A Plea to Spammers
It's bad business - stop it!
New (and older) Vocal users - let me appeal to your business sense and desire to make money. Spamming people’s stories with your links is not the way to go about it, nor is posting AI only created content. I can only imagine any gain in results, if there are any, are quickly lost. You are only hurting your attempts to create viable business by creating a disrespected reputation instead! If you want to be successful as a creator, it’s a long-term investment of your time and money.
If you subscribe to me on Vocal.media as a fellow creator and appreciator of my work, I will click on your name and check out your profile, seeking out a story or two to read. If, at first glance, your stories seem to be generated mainly by AI, I will leave without looking. If a story appears to be authentic, and I open it and it appears to be AI generated with no acknowledgement of it being so, I may leave a comment indicating my concern, or I may just quickly close the window, as I don’t want my read to go toward generating any amount of income for your lazy ass attempt at a money-grab.
What clues me in that your content is AI?
1. The first thing I look at is when you joined, and how many stories you have published. If your Vocal date of joining the platform is recent, and there are a lot of stories published to your profile, I am immediately skeptical. It takes time to develop authentic content.
2. When I look at stories to read, I look at the first few words disclosed under the image. If the story begins with “Once upon a time …” or “Introduction” or left blank, I don’t even bother to click it open.
3. If I do find a story I feel is worth my time to click on, and the formatting is terrible, I am likely to click off rather than fight my way through an unpleasant reading experience.
Why does it bother me so?
1. Because I work hard to develop my craft and generate income. Your attempts mock my attempts, and when I do get fooled into engaging with your piece, I feel resentful. Do you like to feel fooled, or engage with something disingenuous? I don’t. I would dare to say most people don’t, including yourself.
2. Just because you don’t want to take this art form seriously, that does not give you the right to waste my time.
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It’s okay to be an amateur in this field, and Vocal is a good place to practice and grow your skills, but basically “cheating” the system is no way to make money quickly, and doing so here is going to get you nothing but a bad reputation, as most people here are serious about writing and pay time and money to improve their skills. We don’t like to feel mocked and duped by a bunch of mind-numbing spammers trying to make a quick buck, rather than add anything of value to the community.
I realize the chance of spammers actually reading this article, is slim. It is more likely to gain spammy links, but the rant makes me feel better, and just maybe a tidbit of reality will be gleaned by one or two, making them rethink the way they do business. My plea is that IF YOU’RE DOING THIS or THINKING ABOUT DOING THIS, PLEASE read this article with an open mind and reconsider.
If you’re convinced that AI generated content is the way to go, you may be interested in reading this article and how it is used poorly in another, but closely related, realm of business:
About the Creator
KJ Aartila
A writer of words in northern WI with a small family and a large menagerie.
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Comments (25)
This was plagiarized by someone and has been reported to Vocal. Here's link to the plagiarizing content. https://vocal.media/journal/a-plea-to-spammers-4i1x0t69
Dang, I didn't even know this was a thing! that's so scummy and an insult to the hardworking authors that actually love what they do.
Girl. FRIENNNNND!!! All up in there YES and DITTOOOOOO!!! Nah waste my time wit dat mess. Kudos on the "Woohoo-ey-est" Top Story!
Could not agree more. Weirdly the other day I went to write an article that ended with me writing “in conclusion” and I thought WTF took me ages to figure out an alternative because it met the flow, but also is my personal tell tale sign, if an article ends in conclusion it’s almost 100% AI
Agree completely, Keila! Super well said. Congrats on an awesome Top Story!! 🤗❤️
A very serious message, I don't know why they bother. Does Vocal have to start doing "I am not a robot" slots now. Good time wasted on time wasters that is needed elsewhere. Such a pity.
Agree!!! Congratulations on Top Story!!!❤️❤️💕
I agree completely. I am not a very high output writer on here but do put a lot of thought into what I do write and a large number of the comments I get are just someone dropping a link to their thing. I love the genuine reader who has something to say about what I actually wrote but spammers annoy me too. Also thanks for the tips on how to spot the AI fakes.
