I'm Sorry But Any Writer on This Site That Does Not Allow Comments on Their Stories is a Coward

At first I was very pleased when I first learned that comments on Vocal stories would now be allowed. At my former home, publishing on Medium.com I made my hay in the comments, and did some of my best writing work there. Many of these comments eventually turned into stories of their own and they tended to be some of my best work. At Medium comments were a part of the structure of the site from day one. Given its pro censorship stance it's not too surprising that it was not the case at Vocal which only introduced the ability to comment on stories very recently. Censorship and the free exchange of ideas that comments allows do not exactly go hand in hand. I do appreciate that the default position of each story is to allow comments and that a writer must pro-actively select to turn them off. Given the pro-censorship position of the people in charge at Vocal this did surprise me somewhat. Censors are concerned with limiting the free exchange of ideas and any project which increases at least the possibility of such exchanges will be discouraged. It is doubly surprising defaulting to allowing comments given Vocal's stated mission to act as our all knowing protectors and keep us safe from any content that might make us uncomfortable or scare us or even make us cry. Comments are where internet bullies and abusers live and breathe after all.

Kudos to Vocal for having some (limited) guts for once.

Unfortunately I cannot say the same for the writers at Vocal, an unbelievable number of whom are actually electing to turn the ability to comment on their stories off. Originally I thought that surely almost no writer would elect to not allow comments on their stories. Why would they?

Getting feedback on our work is how we improve as writers, and how we respond to criticism or praise speaks volumes to our character as writers and people.

Some of these stories do allow so called "reader insights" which consist of a series of check boxes of questionable value that seem generally designed to protect the egos of the writers who are receiving these "insights" more so then to provide actual useful criticism.

Look, I get it. It hurts to be criticized. It is no fun. Believe me when I tell you I have taken my fair share of beatings. My style and preferred writing genres basically guarantee that will continue to happen.

But you will not get better as a writer or as a person if you cannot take criticism. Let me repeat that one more time, you will not get better as a writer, and you will not get better as a person, if you cannot accept criticism.

And your responsibilities as a writer and a person do not just end with accepting criticism, you must also take such criticism seriously and where appropriate make adjustments to your behaviors to address those which are valid. You may not always agree with your critics, and you may be right or wrong, but you cannot just ignore them or pretend they do not exist. In those instances when you are criticized and you agree that the criticism is valid it is incumbent upon you to do something about it. To at least make some effort to address it and fix it or improve upon it. If you find you never agree with any criticism then you are almost certainly not taking criticism seriously because no one, and I mean no one, is perfect as a writer and certainly not as a person. Some criticism of your writing and of yourself personally will be valid criticism, accept that, and use it to your advantage, to get better, to improve.

Not accepting comments on something you write and publish in a public space is counterproductive, downright dumb, and yes cowardly. Vocal is a public space. It is not paywall protected or password protected or some secret society. It is an open web site that anyone can visit at any time. While it is impossible to argue it is a place of total openness where any and all viewpoints are welcome because of its censorship policies, it is free enough. It does not restrict viewership of articles, only their contents. Therefore, you cannot on the one hand say to the world, look at me, look at what I have to say, please come one, come all and read it, while on the other hand say, but don't respond to it. Or, if you do respond do so somewhere far away from me. I can't be bothered to listen to what you have to say. In other words I talk (write) only, you listen (read) only.

At least some, or maybe even most of your critics will be incorrect in their assessments and judgements. Either on the facts, or on the more artistic, less quantifiable and more debatable aspects. When that happens how should you respond?

And, what about cases where criticism crosses the line and becomes mean spirited, ugly, or maybe even sexist or racist? First, I highly doubt Vocal's censorship brigade would let anything too vile slip through their ever watchful eyes, but if it does, that is the price we pay by choosing to go public with our works.

I cannot emphasize enough that because of Vocal's policies and activist censorship teams you will be protected from the worst abuses that can be hurled in comments on more open platforms. While Vocal's censorship policies are an affront to free speech, counterproductive, and basically stupid, they come from a place of good intention I think. Therefore, you have even less of an excuse to not allow comments on your articles published here. It very much pains me to to shine a positive light on Vocal's censorship policies but since they are what they are I feel OK about pointing them out here. I do not do so to excuse them or to remotely suggest they are appropriate or correct, for they are most certainly not. They do however, exist, and they will protect you from seriously abusive comments appearing on your stories.

Threatening comments are another matter entirely and of course should immediately be reported to appropriate local, state, or federal authorities depending on the nature of the threats.

Again, it seems impossible that Vocal's automated systems that constantly scan for hateful or dangerous key words or phrases and immediately flag any they find, combined with its small army sized cadre of censorship shock troopers would allow something like that to slip through the cracks.

You have nothing to fear by publishing here at Vocal and allowing comments on your stories. Unless of course you fear the consequences of the implementation of a totalitarian state for which the growing acceptance of censorship of written works is almost always an early warning sign. But, of course, who would worry about such a thing. For now if you can just turn your comments back on I'll hold back the freedom haters for a little bit longer on your behalf..lol!





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