Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Care and Feeding of a Recapper.
We recently pulled the plug on Clon recaps because most nights, only two people (other than the recappers) were posting comments. This post isn’t really about the Clon board. It’s for the readers and lurkers on all the other boards, so you don’t lose your recaps, too.
It’s common for a recapper to spend three hours on a recap, and some take longer. The recappers are all volunteers. When they take a show, they are expected to stay for the duration, sometimes 14 months. They’re not paid, so why do they do it? As a service to the Caray community. For me, it feels good to know I’m helping others enjoy the shows like others helped me. So when no one comments, I feel like I’m giving a concert for an empty auditorium. People say, “Plenty of people read the recaps; they just don’t comment.” Well, excuse my bluntness. Am I investing three hours or more per night for the sake of people who can’t invest 90 seconds for a two-sentence reply?
I’m not asking for praise and adulation. Just shuffle your feet so we know you’re out there, so we know we’re not playing to an empty room. You can’t think of anything to say? Here are some ideas for starters.
• I’m glad you explained what Festus said to Sadie. They talked too fast and I couldn’t understand it.
• I laughed when you said Hephzibah had eyes in the back of her head thanks to too many facelifts.
• Do you REALLY believe Hortense is going to tell Aloysius the whole truth? Really???
• Feonando and Crabiela. Ewww. Creepy.
• I loved the scene where Martín said, “Nooo! Plátanos!”
• What do we want for Snidely? Hungry alligators or a runaway steamroller?
• I really wish he’d just kiss her already, doggone it!
• Paula’s right. Fernando Colunga truly is the best looking man on earth. (Las burras por delante!)
Do you enjoy reading the recaps for your favorite show? Do you want to see them continue? If you do, then remember it’s your comments that feed us recappers. If you forget to feed us, you might find us like the goldfish you forgot to feed when you were 10.
Labels: announcements, clon
Linda
La Paloma
I was there for Guapos, Mañana, Tontas, Cuidado, El Nombre, Mujeres Asesinas, Pecado and now Corazon Salvaje. I never commented because I feel like the new kid in school around here. I'm busy trying to understand the inside jokes & snarky names. Tblmoe comes to mind :) or who's Cadmilho (Manana) or finally figuring out that Padre was Nestor's brother and not his dad (Guapos)
So thank you, all of you, your work is appreciated and enjoyed and so helpful.
So whenever you saw one set of footprints in the sand ..... remember, you weren't alone - we were just lurking :)
TBLMOE: The Best Looking Man on Earth (Fernando Colunga)
Cadmilho: The orange-skinned shiftless brother on MEPS
I think you don't watch Clon, but we've been having fun with some names: Malicia (Alicia), Nariza (Nazira), The Chump (Escobar).
If you would like, if you write a name for yourself, we can answer you by name instead of "anon 11:24." It doesn't have to be your real name - you can call yourself "The Phantom" or "Mae West," it doesn't matter. And you can just include it in the body of your post rather than in one of the check-boxes, like this. -Paula H.
Sometimes I can only catch up on weekends, or I'm reading last nights recap at 8:45 pacifico just before tonights episode, so I don't say anything because I'm afraid the thread is over by the time I get there.
But I'm here yeah! Thank you. I like the snark and the humor and of course most of all to find out who said what to whom, or who ran over whom in a car...
One thing though: sometimes (like the last three re-caps I just read) the nicknames confuse me and I have to read and re-read to figure it out. Just the boring old correct character names would be OK and understandable, just sayin'!
Another thing, I would like to try my hand at a re-cap if anyone needs a sub, I would just need some anticipation. I know my comprehension is good enough, and not so sure about the humor, but who knows?
I remember the first time I jumped in and commented on FELS, it does seem intimadating at first, but everyone was so welcoming and wonderful. If you are lurking out there, come on in...the water in the swimming whole, shower, bath, waterfall...is great!
Molly
Comments do not need to be original or funny. If someone has already said what you were thinking, just add that "you agree". Even just a simple "thanks" and a "that really helped" is enough to buoy up a recapper to do it again when maybe she (or he) would rather be relaxing, sleeping!, out partying with friends or whatever. We set aside valuable time and energy to do this.....because we want to. But it's only natural that we'll want to less and less if nobody seems to care.
And speaking for myself, I love the friendships that gradually develop on these lines as we get to know each others likes and dislikes, experiences in foreign countries and with foreign languages, etc.
This is a wonderful site but Lurkers, you can make it even better by joining in more often.
I LOVE CarayCaray and am in awe of what the recappers are able and willing to do night after night. Like Molly, I'd love to be a recapper when I grow up. However, since I already have grandchildren and my Spanish is pretty dreadful, I'm unlikely to ever understand the language well enough to recap in this life.
