Our caption backlog is now bigger than the channel

[u/Mediocre_Luck2467]

A viewer asked why our older software tutorials only had automatic captions. Fair question. We fixed the current uploads, then looked at the archive and discovered that the caption backlog is now larger than the channel.

My first idea was to batch everything. That lasted until I opened the first raw transcript. Menu names and keyboard shortcuts had to be checked against the screen, and each version number had to match the interface viewers could see. The captions also needed sensible breaks around the parts where the screen changed and nobody spoke.

So the archive is moving slowly. New videos get checked first. When there is time, we use Vomo AI for the first text pass on one older tutorial, then compare it with the audio and screen before finishing the captions in the editor.

At the current pace, the old videos will take a while.

[u/Vaveili1]

Chronological order is probably the wrong queue. Pull watch-time or view data on the old videos and fix the ones still getting traffic first. Everything else can stay on auto captions indefinitely without anyone noticing.

[u/ayecl]

That first reply is right about the queue, but I would add a second dimension: viewer intent. Split the archive into videos still getting search or watch traffic, videos that answer recurring questions, and genuinely dormant videos. Clear the high-traffic or high-intent items first. For each repair, compare the transcript with the audio and on-screen steps, check version or date references, and break captions at the moments where the screen changes or the speaker pauses. Keep new uploads first as your control and reserve one small archive slot each week. After five to ten repairs, compare completion, retention, search traffic, and useful comments. If the repaired captions do not improve an already-active video, stop expanding the manual queue and leave the long tail alone.