Tuesday, 25 April 2017

[Meta] ANNOUNCEMENT: Transcription for all

Hello, everyone!

TL;DR: We take content that may be inaccessible to people on mobile or who require assistive technology and transcribe it into the comments of the post so everyone can enjoy the content, regardless of circumstance or ability. Come and help us out, or just check out some of our handiwork at /r/TranscribersOfReddit.

What is this thing?

/r/TranscribersOfReddit is a place where content that needs transcription is aggregated for people to find and work on for the enjoyment of other users. Ever see an imgur link to four paragraphs of text and wish that it was just typed out as a text post, or go searching for an easier way to read it in the comments? Enjoy reading along while listening to audiobooks? Want to know what the fuss is about that NSFW video or link but not in a good place to see it yourself? We've been there, and we've got your back.

Stuff that needs transcription?

Reddit, by the virtue of it being a content aggregation system, has a lot of material that is unfriendly to people on mobile devices and people who need assistive technology (like screen readers). That content comes in a lot of different forms; images of text, pictures, videos with no subtitles (videos with bad subtitles are sometimes worse than no subtitles at all)... there are a lot of different possibilities.

Great, but what's that got to do with me?

We have a firm belief that content needs to be available to all. What we’re doing is creating a group of volunteers to take content and create text versions of that content to put it in the comments for everyone. This includes typical users as well as those who cannot easily consume the same content, like the vision- or hearing-impaired. While a transcription of an image of text might just be nicer to read to some of you, for others it is the only way they can read that post at all.

Tiny subreddits never go anywhere; no one ever posts and the thing dies quick. Why bother?

All subreddits start somewhere. Moreover, our subreddit is populated by linked posts from other subreddits. The instant that a new post appears that could need a transcription, it simultaneously appears on our subreddit. Further, if anyone, anywhere, on reddit mentions the username /u/transcribersofreddit, the bot will be summoned and will make a link in our subreddit to the post. The list of subreddits that have opted-in to our program is growing daily, and it includes this one. /r/GetMotivated on its own receives upwards of 30 image posts a day, all of which could use our help, and that takes numbers. Every day, non-stop.

How does it work?

The basic system works like this: our bot (u/transcribersofreddit) searches subreddits that have opted in to our service for links that match our filters, then links them to our aggregation hub at /r/TranscribersOfReddit. Follow the instructions and recommendations the bot provides in the comments of those posts to create a comprehensive transcription of the linked content and get some recognition for your hard work! (After all, it's basically free karma.) If you have a little time and a keyboard, you'll probably be right at home. Even if you only do one post, you're basically guaranteed to make somebody's day better.

Getting Started

Check out our wiki for some information on getting started and a little bit of history about this subreddit. Thanks for checking us out and I hope you have a great time helping to change the world, one little bit of content at a time!

Lastly, we'd sincerely like to thank the mod team of /r/GetMotivated for their gracious support and allowing to make this post. Cheers, guys!

Sincerely,

/u/itsthejoker & /u/CaptCoe, Moderators of /r/TranscribersOfReddit



Submitted April 26, 2017 at 06:37AM by CaptCoe http://ift.tt/2qcCd1u

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