Muchísimas gracias to all the recappers and to so many others in this great community who have made CarayCaray such an amazing resource.
So sorry that there wasn't more response to your hard work on the Clon recaps. Me personally, I didn't comment because I haven't really been watching anything on Telemundo this year.
One additional suggestion: if you read a summary and really don't know what to comment, just write "Thank you" and sign your name.
Jody :)
I'm in constant awe of the recappers' generous time and efforts to bring us these amazing summaries.
I'm trying to watch 4 telenovas (I don't get this channel so this isn't one of them). I try to comment as much as I can (which I must do at work which is a challenge).
I hope your thoughtful request will make others "stand up" and be heard. I remember wondering if my first few comments would even be noticed. I needn't have worried as the recappers and commenters were very inclusive and welcoming.
Diana
I can imagine how you feel. Perhaps we should only say, "how like a serpent's tooth is a commentless lurker."
Your suggestions are great.
Anon 11:24
I discovered Caray via Melinama's blog almost two years ago. At first I didn't dare to comment much because my English was (is) limited + it was obvious that the recappers and the commenters knew each other for a long time. Inside jokes, and so on. It's never easy to join an internet community, greenhorns feel insecure in the first weeks.
When CS started in the US I decided to forget my language issues and join the commenter community. I didn't regret it. Everyone greeted me friendly, and I'm sure that every single new comment will be appreciated here. :)
I love the recaps on Caray, respect the recappers (the regulars and the substitutes) for their work muchisimo, and I enjoy reading the witty comments of the intelligent, funny commenters.
When I first discovered Caray Caray, I was a little hesitant to comment. I also was worried about what name to use, as I wanted it known I was male (maybe to explain my appreciation of the ladies in the shows). Anyway, I settled on Hombre de Misterio, and that freed me to say whatever I wanted.
The beauty of this is that you can make up any name, and reveal as much or as little of yourself as you want. Or you can just say thank you for the recap, or any small observation. I don't currently recap any shows, but I did several in the past, and the comments were like life's blood, or manna, or whatever. I'd keep checking back, and anytime there was a new comment, I'd be ecstatic (yes, I know, I need professional help) :)
I have a very busy schedule, but I try to leave at least one comment per day for each show I watch. And for those who worry that your comment is too late, don't worry. Many times the comments continue through the evening, and sometimes even into the next day. The recapper, who spent hours doing the recapper, will always appreciate them.
Joan
Frances, if you are trying to improve your Spanish by TNs, you might find help on my Learning Spanish by Telenovelas page. I want from dazed&confused to recapper in 18 months, and I'm no spring chicken. It works!
Thank you once again.
Hanna
Hombre de Misterio, you certainly don't need professional help! Everyone likes to be appreciated. I find it's easier to get out of bed on Wednesday mornings, even though I was up later than usual recapping, because I just can't wait to see what comments people have written.
Thanks to all the recappers! I'm pretty guilty of not commenting myself, because I record STuD and CS and watch them days later so I feel like I'm too far behind to jump in and say anything relevant to the current day's discussion, but I do read and enjoy those recaps eventually!
I'm here. Sorry I've been flying under the radar for awhile. Every recapper and commenter is greatly appreciated. As members of the Ganchoteers, Mike and I feel as if we're friends with so many wonderful people we've never met face to face. (Except for Sylvia, who was instantly like family the moment we met her!)
We started watching telenovelas when we discovered Juan Querendon, and shortly after, we found Caray Caray. We have only watched the 7:00 novelas, but are now watching STuD. Our Spanish has improved quite a bit but we're not ready for prime time.
Thanks for the post, Paula. We needed the nudge and will try to at leas say howdy and thanks every day.
Thanks for reminding us that this recapping is a two way street. As a recapper, I would frequently check for new comments throughout the day and even check back the following day. I enjoyed all the comments and words of praise and especially enjoyed hearing from folks disagreeing with me. Some of the most fun discussions have been where there is amiable differences of opinion.
Hombre,
I consider myself professional help and I responded exactly the same way as you. I think that we're both OK. I showed a friend of mine what I considered one of my best recaps and after he finished reading it he looked up at me and said, "Very funny... but why?" I think everyone who has recapped here understands why.
Carlos
One of these days I may get brave enough to be a reacapper,but for now, I will just continue to give the current recappers their praise due. GRACIAS TODOS!!!!!
It would be neat to have a blog where we have to write comments in spanish too. That would be a challenge for me. I can understand about 80% but definately need to work on responding.
What a shame about Clon.
