Q: How can I prevent the Subjective (Timing) error, as it was the most common issue in our initial task?

A:   Unfortunately, it really depends on the QCer. Some QCers will want to retime a lot of a file because they are very picky about timing issues. Others will only correct actual mistakes and ignore very minor timing issues that a viewer would probably not notice. It’s the luck of the draw unfortunately. To try and reduce any timing flags, the best solution (although one that adds more hours to each project), is to complete the translation as best you can and concentrate on that part of the file, and then to review it a second time and only look at timing - could I reduce reading speeds any further by truncation or merging / splitting subtitles. Can I make this read better? Don’t always follow the way the English template is timed - Indonesian no doubt works very differently grammatically, so you can retime your file accordingly if you have to. Bear in mind also, that some English templates may already have sloppy timing or timing mistakes. If you start working on a file and see that there are long headers or tails or subtitles are badly timed around shot changes, be prepared to correct those issues in your own file. Do also take the time to look at old QC reports and do look at the QC flags for timing - make sure you learn from your mistakes and if you want t a second opinion, see if one of the team can take a look and try and judge whether or not the QCer was justified or not on a certain timing issue. Subjective timing flags shouldn’t affect your metrics too badly, but it is frustrating, I know.

Q: I need further clarification on Sync Intermittent Time To Audio, Sync Intermittent Time Shot Changes, Reading speed (translation), and Timing (Guidelines) error, and what steps can be taken to avoid errors in these aspects?

A: I can do a refresher training call if you like. Please email me or Dominika if you’d like to set that up - the call could be fairly quick. We used to have a cheat sheet with notes for all the error codes. See if you can access this:
Revised Cheat Sheet- Timed Text Error Codes - Google Slides
Just briefly:
Sync Intermittent Time to Audio: Should be used when your subtitle is not quite matching the audio - they may be lengthening it or shortening it accordingly - especially used with long tails or when a subtitle starts 5-6 frames before the audio starts for example.
Sync Intermittent Time Shot Changes: When your subtitles are not following the shot change guidelines or have followed them incorrectly.
Timing Guidelines: Subtitles are over the maximum length or minimum duration, do not use the 2-frame gap requirement, or have not followed the chaining guidelines (chain subs together when there is a gap of 3-11 frames between them.

Q: How can we ensure the use of the final media or video? Because I think that the FORMATTING_POSITIONING errors in my initial task were a result of not using the final video.

A: Again this is usually out of our hands and it is unfair if you have followed the positioning for the prelim media and things are added in final media which means your subtitles need to be raised. Ideally, we should use final media for everything but time restraints mean that more often than not, you have to start on prelim media. Normally, it shouldn’t mean a lot of flags in a regular show or movie, but in a documentary or reality TV, it can be a lot. We can open a ticket for this, if it’s really significant and affecting your metrics. 

Q: Regarding commas, me and Suci have previously discussed the topic. Should we follow the serial comma rules?

A: Can you elaborate? There is lots of confusion about serial commas, but try and follow a standard grammatical style for US English (Chicago Manual of Style). I also use a tool called Grammarly which is very useful (even the free version). Honestly, I have to look up commas myself sometimes because it’s not always 100% obvious. Again, if you want to elaborate, I can try and answer in more detail. Sometimes QCers may not know the rules 100% either.

This covers some basics although Wikipedia shouldn’t be used as an authority:
Serial comma - Wikipedia

Q: How should we appropriately handle Islamic prayers and greetings? Do we use "As-salamu alaykum." or "Peace be upon you."?

A: We started discussing this in our call. I think I would follow your suggestion or writing out "As-salamu alaykum" and italicizing. This is going to depend on the project as well. If it occurs only once or twice, it is a well-known phrase, so we don’t necessarily have to translate it. If this and other Islamic prayers or greetings occur throughout a file, we would probably want to translate them to an English equivalent. We can consult Netflix on this as well, to find the best solution. I worked on a file recently that was in German, translated to English, but the character was pretending to be from the Middle East so used "As-salamu alaykum" and we kept it as is, but italicized.