addic7ed.com
A large, lively, enthusiastic, and passionate community of subtitlers around the world is dedicated to providing subtitles in as many languages as possible. They work tirelessly, often for no money, in order to ensure that all people, regardless of circumstance or where they were born on this planet, have access to entertainment, educational, and informative content.
When a TV show, documentary, or movie does not get subtitled and/or translated from its original language, it excludes people from all being able to enjoy it. This is obviously not the intent of the film or TV show, but it is still an implicit effect.
It is a tacit cultural exclusion that, unfortunately, all writers must oblige. It is in the very nature of writing in one's native tongue. Language is, by definition, exclusionary. But, then again, it's not as if a writer, even if he knew several languages fluently, could realistically write in all of them at one time. We can't hold films or TV series too accountable for the lack of globalism in a given piece of work. There is nothing nefarious to it. It's just an unavoidable fact of creating art - each piece has an intended audience, and each audience includes some and excludes others.
Active Voice: A significant number of people who require subtitles are the hearing impaired and the deaf. Without subtitles, these individuals would not be able to fully enjoy movies and television shows. Short of attempting to lip-read throughout the entirety of a movie (an undertaking completely daunting), the hearing impaired rely on subtitles more than any other group. Subtitles make film and television inclusive for as many people as possible.
This is why subtitle enthusiasts make it a part of their life's work to create subtitles in as many languages as possible. This opens up audiences and makes something that is necessarily exclusive at the point of creation more inclusive after the fact. This, not to be too Romantic or lofty about it, brings the world together.
I applaud those who spend their time subtitling movies and TV shows, and I especially appreciate those who subtitle across languages. You are doing important work and I thank you.
It should come as no surprise that subtitles sites are often predicated on community. The majority of them have extremely active, thriving, and helpful communities of members, all of whom play a role in making sure that the highest quality subtitles are available to all who need them, whatever the reason may be. Therefore, the best subtitles sites will often have large and heavily frequented forums, chat rooms, and member bases.
An organized, active, and enthusiastic group of subtitlers called Addic7ed has a website where you can download free subtitles files for hundreds of thousands of movies and television shows. It is also one of the most dedicated communities of subtitlers on the internet.
After considering all of the factors, it seems that Addic7ed may very well be the best subtitle site of 2020. Although dedication is one important aspect, quality is the ultimate goal, and according to many experts, Addic7ed seems to deliver on that front. Let's take a look and see for ourselves!
Design
It's simply not good enough.
I suggest starting by fixing the weaknesses in the design of Addic7ed, and then building it up by its strengths from there. I find that subtitles sites with poor design generally aren't very enjoyable to look at, so Addic7ed falls short in this area.
Although Addic7ed's design is not bad when compared to other subtitles sites, it is still not great, as far as sites go more broadly.
I don't like the overall vibe, if you will, of Addic7ed. It has brand potential. A lighthearted sky blue and white theme unfurls in a toned-down and minimalist home page. My qualms with this site stem from its functionality, not its appearance. I want it to be easier to browse and discover subtitles than it is.
On the home page, you will find a site menu bar, which allows you a convenient way to navigate the site. Choose from Sign Up, Login, Shows, Join the Team, and Forum. Below that, you will find several sections of featured and recent subtitles. Clicking into Shows will reveal the site as not so user-friendly.
Every show that is featured on Addic7ed is accessible through this website, by letter. This is usually not a horrible way to organize content. But when you have so much of it, this 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. as well. Alphabetical just does not strike me as the most effective sorting method for so many subtitles. I want there to be additional ways to browse content.
Content and Features
As I said before, Addic7ed offers a vast array of subtitle files that you can download for free. In seconds, you can have subtitles for just about any movie or TV show you can imagine. Then, it's just a matter of loading the file up to your media player of choice as you watch the show or film. Generally speaking, the subtitles on this site are high quality. This likely stems from the quality assurance features that are built right into the community.
For example, the subtitles on this site are frequently peer-reviewed and checked for errors. If they have been checked, the Addic7ed icon will indicate so.Also, Addic7ed offers subtitle training to all volunteers who are interested in getting into the art of subtitling content. They have a powerful army of subtitle wizards who work for free on this site.
There are many forums for members to chat, discussing movies, languages, suggestions, requests, etc. This is also a great resource for anyone looking to get into subtitling, as there is an entire forum dedicated to tutorials and tips 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 translating and subtitling skills.
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 site, this might just be the one for you.
Suggestions that I have for Addic7ed
My main suggestion to Addic7ed is to consider adding some new browsing functions that would improve user experience. I said earlier that I would love to be able to browse subtitles in a more intuitive way and 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 have what it takes to become the best subtitles site on the web.
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