addic7ed.com
There is a vibrant, lively, enthusiastic community of subtitlers around the world who strive to make subtitles available in as many languages as possible. They work tirelessly, and often for no pay, around the clock, either providing closed captioning services, syncing, or translating as many movies and TV shows as possible. Why you may ask, would somebody want to do such monotonous work, even if they are not being paid for it? Because it is necessary to ensure that all people - regardless of circumstance or where they were born on this planet - have access to entertainment, educational and informative content.
Some TV shows, documentaries, and movies can't be subtitled or translated because they're originally from a different language. This means that they exclude people who don't know the original language, which can be a problem because some cultures don't have as many subtitled or translated versions of these kinds of films. Based on cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic constraints, this isn't always intentional but it's still an implicit effect.
It's unfortunate but unavoidable that all writers must conform to this tacit cultural exclusion. It's inherent in the nature of language, which is exclusive by definition. But, again, it's not as if a writer could realistically write fluently in all languages at one time. We can't hold films or TV series accountable for the lack of globalism in a given piece of work. There is nothing nefarious about it; it's just an unavoidable fact of creating art - each piece has an intended audience, and each audience includes some and excludes others.
The exclusive nature of certain art forms, such as movies and TV shows, does not end at the cultural. Of course, the most common group of people who require subtitles are the hearing impaired and the deaf. Without subtitles, these people would not be able to fully enjoy movies and TV shows either. Short of attempting to lip-read throughout the entire movie (what a daunting task that would be), the hearing impaired rely on subtitles more than anyone else. Again, subtitles make film and television as inclusive as possible, for as many people as possible.
Subtitles enthusiasts make it a part of their life to create subtitles in as many languages as possible, which opens up audiences. This takes something that is necessarily exclusive at the point of creation and makes it as inclusive as possible after the fact. This, not to be too Romantic or lofty about it, brings the world together.
This is why I applaud those who spend their time subtitling movies and TV shows. And I would like to take a moment to give a special thanks to those subtitlers who translate across languages. You are doing noble and necessary work. Thank you!
A subtitle site is only as good as its community is active! Community participation is key to ensuring the highest quality subtitles are available to all. Sites with large and active forums, chat rooms, and member bases (well- populated with people who know what they're doing) are more likely to produce stellar subtitles.
Speaking of a group of organized, active, and enthusiastic subtitlers, the site we're looking at today is called Addic7ed. It's named after everyone's favorite harmless addiction-film and TV-and it's one of the best-organized websites I've seen on which you can download free subtitles files for hundreds of thousands of movies and television shows. It's also one of the most dedicated communities of subtitlers on the internet.
So, will Addic7ed be crowned the best subtitles site of 2020? Let's take a look and find out for ourselves.
Design
It might be best to get the weaknesses out of the way first and build Addic7ed up by its strengths from there. I should preface my critique of the design of Addic7ed by first pointing out that I have yet to meet a subtitles site whose design I thoroughly enjoyed. And Addic7ed is, by far, not the worst subtitles site in terms of layout, look, and feel.
Compared to other subtitles sites, Addic7ed's design is not bad, but it is still not great.
I think the overall vibe of Addic7ed is really cool. It has a lot of potential as a brand. The lighthearted sky blue and white theme is tastefully done and looks moderated and minimalistic on the homepage. My only complaints about this site are that it's hard to find subtitles and find what you're looking for, specifically.
On the home page, you'll find a site menu bar that allows you a handy way to navigate the site. Choose from Sign Up, Login, Shows, Join the Team, and Forum. Below that you'll find several sections of featured and recent subtitles. Clicking into Shows reveals the site to be not so user friendly.
Every show that is featured on Addic7ed is accessible here, by letter. This can sometimes be a hassle to organize content. But when there are so many of them, it becomes less than ideal. Click on a letter to see if Addic7ed has the show you are looking for. But what if you want to discover new shows? I would prefer to be able to browse by genre, release date, network, etc. rather than alphabetically. Alphabetical just does not strike me as the most effective sorting method for so many subtitles. I want there to be other ways to browse content too.
Content and Features
As I said before, Addic7ed offers free subtitle files that you can download in seconds. Then, it's just a matter of loading the file up to your media player of choice as you watch the show or movie. The subtitles on this site are usually pretty high quality, likely due to the quality assurance features built right into the community.
For example, if there is an "I" icon next to a subtitle, that means it has been peer-reviewed and corrected. If there is no icon, that means the subtitle has not been reviewed or checked for errors. And if you are interested in learning how to subtitle content on Addic7ed, they offer free subtitles training to volunteers. They also have a powerful army of subtitle wizards who work for free on this site.
There are many forums where members chat about movies, languages, suggestions, requests, etc. This is also a great resource for those looking to get into subtitling or translation, as there are many tutorials and tips available on the craft. Addic7ed may be the best resource out there for aspiring subtitlers and translators to gain the skills they need and improve their abilities.
Mobile and Desktop Experience
I have some good news on the site design front- unlike many other subtitle sites, Addic7ed is fairly mobile friendly. It's maybe not as responsive or experiential as I might like, but at the very least, it is properly oriented when you access it on a phone or tablet, and it is easy enough to use. If you are looking for the most mobile-friendly subtitles website, this might just be the one for you.
Suggestions that I have for Addic7ed
My suggestion to Addic7ed is to consider adding some new browsing functions. As I said earlier, I would love to be able to browse subtitles in a more intuitive way. Perhaps a tags system could be installed, allowing users to easily browse by genre, network, country, language, actor, etc. With this addition, I think Addic7ed could become the best subtitles site on the web.
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