Being Vocal About 2022

2021 left many Vocal writers somewhat shaken and disconnected. We had hope that 2022 would be better. That it would be different.

We hoped for easier, but nothing in life truly is easier, is it? Instead, the Vocal writers found that Vocal continued to reinvent itself, often incorporating feedback from writers along with it's value-adding updates sure to please investors.

In September of 2021 a vital connector, the Vocal writer Tom Bradbury, was tragically lost in a fire on the farm he owned in France. In his short time on Vocal, just under a year in fact, his encouragement, wit, praise, and feedback helped establish a community within the many Facebook Vocal groups. Besides dealing with the abrupt, horrific, and difficulty receiving communication regarding the tragedy, Tom's loss broke some of the ties that moored the groups of which he was a part. Interaction became a bit more forced, and certainly more emotional.

Small frustrations grew out of control, and there were more than a few conversations that resulted in larger breaks within the network of writers that had so recently found comradery. Some of those breaks remain unrepaired.

And some of the frustrations turned towards the Vocal writing experience. At the beginning of 2022 those frustrations included:

• Approval time for submissions that ranged, with no explanation or pattern, from fifteen minutes to ten days
• Rejected submissions with unclear reasons for the rejection
• The site crashing in the final minutes of a Challenge deadline
• LOOOONG wait times and missed announcement dates for Challenge winners
• The long wait to find out the benefit of having a pledge function that no one used

Fortunately, the improvements started in early 2022.

Pinned Stories and Story Filtering.

1. In 2022 Vocal writers gained the ability to pin up to three of their stories at the top of their Vocal profile page. This allows them to showcase and present their work according to their own desires; perhaps by the season, maybe showing their entry into a competition, maybe highlighting their Top Stories. It's up to them, and gives much-needed personalization to their profile.
2. Story Filtering is a way for readers to find, search, and select the works of the writer. The search allows alphabetical, length, publish date, and even filters by Community.

And then a kinda-flat first foray into readers and writers interacting within the Vocal platform, which had been a much-requested update: Reader Insights.

Reader Insights

Reader Insights is that shy guy across the room that looks like he'll ask you to dance but never really makes it all the way across the floor before the music ends.

Reader's have a choice to anonymously choose from a menu of pre-programmed choices and reflections on the piece they've just read. Reader Insights are located at the bottom of the piece, and the format shows the top (aka most frequently chosen) insights left from previous readers.

It was seen by most writers as a 'close but no cigar' moment; the anonymity still kept the writers and readers separated. Again- no true communication was facilitated by this improvement. BUT don't let that stop you from adding your insights below to THIS article!

My thoughts? It was a test run to see if ANY interaction would happen. We must have passed the test because a few months later....

COMMENTS on Vocal!

If Vocal writers could have everything they want, the ability to leave COMMENTS on the stories would likely have edged out a more robust SEO factor that highlights writing in the many Internet search engines in the same way Medium does (hey- that's still my #1 wish, OK?)

Now there are COMMENTS, non-scripted free-verse that readers can leave after they read a story, or at the end of the page, anyways. And just as important- these comments aren't anonymous!

One of the nice features is that the writers control IF comments can be left on their writing. The ability to toggle comments on or off gives control to the writer, and it's much appreciated.

Is it abused? Sure, sometimes. Amazingly Link-Bombers strike in the Comments too, sometimes. (Click here to learn what they are.) For outright spam there is the option to report a comment, just as the ability to report an article also arrived in 2022. I have had swift response to the two times I've done both of those things, so don't be afraid to do your part and slam the spam if it appears, #SPAMHAPPENS.

Unfortunately, a 'MEH' change happened the next month.

The Vocal Creators Club.

Disclaimer: I have no inside-information. But I am old, I've worked for corporations, and this smelled like a way to get a fast-cash influx to the company, get some credit for making 'improvements', make vague words of intent for future things and then hope everyone forgets about it. And if that truly WAS the intent it didn't raise enough as Vocal had unexpected and deep layoffs soon after anyway.

Click on the link in the title of this section to read about it, if you want.

My final thoughts on it are:

• where's my T-shirt?
• it's the beginning of Q1 in so I hope the Vocal+ Fiction Awards Anthology is rolling of the presses because time is moving by quickly.
• thank you for not selling collectible digital trading cards to the Vocal Creators Club members while you were at it. Such restraint should be given its due.

The Vocal App

The Vocal App was anticipated and debuted first for the Apple OS and later in for Android. The app is a handy way for readers to have a one-click way to access their favorite reads. They can access Top Stories, Communities, and even their Favorite reads, which could drive subscriptions and exposure.

However, for writers, the juice may not live up the effort of the squeeze. There is still a click-to the main web presence for Stats and the ability to write and publish using the app doesn't exist among the Resources.

However, one of the BIGGEST changes came sandwiched between the release of both operating system versions of the app!

Vocal Moderation Updates... aka "Wow! It's Published!"

World-wide holiday delays aside (people deserve their time off! especially as they are doing their job and prolly part of one of their colleagues lost in that layoff), this update made the time from Submit to Publish MUCH FASTER!

It was also a great time to impress the formatting and word count rules. Follow these and stay in good standing and watch your time to publication dwindle away. (Tom would have ADORED this!)

Summarizing

• Besides these changes, Vocal launched Write Here, Write Now: A Vocal Podcast. The series showcases many create writers, including my friend J. Delaney-Howe. I encourage you to check it out; the entire podcast debuts every so often as a Top Story, so they are easy to find.
• Since the Vocal creators mastered the sonnet in 2021 they were surely ready for a new poetry Challenge and they got it: the Haiku. Writers must have drilled holes in their desks drumming out those syllable counts per line! What was beautiful to see was the vivid imagery and story telling that those rules revealed. I saw a different and more vulnerable side of many of my favorite writers, and I appreciated that I could support more of them by reading many more entries than are usually possible.
• An easy way to stay up-to-date is to subscribe to Justin@Vocal and the Vocal Team so you get the official reveal of any changes. You will need to do that, too, because updates just don't come with an announcement for the Writers. Most of the time word spreads through the various writer-administrated non-Vocal affiliated Facebook groups days before word arrives as a Top Story taking up space and depriving a writer of a $5 Top Story bonus. (ahem- THAT is a sore-spot for writers in general: we should know before we 1) try to use the platform, 2) readers see it and use it before writers know it's an option (Insights and Comments. Would have been nice to know. Just saying.)
• Vocal publicizes Top Stories on their Facebook (@VocalCreators) page and on their Twitter (@Vocal_Creators ) feed. If you are on those platforms you should Like/Follow them.

And writers should engage with the Top Stories shared on social media, too, IMHO. Part of being a good supportive member of the Vocal community is through interaction and support with other writers.

Tom taught me that.

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Please try out the insights and comments function now that you've read this article. And sure, please leave me a heart, too (showing the number of hearts a story/article/poem received was also added in 2022).

You can find me here, too, writing on Medium as @judeyblu.medium.com