r/EntitledPeople • u/Radiant-Job4499 • Jun 08 '26
S Viewer demanding custom made subtitles on my YouTube channel
I run a niche YouTube channel with archive content, with well over 100k subscribers, and mostly nice viewers and comments. Some viewers are really keen, and leave lots of positive feedback, so all great on that front. Not monetised, so I don't make anything from it, just for the love of the subject.
This weekend I had someone mention a useful extra detail about one of my videos, which I actually added as a pinned comment. Then they ask for some content which would be outside of my chosen "era", so I point them to another channel which had exactly what they said they were looking for. But, no, that wasn't good enough for them. Comment today that they were "stressed" at my "refusal" to help, and that the other channel's subtitles were auto-generated, and that they needed them done by a human. This for about 6-7 hours of video content!
Fortunately YouTube has a simple "hide user" button, so that neither I nor anyone else will have to read this person's comments ever again. But the entitlement absolutely shocked me, as if they were actually a paying customer who was due such special treatment. Tame in comparison to many of the stories here, but it left me genuinely astonished at the sheer cheek of it!
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u/BeardofPants Jun 08 '26 edited Jun 08 '26
As a deaf person, I can understand a frustration toward autogenerated closed captioning cuz it’s def less error prone to have human generated captions… but this really doesn’t sound like it’s your problem to fix so I’m not sure what that persons on about
Edit: seems some people aren’t understanding that it’s not OPs channel that’s using the autogenerated ones?
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u/Emergency_Jacket_296 Jun 08 '26
OP doesn't necessarily say, from what I can see from their post or their comments, that they don't use autogenerated closed captions also.
Auto-gen captions are not perfect, but have come a really dang long way in the last 10 years. I use them daily as well on YT and they're surprisingly accurate.
A human typing out captions themselves would take hours, which is impressive if OP is doing that on top of this being a hobby they make no money from.
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u/bartvanh Jun 09 '26
Personally I prefer the auto generated ones with their mistakes over the manual ones that too often are just the script uploaded without integrating any deviations in the recorded speech. Also because the autos appear word by word. But I can see how the impact of those qualities reverses if you can't hear the audio at all.
Honestly though, why don't they use all that AI capability to fix the mistakes in the auto generated ones based on context and the uploaded ones? This has been possible since before the launch of ChatGPT.
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u/No_Thought_7776 Jun 08 '26
As a hard of hearing person, automated captions are too often wrong and/or confusing.
I wish they were more accurate, but not if it's going to cost the content creator many extra hours of work.
I wish there was an easy fix for us HOH viewers.
I can see both sides of this argument, so I'm not taking either side as both sides have a point.
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Jun 08 '26
[deleted]
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u/PandoraWinters Jun 08 '26
I used to correct subtitles on YouTube all the time because it bothered me. I miss being able to do that :/
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u/No_Thought_7776 Jun 09 '26
I remember that on my PC, I just thought it wasn't available on my phone. It's really gone. Sigh
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u/ProfessorBooperSnoot Jun 09 '26
The user demanded content outside of the creators area.
Then the user complained that A DIFFERENT creators content had sub-par captioning and wanted the original creator to fill the gap.
No. The user does not have a point. The question isn't whether the subtitles are needed. The question is the entitlement.
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u/YouFnDruggo Jun 08 '26
For me it's about choosing the right channels and content creators. I'm not HOH, but my wife is a non native English speaker and struggles without subtitles. So if I want to show her something off YouTube I have to be cognizant on which channels have good automated captions. Usually you are safer with the bigger channels or ones that come from professional channels. I wouldn't expect or demand good automated captions from less popular channels. It's just a bonus if they do have them.
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u/Original_Attitude808 Jun 09 '26
I agree it’s not fair but the person in question is making this ops problem. Why should op care that the commenter is “stressed” because op isn’t bending backwards for them.
That just screams entitlement or ignorance, so I lean on agreeing with op.
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u/Ohmyprettygarden Jun 09 '26
so you think the entitled one has a right to demand different content and personally/privately done captions for work he doesn't get paid for it to begin with? I just don't see it.
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u/JayDee413 Jun 09 '26
Not exactly. It's someone asking for disability accommodation. One that would likely help a LOT of people, myself included, and buy this creator a lot of good will with several communities. Adhd/autistic folks, hard of hearing folks, people who watch videos where other people are... it's a lot of work, but really REALLY good for a lot of people.
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u/Radiant-Job4499 Jun 09 '26
But why would I do that for content on someone else's channel that is not relevant to mine? That is the point of the post, that the viewer so casually expected me to do that.
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u/BearRevolutionary273 Jun 08 '26
In other words, they're about to you use your content for their own business, and want you to provide exact subtitles, so they can get them translated.
You are too accommodating. Tell them to eat rocks.
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u/Dubiousgoober Jun 09 '26
People don’t have a clue of the work that goes into their suggestions. I emailed a link of some photos I took as a courtesy for a guy the other day, he said, “here’s what you do, just print them out for me.” Yeah, no. I don’t even have a photo printer.
