Once More Into The Breech

It's been almost a year since I last weighed in on how Vocal could keep ahead of it's competitors in the market.

To my great surprise - it does feel like I'm typing into a void some days - Vocal actually adopted a few of my suggestions, like the new Vocal App and changes to how User Profile Pages appear, now giving people the option to view by category.

Vocal is great, don't get me wrong, but there's always room for improvement.

As Vocal grows and changes, the way users interact with the site will change. Some creators will leave for greener pastures, while new creators will join to see what is on offer. Some will linger and thrive, while others may choose not to make their free trial a paid membership or permanent stay.

With that in mind, lets talk about some potential future changes Vocal can implement in order to stay ahead of the competition...

Series or Chaptered Works

In the last year, there have been a number of "write the first chapter of ___" Challenges, including the Fantasy Prologue Challenge and the New Worlds Challenge. A lot of Vocal Creators were inspired enough to continue those story beginnings. Unfortunately, since Vocal is primarily a site for non-fiction articles, those chapters had to be posted individually, and short of linking within the individual stories, it's easy for readers to be unaware that the later chapters even existed.

In a similar vein, Creators who find their niche early, like interviews or critiques and reviews of movies/TV shows/etc., are probably desperate to find a way to keep those stories sorted, but again, the only real options are masterposts or linking within the article.

The ability to create a series of connected works that people can search would be a godsend.

Collaborations

In a similar train of thought to the Series idea above... let's talk collaborations.

Currently, the only way to do a work by multiple Creators is to link the other stories within the main body of the article. Whether that's collaborations, newsletters, or just a joint project, there's no real way to create a single story and share the profits. It's particularly frustrating when you want to do a newsletter featuring work by multiple creatives.

In the spirit of honesty, I have no idea how this would work, or be implemented. I just really want it as a feature.

Search within a Profile

It's great that we can now narrow down a creator's works by category, but there are still potential improvements to be made.

Sometimes, a work is in a different category than expected ('Humans' or 'Confessions' rather than 'Journal', for instance...). Sometimes a Creator writes entirely within a single category, or is one of those terrifyingly prolific people who has hundreds of works and even narrowing down my category still leaves you with pages to scroll through in search of the one you want?

The ability to search for a title or keywords within a Vocal Creator's profile would improve the experience immensely.

Challenge Winner Limits

This is likely to get some blowback, but I think it's worth mentioning.

One of Vocals biggest draws is the challenges. We all know that.

Unfortunately, it's also one of the biggest reasons that Vocal users leave. One complaint that I hear over and over is that "It's always the same people winning! Why waste my time and money?"

To an extent, this is understandable. Judges are people, and everyone has their own likes and dislikes in what they read. Some Creators really are just that good, while others have learned what beats to hit in order to win.

Vocal has already taken what I see as a good step in the right direction with the expansion to Runner-Up Prizes and Honourable Mentions. Don't get me wrong, it's great, but it does little to address the sometimes justified complaints about frequent winners.

I suggest that, if you win a 1st or 2nd place prize, there should be a time limit before you win again. Say, 6 months for 1st place, 3 months for second.

This doesn't stop the winner from entering the challenges, and they can still win a Runner-Up/Honourable Mention prize in the time period. Besides, let's be honest, if you've just won $10,000+ USD, you're probably going to have your head above water for the duration of your winning pause.

It's not a perfect solution, and I'm sure there will be a number of knee-jerk reactions to the idea, but it's worth talking about.

Diversify the Geek Category

Look, as it stands, the Geek Category is too broad. Everything gets lost in the shuffle.

Reviews, Cons and Cosplay, Fan theories and headcanons, debates, actor/producer/director interviews, controversy... even with the available topics, there's too much.

To be fair, Geeks are a huge community that are eager to info-dump on anyone who shows the slightest bit of interest, so it's only to be expected.

How would we break it up? I'll admit I don't have a sure answer, but even adding a new community specifically for reviews, as recently happened for Interviews, would be a step in the right direction.

How do you think Vocal can improve? Which points did you agree or disagree with? Let me know in the comments!

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