I will be watchign STuD when I get my TV going here at my new house and will comment there, I am sure,
I have been a substitute recapper and it was a blast. but it took a fair amount of time. Like Carlos and Hombre, I could not wait for the comments on my posts. I don't know exactly why it has so much meaning to have people engage with me in my telenovela passion but it really does. Like so many others have said, it is fun to share an enthusiasm with new found friends. I came late to the party at Gancho, but I was welcomed with open arms and I have made some real friends there. It may seem strange but it is true.
Do take time to write a little comment all ye lurkers. You will be made welcome, regardless of your abilities/skills in Spanish.
Thanks, Paula, for writing this post.
Elna June
Your website is terrific. Thanks again.
GinCA
My first TN was Passion (not so long ago). I started watching about halfway through and I had no idea what was going on. I wanted to know more so I went to the Univision website and found the daily summaries - in Spanish of course. I'd copy and paste the summary into Google translate, read it and think, "He did what to who??"
Finally, during MEPS I found Caray, Caray and the story opened up for me. I KNEW what Fernanda and Erica were giggling about. I understood Eduardo's pain and Liliana's despair. I despised Barbara, cheered for Martina, loathed Camilho and groaned at Aurora's naive stupidity right along with everyone else. I never would have understood that TN without this site.
So THANK YOU recappers for all your time, hard work, and creativity! And thanks to everyone who comments and adds insight, details & fun to the discussion. I look forward and enjoy coming to this site every day. It's like meeting with friends.
Hi Paula and thank you so much for this piece. I read every day but don't always feel like I should comment because my comments so often read "lame." Part of the reason is I have some neurological problems, the symptoms of which are a little forgetfulness, along with dizziness, vertigo, etc. on occasion. By the time I pick something out in the comment to point out as really useful....I can't always recall the specifics. So then I go back to the comment and it starts to get confusing....the process, I mean. Also, I can't quite remember my password for the blog so often sign on as anonymous, which seems pretty bland. But I just want you and the other talents to know that your writing makes my day, even if I don't always say so. I love the novelas. My Spanish is so-so and I miss so much. But I also love the"take" from others. This is like a great little secret only "special" people know about.
I'm back to watching taped editions of Corazon. I had turned off when they went to midnight. And there were so many fight scenes in the dark I couldn't make heads or tails of what was going on. Also, I couldn't take the wigs. But I am crazy for "Juan" and especially appreciate those photos that are being posted.
Am also watching Dinero and StUD, in hopes of seeing Mr. Wonderful any day now.
I have to admit I'm getting a little "on" in age now and am not as quick on the uptik as some of you great folks, so please don't stop contributing if you don't hear from more of us. I'm sure I'm not the only one in my position. But really, sending you all one big ABRAZO! You're such jewels.
Dona Felipa
Atlanta
Dona Felipa, thank you for mentioning the Juan screen caps. :-) I liked hearing you enjoy them.
There are quite a few of his fans, and I'll remember you like the pictures I post with the recap.
randa sea - Good to see you, and I'm glad you'll be with us for STuD
Aribeth - I never, ever, would have guessed English is not your first language. You are very fluent.
I really miss the Joven Rey of the Novellas- WLG(William Levy. I hope they come up with a good role for him he's a talented joven.
Because of the wonderful recappers I am learning Spanish and having fun doing so. Gracias all of you.
WTF? How many times is Jade gonna sleep with Lucas before the 3 months is up, risking pregnancy? Aren't they in their 40's? They cant wait 3 months after 20 years? Idiots. And subjecting Zoraida and Latifah to the guys' wrath? Crappy.
When they split the mall they should have cruised by the house to steal Jaddiya and run off. Punto. But they fell into bed and she's gonna waltz into the house like nothing happened?
So thank you, all of you, your work is appreciated and enjoyed and so helpful.
So whenever you saw one set of footprints in the sand ..... remember, you weren't alone - we were just lurking :)"
For someone who has been a fan of Spanish (and now Portuguese) these novelas and this board is the next best thing to immersion in the target culture. Would that I had something like this way back in the day when I took my first Spanish course! Gracias a todos y muito obrigada!
Khalilah
It stars Angelique Boyer in the title role; she plays "Jimena" on Corazón Salvaje.
I'm going to watch it from the start. :-) A previous version starred Salma Hayak. It was also made as "Rubi."
jjablan!
Enoch
Last night I made an attempt at a back up recapper, and the wonderful comments and encouragement were great. It makes you feel good, like the time used recapping was well-spent.
There was one comment on my recap attempt from an anonymous person who basically said "Good job, thanks" and you know what? That counted too. That was another shot of encouragement. So to those of you out there who are too shy to say much, just copy and paste this phrase: "Good job, thanks" and post it. Don't be shy! You can make a huge difference, even with a three-sentence post.
Thank you.
The added bonuses, like giving football scores and comments about what the actors wore are hysterical. I read them out to my husband and we both laugh, even though he only watches a few of the shows. Keep up the good work!
