Statement from a different transcriber:
We started making the at-the-time unofficial Stellar Firma transcripts in April 2019 as a fan endeavor. Obviously, none of us expected they would ever be official, or even recognized by Rusty Quill. I was there from the start, but I am not the founder of the group nor the person who did the bulk of the work by any means.
In September 2020, we, along with a group of other fans of Rusty Quill, formed a discord server where we talked to Autumn (and emailed with Anil) questions about the transcript situation, and other accessibility concerns, such as closed captions on YouTube.
Rusty Quill approached the Stellar Firma team later that month asking to purchase our transcripts from us (and declining to purchase the existing TMA or RQG transcripts, for what it's worth).
It’s hard to argue the nebulous idea of "they should be investing in accessibility more” without providing clear steps and goals. I get it; they are investing as we speak. I am so thankful for all that they're doing, even if I do personally believe it could be expedited. Any progress is still progress, and I don't want to undersell how ecstatic I was when they came to us with the offer to buy our transcripts. I remember thinking “holy shit, this shows that Rusty Quill cares about this.”
I still believe that; obviously they care, or they wouldn’t have come to us in the first place, and obviously a company with a lot of disabled employees understands that accessibility is important. I'm not claiming that they don't, or besmirching their moral character, that's a ridiculous point to argue and would have us going in circles for days.
What is not hard to argue is this: they already paid us the money, we already gave them the transcripts, and said transcripts are not available through any of their channels.
If the issue with RQG transcripts is time and/or money, that is not the issue here: we already put in the time, and they already put in the money. The transcripts exist, and are ready to post. They have been since December 2020, when we finished our second round of checks for accuracy (though I understand that they would want to check it themselves, just to be safe).
This is not comparable to RQG, where they still need to invest time and money into working through the backlog. The backlog has been worked through, and the time and money has been invested, and… well, and nothing.Â
And if your question is “well, this is something that’s easy to fix, they already paid you your money, so why aren’t you shutting up,” my response is because it's such a simple solution (throw up a temporary Google Drive while you get Sharepoint running, etc) it stings all the more to me that nothing has been done, that I have to link people my personal Google Drive when I recommend Stellar Firma to them, that when they ask if there's transcripts I have to include a “yes, and I helped make them, but...” addendum.Â
When we completed the transfer in February, Anil said "I'm happy to confirm receipt and that they have been completed to our satisfaction." Now, in June, that is still all we have.
Rusty Quill obviously cares and obviously is trying, and I get from my own experience transcribing that something like complete transcripts for Rusty Quill Gaming is going to take a really long time.
But that doesn't change the fact that they have the Stellar Firma transcripts for seasons 1 and 2, formatted to their specifications, completed (in their own words) to their satisfaction, and they are, months later, still not being shared with the people who need them by the company who legally owns them; instead, those who need them are relying on fans who have no legal claim to them to maintain legally-questionable archives.
That’s the issue I have. That’s what I am currently fighting for. I want the money Rusty Quill invested (not to mention the time they’ve dedicated) to go to a good use. I want what we’ve done and what they’ve done to help people. That’s it.
(And, with no disrespect to Jessica’s reasoning for their decision to stop hosting them herself, all of the transcripts we made are available as .PDFs here. I am okay continuing to host them until Rusty Quill does. I may not own them anymore, but anyone who needs them is welcome to them. All I personally want is for people to have them, and to enjoy the show like I did.)
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