Eight Suggestions to Improve Vocal

1. Text editing

I am not asking for Microsoft Word like text editing capabilities. I understand that part of the appeal of the site is its simplicity. But, could we just add a few more features, at the very least subheadings and the ability to deliniate story sections with like three dots or a line or something? Boldface type and italics can only go so far. Long stories especially would benefit from the ability to differentiate between sections but all stories could be improved with these two very tiny upgrades.

2. Resizing and positioning of graphics in the body of the text

I would love to include more graphics in my stories but with no ability to resize them or position them they always end up looking bulky and/or silly and are more distracting then helpful or illustrative. Giving writers the ability to at least resize them, and even better, position them strategically throughout the text would encourage more inclusion of graphics and make stories more interesting to view and read.

3. Stop requiring every story to have a subtitle

This and #4 below are my two main pet peeves of the site. I have written about both on many occasions including here. Not every story needs a subtitle and in fact, for many stories, subtitles are a distraction or just plain dumb. They certainly are not additive to quality in any significant way and are often quite the opposite. This is a no brainer and should be so easy to do. Please, please change this.

4. Get rid of the ridiculous 600 word count minimum for story publication

The idea that some arbitrary word count can differentiate creative content worthy of publication from material which is not is absurd on its face. Under its policy Vocal would not have published Percy Shelley's Ozymandias - 99 words or Robert Frost's Fire and Ice - 43 words or John Donne's No Man Is an Island - 69 words or Ogden Nash's A Word to Husbands - 18 words or Strickland Gillilan's Lines on the Antiquity of Microbes (also known as Fleas) - 3 words or Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs & Ham - 55 words to name just a few of the many thousands of classic works of literature that come in at under 600 words. This policy is counterproductive, stupid, dumb, and makes zero sense. I know Vocal will say there are other sites writers can use that will publish shorter works. My response is, yes, you are correct, there are, so why won't you? See my article here for more on this.

5. Allow writers to assign their own searchable key words to stories

Forcing writers to pick from a seemingly arbitrary list of key words is endlessly frustrating for me. There are never enough of them and they rarely fit the types of stories I write. Why can't we assign our own? Other web publishing sites do this, what is the justification for not allowing it here?

6. Allow for highlighting and commenting on specific passages in stories

It was a huge improvement when Vocal finally added the ability to comment on stories to the platform. Reading and responding to comments is one of the easiest ways for aspiring writers to get real, helpful, criticism and advice. It would be so nice if we could highlight sentences or passages or words in a given article and comment specifically on those highlighted items. It is a great way to point out in finer detail certain things you found interesting or annoying or whatever. It provides an even greater specificity to criticism which can be very helpful to aspring writers. It is also fun and potentially very helpful to see what parts of stories other people choose to highlight and comment on.

7. Did I mention getting rid of the ridiculous 600 word count minimum requirement for publication

That requirement is the entire reason this article did not end with only six suggestions. I was only at 557 words. Is this tacked out seventh suggestion which is just a repeat of item #4 at all helpful? No. It does make my point for me however, which was quite nice. It also got me thinking a bit more and spurred me to add an eight suggestion.

8. Expand the number and diversity of communities or abandon the concept altogether

Where is the science and technology community? What about a comedy community? (mea culpa: There has been a humor community for a couple of months now and at least three communities address aspects of technology though I would argue their coverage of science and science topics is in keyword only. Thank you reader Paul Stewart for correcting me on this.) There are so many other potential communities that could and should be created. In fact the number is almost infinite which is why I would greatly prefer abandoning the idea altogether. It is not helpful in the least to writers or readers and actually ends up resulting in a form of digital redlining as I have written about previously. Ending communities would be a major change for Vocal and my guess is they would never consider such a radical move though I believe it would be to the greater benefit of all if they did.