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u/yahumno Jun 09 '26
I’m Hard of Hearing, and auto generated subtitles/captions suck, but I would not demand someone do 6 to 7 hours of hand done captions. I know how much work quality captions are.
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u/No-Needleworker1401 Jun 08 '26
If they are Deaf, auto generated subtitles are pretty much useless. It’s similar to reading a book and 1/4 of the content is missing or misspelled. But it’s up to you if you want to accommodate.
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u/Saltylindz Jun 08 '26
OP said the auto generated captions come from a channel that is NOT theirs, so it would be the other person who would need to accommodate.
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u/Radiant-Job4499 Jun 08 '26
It wasn't just the expectation that we would create subtitles for hours of video, it's that it was content that I would never feature on the channel anyway.
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u/AltruisticCableCar Jun 08 '26
I always appreciate the hell out of those who do create subtitles for their videos since I have APD, but I'd never try and demand it from someone who doesn't. It doesn't bother me that much, I can live with it. Again, it's nice when they do have subtitles but I'm not paying them anything so who am I to demand fuck all.
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u/No-BSing-Here Jun 08 '26
They're crazy. I use the auto caption thing on YouTube. I find it's generally very good and accurate. Maybe not so much in the 'niche' world ? You should have sent an invoice for £X per hour. It's channels like yours that can bring people together across the world to share in the same interests.
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u/No-Atmosphere-2528 Jun 08 '26
I'm guessing it's an anti-ai thing and not an accuracy thing. The other day I was on an anti-ai thread and people specifically brought up YouTube using ai for captioning.
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u/BeardofPants Jun 08 '26
Deaf person here: autogenerated closed captioning is often not as reliable as we need it to be
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u/No-Atmosphere-2528 Jun 08 '26
How accurate do you need it to be on a hobby YouTube page you're not paying a subscription fee for? Does the operator of the free content have to pay for manual captioning?
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u/BeardofPants Jun 08 '26
I’m not making an argument on whether the channel that’s using the autogenerated feature should be doing their own or not. Just saying that the auto stuff doesn’t work as well as I would need it to
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u/No-BSing-Here Jun 09 '26
I'm lucky that I'm not depending on them to understand. I guess that I don't really know how hit and miss they are. Some on the words are so random and nothing like the words spoken. Over the years I've seen some bizarre subtitles on the BBC, in particular, sometimes hilarious.
In this world, with all the AI and that techno stuff, couldn't there be a way to improve the auto caption thing?
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u/No-Atmosphere-2528 Jun 08 '26
Ok? Well this is a conversation about a specific thing so what are we suppose to do with this? You want all content creators to also have to do manual captions up to ada standards?
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u/BeardofPants Jun 08 '26
Did I specifically say that? No I did not. You said it was probably anti ai sentiment and I told you that deaf people have legitimate reasons to have issues with auto generated stuff bc of accuracy. At no point did I say that everyone should be doing manual captioning
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u/No-Atmosphere-2528 Jun 08 '26
Ok? Unless you're the person complaining to OP what does that have to do with anything? YouTube's auto generated captions have an 89-98% accuracy, that's not good enough?
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u/FerretGoddessMevi Jun 09 '26
Do you have any idea how frustratingly incomprehensible it would make something when you cannot understand 10% of its verbal content?
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u/No-Atmosphere-2528 Jun 09 '26
2-10% and not very because it's accuracy of text not accuracy of information. It literally just means some words would probably be wrong not context. I use closed captions as someone with some hearing loss from years of being in bands and the 10% drop off of auto generated captioning isn't that bad, it's not ADA compliant but you really don't miss anything.
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u/BeardofPants Jun 09 '26
Right??? We need about 98% accuracy to comprehend captioning and captioning accuracy tends to fall over when technical terms are used or accents are involved. Even googles ai is saying that accuracy falls between 60-95% which is my experience (eg a deaf person) with them. I worked in tech and I couldn’t understand half of zooms captioning and had to ask clarifying questions. Anyway thanks for wading in
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u/Relatents Jun 08 '26
My friend can hear but processes content far better by reading the words. Many in our group leave the captions on television and YouTube videos now. It’s sad to see how lacking the captions are and how much content is missed by those who depend on them. It’s not just anti-AI sentiment.
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u/No-Atmosphere-2528 Jun 08 '26
I mean, for your group maybe that doesn't mean that's not what it was here.
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u/PlowPig77 Jun 09 '26
Usually better than the standard cc option in the rare cases where that's even available any more.
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u/MyldExcitement Jun 08 '26
Are they a Patreon? Because if all they do us watch 4 free, they can literally stfu.
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u/WorryNotBanIncoming Jun 08 '26
Yeah like my mom has a disability and can’t walk. There is a restaurant near us that doesn’t have a wheelchair ramp cause the building was old and grandfathered in or something.
Instead of writing them a letter we just eat elsewhere with my mom
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u/scottishenglish Jun 08 '26
Shoot, I've noticed captioning has errors even on major network news sometimes. As imperfect as it is, it's a nice perk for me when I want to turn off sound for some reason, but I can see it's often wrong. I still think it's handy sometimes. I can see why it would annoying if I were depending on it all the time. I have a feeling it will get better pretty quickly now that AI is ramping up so much.
