written by Madekuji-san
This Reddit reply right here. This reply broke me. But I don't think you quite understand the gravity of the situation.
Over the past few months, I've been joining hololive fan Discord servers, lurking in the translation-oriented channels in the hopes of one day learning to make my own good subs in my native languages.
But what most VTuber fans don't realize is how much work good translators do, and mind you, most of the time for free, to share the magic of their favorite VTubers to new audiences.
You'll see translators left and right making pages of corrections and feedback to other translators, discussing how to style subtitles and edit videos; in fact, discussing the intricacies of translation and language itself. Good translators put so much experience, teamwork, and effort to make good subs...
...and this reply outright stated that they didn't exist.
That the only ones who truly existed were speedsubbers, bad subbers, and translators who act in bad faith.
Good subs shouldn't be hard to come by. Good subs deserve more than what they're getting right now, a measly <1000 views on YouTube. But with the way the system works, in comparison to traditional media, YouTube does not prioritize good subs.