How… how could you possibly start trying to profit off of a major resource for accessibility to movies. That’s scummier than scummy. Fuck you OpenSubtitles, you’re the fucking Elon Musk and Steve Huffman of deaf people everywhere. Get absolutely fucked.
I swear I read a thread here (on lemmy) recently that one of these subtitle sites was embedding ads in the subtitles. Now that takes things even further than scummier in my opinion, especially since subtitles are for availability.
I mean I’ve been a pirate for a WHILE and you generally do see ads on opensubtitles subs. Generally it’s opensubtitles saying you can advertise with them, or credits for subtitles that stay on the screen for way too long, but this has been a thing forever now, I don’t recall a time when this wasn’t done.
I don’t think I can take the moral high ground on it seeing as…well, I am a pirate lol. We out here doing our best to stay afloat, opensubtitles included.
So frustrating when a subtitle ad pops up spoiling that a movie is ending.
Something dramatic happening on screen and then “you can advertise on opensubtitles” appears on the bottom letting you know that there is 10 seconds left and spoiling any tension or drama in the scene.
TBH it’s just simple text files, you can open any .srt with Notepad and edit it to your liking. I always remove those dumb ads at the beginning and the end.
Correct. They now embed ads directly into the subtitles. There is a python program to strip those ads out, but doesn’t work with Plex directly. It can be setup with bazarr, but that requires sonarr and or radar…
THEN ASK PEOPLE TO DONATE, how tone-deaf can you be about your own community?? What the fuck do they think Wikipedia is doing?
I’ve found pirates & FOSS enthusiasts are FAR more likely to donate into something they use regularly and appreciate, this is a blatant slap in the face to those people.
This unfortunately helps sets a precedent for what the internet is going to look like in the future. Even the most basic things will be behind a paywall.
You cant even read a fucking news article from New York Times, who made 173.91 million dollars last year
I don’t know what is so controversial about this statement. Investigative reporting is fucking expensive. The people who do it need to eat. If you’re not paying for it, who is?
True, but just look at how much better it has gotten in the last couple decades. Putting the news behind the paywall runs the risk of ending the battle for impressions and might force nuance into well researched stories.
Of course it has. You need to offer the world a useful service for some length of time before you have dominated the market to such an extent that you can cut the quality and jack up the prices without there being any meaningful competition to worry about.
So who exactly does own OpenSubtitles Group Limited, and what are their motivations? If you’re claiming to know, I assume you must be some kind of insider? Because they don’t seem to be all that open about it. Otherwise we can only judge by their actions.
It’s often more comprehensive than what opensubtitles have to offer.
I often struggle to get tv episodes with subs in my native language, but all the streaming services obviously has it.
How… how could you possibly start trying to profit off of a major resource for accessibility to movies. That’s scummier than scummy. Fuck you OpenSubtitles, you’re the fucking Elon Musk and Steve Huffman of deaf people everywhere. Get absolutely fucked.
I swear I read a thread here (on lemmy) recently that one of these subtitle sites was embedding ads in the subtitles. Now that takes things even further than scummier in my opinion, especially since subtitles are for availability.
I mean I’ve been a pirate for a WHILE and you generally do see ads on opensubtitles subs. Generally it’s opensubtitles saying you can advertise with them, or credits for subtitles that stay on the screen for way too long, but this has been a thing forever now, I don’t recall a time when this wasn’t done.
I don’t think I can take the moral high ground on it seeing as…well, I am a pirate lol. We out here doing our best to stay afloat, opensubtitles included.
My favorite are the ones advertising shit for illuminati. Like yeah we all know
If you need to advertise your secret society, it’s not a good secret society.
So frustrating when a subtitle ad pops up spoiling that a movie is ending.
Something dramatic happening on screen and then “you can advertise on opensubtitles” appears on the bottom letting you know that there is 10 seconds left and spoiling any tension or drama in the scene.
TBH it’s just simple text files, you can open any .srt with Notepad and edit it to your liking. I always remove those dumb ads at the beginning and the end.
Correct. They now embed ads directly into the subtitles. There is a python program to strip those ads out, but doesn’t work with Plex directly. It can be setup with bazarr, but that requires sonarr and or radar…
Their website is still free and every legal way to watch movies already includes subtitles.
Oh, no harm done then, lets keep allowing every online resource to implement shitty money grabbing tactics
It sucks, sure. But it’s been free for a really long time, and it costs money to run a service.
You can’t really expect that a service will serve an increasing amount of people free stuff forever.
At least making people visit the site will encourage them to upload and help keep the service up.
Btw, it’s not expensive and if you think it is. Just use some other service.
THEN ASK PEOPLE TO DONATE, how tone-deaf can you be about your own community?? What the fuck do they think Wikipedia is doing?
I’ve found pirates & FOSS enthusiasts are FAR more likely to donate into something they use regularly and appreciate, this is a blatant slap in the face to those people.
They did do donations but maybe it wasn’t enough 🤷 https://blog.opensubtitles.com/opensubtitles/thank-you-for-donations
It wouldn’t surprise me if “VIP” was originally a tier given for donations which had some benefits.
Edit: that’s indeed the case https://blog.opensubtitles.com/opensubtitles/free-vip-membership-for-first-20-users
Do they have a transparent budget on how the donations are used? Anyone can claim the donations weren’t enough to survive.
This unfortunately helps sets a precedent for what the internet is going to look like in the future. Even the most basic things will be behind a paywall.
You cant even read a fucking news article from New York Times, who made 173.91 million dollars last year
News has never historically been free, only recently through the web and founded by ads.
nothing should ever be better than it was in the past. everything should continue to suck forever.
You’ve never heard of broadcast radio or TV?
Lots of ads
Edit: also tv news is also a new concept.
Right, so ads aren’t a recent development.
How is something 80 years old “new?”
True. I amended my comment to better convey my anger
How much money do you think they would have made if they gave away all their content for free.
News is pretty expensive.
You mean the world renowned, universally known news agency in America owned by billionaires?
I don’t know what is so controversial about this statement. Investigative reporting is fucking expensive. The people who do it need to eat. If you’re not paying for it, who is?
True, but just look at how much better it has gotten in the last couple decades. Putting the news behind the paywall runs the risk of ending the battle for impressions and might force nuance into well researched stories.
Of course it has. You need to offer the world a useful service for some length of time before you have dominated the market to such an extent that you can cut the quality and jack up the prices without there being any meaningful competition to worry about.
You talk like they are owned by some huge corporation and this was their plan from the beginning.
So who exactly does own OpenSubtitles Group Limited, and what are their motivations? If you’re claiming to know, I assume you must be some kind of insider? Because they don’t seem to be all that open about it. Otherwise we can only judge by their actions.
I don’t know who they are but it’s quite evident that they at least we’re a very small group in the beginning.
I also haven’t seen any evidence that there is an evil corpo controlling them or something.
Occam’s razor
Do they include subtitles for every language?
It’s often more comprehensive than what opensubtitles have to offer. I often struggle to get tv episodes with subs in my native language, but all the streaming services obviously has it.
nark