To the viewer, it is a simple question, but it vexes us because the answer is and ALWAYS WILL BE…

“We don’t know.”

It’s ready when it’s ready. It’s out when it’s out. We always release each episode as soon as it is ready, but there are so many factors that go into a fansub that the time component is completely unpredictable.  Every week I try to estimate when an episode will be ready based on the rhythm of previous episodes, and every week I am dead wrong.

What you need to understand as viewers is that fansubs are done by people, not machines.  There are a lot of people who work on each episode and anything can go wrong with any of those people at any time, from real-life problems to computer trouble to difficulty with the episode itself.  What should take two days ends up taking a week or two weeks. Is there anything we can do about that?  No.

Nothing is more demoralizing than coming across a viewer whining, “When will the episode be ready? It’s taking so long! You guys are so slow!”  In every single instance, it causes at least one or more staff members to wonder, “Why the hell am I even doing this again? Why am I giving up my personal time and working as hard and as fast as I can, just so some jerk can complain that I’m not “fast enough”?  For some staff members, the answer leads them to quit, and then the project gets even more delayed.

Our staff isn’t here because they’re getting paid. They fansub because they enjoy it or they want to give back to  the community which has provided them with so many hours of entertainment. When it stops being fun, the staff stops working. Some leave with a “sorry” and some leave without a word.

We’ve already lost a large percentage of our active staff, and the majority of our new recruits  quit as soon as they realize how time-consuming and difficult fansubbing can be. When the staff stops working, there aren’t enough committed volunteers out there to take their place. The only result is that there will be no more fansubbing. Already you can see how few fansub groups are left in the community.

So next time your impatience is fraying and you feel the urge to ask “When will the next episode be out?” please keep it to yourself.  This is a golden rule in fansubbing, not just here at TLS. It may feel like an innocuous question but it does more harm than good. If you cannot handle your impatience, I recommend not watching any active projects. Many people, including myself, wait until a project is fully subbed before they start watching it, that way there will be no waiting and the pace of viewing is set by you and no one else.  Try it.

Thanks,

yenchan69

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There will be no more further comments regarding this issue. If there is, just keep it to yourself or go elsewhere to rant about it.

Thanks,

ccdj

TimeLesSub is pleased to announce the following winners of the five (5) premium access subscriptions to www.dramafever.com, where you can watch Korean dramas via continuous high-quality and LEGAL streaming with no commercial interruption:

Winners will be contacted via e-mail.

Thank YOU to all who entered and to everyone who gave us so much love in return!!  We were very touched by your comments.

TimeLesSub is pleased to announce we found a translator for “Bloody Monday Season 2″ so that project is a go!! Yay! We will also be working on an SP and two older dramas since the rest of the winter season dramas held no appeal to our translators.

For more information on our winter projects, click here:
2009 Winter Season Projects

TimeLesSub  is pleased to announce we found a translator for “Bloody Monday Season 2″ so that project is a go!!  Yay!  We will also be working on an SP and two older dramas since the rest of the winter season dramas held no appeal to our translators.

For more information on our winter projects, click here:
2009 Winter Season Projects