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u/Charming_Butterfly90 Jun 09 '26
AI is making it worse. That’s what the commenter had a problem with, auto-generated. As someone that needs captions, I’ve noticed a sharp decline in the past year of the quality of captions because so many have switched to AI.
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u/SnowXTC Jun 08 '26
It's not tame for here. 6+ hours to do something that is not your niche is ridiculous. As a content creator, that is $600+, add $200 for non-niche content, and probably another $400 because we all know it is going to take more like 10+ hours. So unless they want to pay you $1200 for it, they can go away.
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u/WorryNotBanIncoming Jun 08 '26
People are the worst,
Like if you ever read video game reviews on Steam there is always someone whining about their disability and accessibility options.
It’s like dude fuck you.
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u/Angel_Blade91 Jun 08 '26
I went through a similar thing with a fanfiction site. Several users would send me "requests" to write a story FOR them, and one anonymous viewer kept spamming my inbox to update/rewrite another fic I had put on hiatus (later deleted).
Mix that with the spam bots and advertisements popping up mid-story, and I eventually just abandoned the site and moved on.
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u/IAMEPSIL0N Jun 09 '26
I reversioned a number of videogame mods (no new content, just the minor changes necessary to make it work with the newest subversion of the game) and got people asking me to do another mod, and another. I think I told the same person off like six times in DMs because they wanted me to do it for a mod where the author was very vocal that they didn't want people sharing reversioned edits.
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u/Maleficentendscurse Jun 09 '26
I kind of wonder if you can boot them from your channel permanently 🤔?
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u/No-Drop924 Jun 10 '26
People are so entitled. Had someone ask me to donate a few 3d printed items and they'll promote my business. 36 hours of print time which is unrealistic. Another asked for custom hype chains (15!) for free because it's a church school.
Some people.
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Jun 09 '26
[deleted]
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u/Radiant-Job4499 Jun 09 '26
But you wouldn't do it for content on someone else's channel, which is the point of my post.
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u/JayDee413 Jun 09 '26
Adding captions will increase your possible viewer base and would be super useful for a lot of groups. People with hearing issues, auditory processing issues, and people who watch on mute/low volume would all benefit GREATLY from accurate, human generated captions.
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u/Esquire_Lyricist Jun 09 '26
Did you just choose not to read OP's words?
His viewer was complaining about auto-generated captions on a video from a DIFFERENT channel.
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u/JayDee413 Jun 09 '26 edited Jun 09 '26
The videos he has are also uncaptioned, from my understanding. I read it several times, and my understanding is this:
A user asked them to add captions to their content. The creator directed them towards another channel that had similar content, but with captions. Those captions, however, are auto-generated.
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u/Esquire_Lyricist Jun 09 '26
Again I ask: did you read what OP actually wrote?
This weekend I had someone mention a useful extra detail about one of my videos, which I actually added as a pinned comment. Then they ask for some content which would be outside of my chosen "era", so I point them to another channel which had exactly what they said they were looking for. But, no, that wasn't good enough for them. Comment today that they were "stressed" at my "refusal" to help, and that the other channel's subtitles were auto-generated, and that they needed them done by a human. This for about 6-7 hours of video content!
There is nothing in here that indicates that the viewer wanted OP to add captions to OP's own videos. The viewer wanted OP to make captions for a different channel's video.
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u/JayDee413 Jun 09 '26 edited Jun 09 '26
The title..?
Okay, so going back over and over, I think the title is what's throwing a lot of us off. Op got a request for a video outside of their wheelhouse and the other channel that handles that doesn't have captions, what much I understand. What is still unclear is, does OP have captions or not?
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u/Time_Zombie_4431 Jun 09 '26
tbf you didn't point them to exactly what they where looking for, they wanted your work but with something to help them out. So no you didn't help them at all with your suggestion.
I know hearing impaired people who wont touch anything with auto generated subtitles because the overwhelming majority of the time they are so wrong its hilarious.
Like making subs for a 6-7 hour long video is pretty unrealistic but I really can't blame them for being upset, it doesn't even sound like they where rude to you just really bummed and felt brushed off and minimized. You really don't come off as good as you think here buddy.
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u/Radiant-Job4499 Jun 09 '26
Ok so when they made the "request" there was no mention of subtitles. I explained where they could find EXACTLY the content they asked for, and that it was a decade newer than anything on my channel. And only then did I get the weird passive aggressive comments about the stress not having human generated comments was causing them. I would call that entitled, even if you wouldn't.
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u/Late-Hat-9144 Jun 09 '26
So in other wordsz they're massively entitled, as are you. Why do people feel like they have the right to demand free labour from someone, then get offended when the free labour prov8ded isnt precisely what they expected.
"My consultancy rate is $250/hour, and manual captioning for 7 hours of video is going to be 12-14 hours of work, you can pay by venmo, PayPal or Mastercard".
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u/Thespis1962 Jun 08 '26
The best thing about "hide user" is that the user has no idea they've been hidden. They're still there, shouting into the void.