Well said and I agree with every word! Congrats on the Top Story.
Tell it !!! Congratulations 🥇
"You are only hurting your attempts to create viable business by creating a disrespected reputation instead!" Yep, yep, yep! I do the same. I always go to new subscribers profiles and if they are spammy, they will never see my subscription in return. If they're not, woot, I just grew my network. I'm always willing to read new creators and I don't care about skill level, I care about if that person is trying. Vocal is a great place for beginners to try and grow their craft, there's no need to post dozens of AI-generated content daily, but if you're going to do it, at least adhere to the rules and put a disclaimer. I don't even care if people use AI in tandem with actual writing, just try!
Congrats on the TS.
I share your sentiments and am glad the rant helped you feel better! I love a good Aartila rant now and again! You always do it in such an eloquent and fair way. I've said it before, and if I tackled the subject, it would be much more flavoursome in terms of curt language, haha! Congrats on an awesome and deserved Top Story!
Makes me a little worried about a myth I have in editing that uses "Once Upon A Time" though, since it's not the opening line of the story I think I'll be safe lol. I hate AI content, though I admit to being something of a hypocrite because I use AI generated art as my cover pictures. I've read very few of them, and though the technology is definitely improving (which is scary) the heart just isn't there. I'm lucky that I haven't gotten very many spam comments but who knows what the future holds. I hope Vocal puts protections in place for real art at some point, though I have no idea how they would go about it.
I am still carrying out my morning ritual of visiting Latest Stories and inserting the facts in the non-attributed AI stories. What surprises me are the genuinely terrified people that are not aware/understanding of the policy that AI-assisted/generated content must include the disclaimer at the beginning of the piece. I feel bad for them. That's why I've updated the message I leave with the way to contact Vocal (since they aren't Vocal+ members) to have it corrected. Every morning I find about 20 stories without digging very deeply into them.
1000% YES!! I do much of what you do and feel exactly the same. Thank you so much for voicing what I feel every day. Congratulations on Top Story!
I agree with you 100 percent!! Great job here. I hate people who spam and just want free reads without reciprocation. 👌Good points all around
I'm with you on this one! The moment I see Once upon a time or Introduction, I know it's AI. And yes they would have sooooo many stories posted in such a short amount of time. It's so frustrating and annoying!
Another rant with which I can identify. Thanks for writing & sharing it. I don't know if it made you feel better, but it certainly did me.
I'm always a little peeved by the people who leave their links in the comments of stories, often with a demand that you read theirs without any engagement with yours. 'Hey, here's my link, you must read!' No. Not a chance. If they approached with a 'hey, GREAT story, I loved the MC, really well developed and I'm so glad they came out on top at the end! Would love for you to read mine if you have time!' that's different. But I get the feeling anyone demanding I read theirs, won't actually have read mine.
Well done. AI is going to be the ruin of real creativity if we're not careful and if we foolishly let it get a foothold.👍Pernoste
Lowkey, this whole topic has also made me debate using AI generated art as well. Last thing I did was provide template hand drawings that I scanned into my computer then uploaded as a template. As a writer, I feel that this whole wave of AI has made us also more sympathetic to artists in general. On a different note, I can tell who's just commenting bs on people's stories, especially the top stories, just trying to garner attention. There's little change in what they write, they copy and paste, or they have a comment that's so generic it doesn't even apply to what's written. I saw one the other day on one of Paul's top story's that was in the journal community (I think) and somebody commented how it was a "great fiction story... blah blah blah... protagonist... blah blah blah." Yeah, accounts out here just trying to farm reads when they're better off scraping pennies off the floor.
Ugh. Last night I was looking at the Latest storied section. I came across 2 different profiles who had published approx 20 stories each in the previous hour, neither indicating AI use. I won't even bother to look there anymore.
nice bro your writing skills are on next level I will support u! I will be grateful if u visit my profile🙌👍
To use AI is not creating, and the act of creation is the whole point in my humble opinion. Well put, K J 🙂