if the team is to use videos whose original was uploaded online, or was added to Amara by, or are already (being) subtitled by others than the team participants.

And below the "Workflows" header:

Workflows CANNOT be enabled if the team is to use videos whose original was uploaded online, or was added to Amara by, or are already (being) subtitled by others than the team participants.

And not in one of those "further info" popups linked to a "?" that Dean described in the Town Hall, but in bold so that admins don't miss it. And maybe with a link to a Solutions page that would explain more in detail the implications of these /settings/permissions/ choices.

Last thing (well, for this comment - I've already written it several times on this help forum), re Gerrich's: 

nothing on the Team Page tells me anything about my problem.

It is essential that everybody can view team settings, (even if they can only be modified by admins).  Including people who are not Amara users, because some workflow options also block the viewing of subtitles that are still in progress according to the workflow, but perfectly usable nonetheless.

Pity Gerrich has left due to lack of response, but fortunately he has only left this forum, not Amara. So I could message him, but I'm replying here because there is definitely some odd aspects in the issue he mentioned, if I've correctly identified the subtitling page he alludes to, i.e. the German subtitles of  Malcolm X: Make It Plain (Full PBS Documentary), which was added to the Film & TV team:

• Gerrich not only added the video to Amara and started the first set of subs in German, but he added a comment "2 weeks and 6 days ago" (as I'm writing this) to these German subs, saying "... I will not be able to work on this for the next 6 or so weeks. I WILL be back and continue work. If you feel up to it and have the motivation, I'd be happy for any help! ...".
  So admins should have considered that before changing the permissions settings in a way that blocks anyone from continuing the German subs: the team only has 14 videos, so following its activity is not too much of a burden.
• Except for English, British (which Denise RQ started as "Translated from English" on Dec. 6, possibly due to the same access problem Gerrich posted about on Dec 7) and Turkish subs, all subtitling activity for Malcolm X: Make It Plain (Full PBS Documentary) stopped on Dec. 1st: this should have rung a bell about something wrong with the admins too.
• Presently, things seem to have gone back to normal for all subs of this video, except Gerrich's German subs, which the message "These subtitles are moderated. See the Film & TV team page for information on how to contribute." still blocks (it doesn't even block Italian and English subs, which, like the German ones, are time-coded).

So, could someone from Amara:

1. Manually unblock the German subs, as you did for subs that remained similarly blocked even after Amara's imposition of workflows in June was lifted at the beginning of July?
2. Write to all teams' admins telling them to avoid playing around with moderation and/or workflows unless they really know how to use them and what the consequences will be?
3. Add a warning to the same effect in all /settings/permissions pages?

Thank you in advance.

As it's now 10 days since Gerrich reported this issue, I joined the Film & TV team, removed the Malcolm X: Make It Plain (Full PBS Documentary) video from it in order to free the editing of the German subs,  and then re-added the video to the team. I've started sync'ing the German subs and this time, they remained unblocked after I did "Save and Exit" without any "Draft only" banner.

 Great, Kim: I'm glad it worked - looking forward to reading your French subs!

Re my personal message not appearing in your message center - if you mean the Amara inbox - it's not you, it's a glitch of Amara messaging software: it seemed fixed a few days ago, though. If it still happens, maybe make another separate post here in the "Help me please! forum", or submit a ticket : you can refer to ticket #4687 I submitted about this on January 6, 2013, which was apparently resolved on Jan. 10.