Pat W
It can feel like you're talking to yourself. I was absolutely insane since I was writing about six soaps at once but I cut down to four but still I'm not hearing a single thing. I wonder if I should put up a page similar to this too since of course I want the interaction. I know people go to it but a comment is a very rare thing over there.
Since I'm only just now diving into the telenovela world I'll likely at some point read some of the recaps but I just need to pick a show first. There are so many of them which is really good since sadly the soap operas are dying.
Watching TNs and reading your recaps have helped me a lot with my Spanish. I can read a bit and pick up vocabulary, but I’ve had trouble understanding speech … so I turned to the TNs for help. I have a TV from the 1980s that doesn’t have captioning, so I’m forced to really listen. Your recaps fill in the holes for me.
I began watching Más Sabe el Diablo on Mun2 because it had built-in English captions. My mother, who passed away in December last year, watched it with me. She liked it better than All My Children, which she had watched for over 30 years, and it became her new favorite program. I found a new kitten (a feral) and named him Angel, after the character played by Jencarlos Canela. I wish my mother could watch Teresa and La Pola with me now. She would have loved them!
Not sure we would get enough recappers to volunteer, it is not seen everywhere, but we could have discussion blogs weekly like with La Pola.
Bring the Caray Caray page up and look along the left side in the pink box which lists the various shows. If the telenovela is still on it will include a list of days of the week and who is the recapper for that day. At the bottom of this list is a blue line that says Cuando Me Enamoro Feed or what ever show Feed. Click on this blue line and it will take you to the page in delicious where all the postings for a given show are archived. good luck.
Secund I am so grateful to all the volunteers that they are doing this. I understand the time and work it takes to watch a show and write the summary of the episode. And it helped me so much I really love these telenovas. I just recently started to read the summaries of the telenova Triunfo del Amor and it helped me so much.
Because i can't speak or understand the language i thought i couldn't watch the shows and that made me very sad. But then i came to this site and it made it for me possible to watch the show triunfo del amor and now i want to watch other telenovas as well. So I am sorry that there wasn't more response to your and others hard work. But as for now on i will responde. I just thought that it was a little bit late for me to respond on triunfo del amor because it eas posted al long time ago.
Anyway I LOVE LOVE this BLOG/site.
So keep up the GOOD WORK
YOU ALL are AMAZING and NICE to do THIS SO thank you a lot
Elena
Anna from New York City
I'm just learning Spanish and started to watch telenovelas. Your site is a great help to me.
Gracias,
Tom
Janet, en Filadelfia, PA
Thanks again for all your hard work.
AnaG new to this site and to blogging.
Immediately we realized we were way over heads with the fast dialog and had to keep pausing after every few lines to gain comprehension and look up words. But then we found Caray! Caray! and it has been our life saver for enjoying this pursuit! Right now we still haven't finished the novella, we have about 25 more episodes to go. In fact Uvideos took the series off about 8 weeks ago and we had to switch to Hulu+. About 2 weeks ago I found out to my horror that Hulu was expiring the series "in 23 hours" and you wouldn't believe what we had to do to record and save more than 50 episodes of the show. We pulled an all-nighter and had 3 computers going at once to screen record the rest of the series.
We so wish we were able to be part of the discussions that were taking place on the QA board as each episode was recapped! Thank you muchisimo Anita, Lila, Vivi, Sara, Kelly, and all the other contibutors for this labor of love! You don't know how much you are appreciated and making us laugh every day!
Next up for us: La Sombra! We envy all of you who are able to wach without subtitles.
- K
- K
What I mean is that there appear to be so many remakes out there of the same story line, that it would be great for us newbs to have a reference about which novelas are related and which ones are worth our time.
Here's an example: I watched «Lo imperdonable» a few months ago and kind of hated it. (#worstendinginthehistoryoftheworld) Now I just started «Cuando me enamoro» and I'm discovering that it's exactly the same story - minus a gold mine, plus a vineyard, and plus Silvia (<3 her!). Well, if I had known that LI was a remake of something that starred Silvia Navarro, I would not have wasted my time. I'm also not interested in watching multiple novelas with the same basic story... at least not yet because I've only discovered them a year ago.
Anyway, I just thought I'd make that suggestion. :)
PS - like the previous commenter, I will be referencing your ratings when choosing my next novela. :)
PPS - Have you noticed that Netflix in the US just started offering telenovelas? Not many of them are on your list of recommended ones, but I'll be calling them and putting in requests.
~ Birdie
Just touching base to let you know you all are still doing excellent work on recapping the telenovelas. I am not so much into the new ones. But have been going
through some of the old ones-like CCEA. I am going through a gambit of emotions.
I find myself LOL or ROFL. I am really enjoying myself. Thanks so much.
Al
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