Dear Vocal Media,

I write this knowing that it will get lost within the endless sea of articles written about your website, but I feel what I have to say is important. I've been a writer on your website for over a year. I was here before bonuses, and maybe before the option to tip existed. I've been a member of the Vocal + programs and an outsider. Anyone casually observing my usage of the website would believe that I loved it. I regret to inform you that isn't the case.

I used to love Vocal. There was nothing better than writing my heart out to receive five views and one heart. Eventually, your website wore on me. I've never had one of my stories featured as a top story, never won a contest, and I have accomplished nothing noteworthy on your website. I doubted myself as a writer because I felt I wasn't good enough for your website. I read the things you were accepting as top stories and tried to adjust my writing, but nothing happened. I ever investigated the writers you were loving, but only grew disappointed when I saw that some of them had only published one story. I nearly gave up writing for your website altogether, but then I got fired.

I wasn't upset about being fired since the job was the most toxic one that I had ever held. Getting fired lifted a weight off my shoulders and gave me more free time to write. I was determined to draw views to my work on your site. I thought if I did so I'd finally be featured as a top story, or maybe win a contest. So, what happened? I ended up making more from tips than I did from reads. Doubt planted itself inside my mind once again, causing me to wonder what I was doing wrong. Was my work riddled with typos? Was I an awful writer? Should I give up?

I knew the few people who were reading my writing were enjoying it. As mentioned above, I was getting tips, but some readers were reaching out to me in my inbox. The primary drive behind publishing my writing was for others to enjoy it, so I had accomplished that goal, but I still felt like I needed to be featured on Vocal to be validated. I wanted to see something I'd written grace the front page of Vocal, but the more I wrote, the more discouraged I felt. No one wants to believe their writing is awful, but I felt that's the message Vocal was getting across to me.

After that, I found Medium. I thought my experience would be much of the same, but I gave it a try, anyway. I can still remember the smile that broke out across my face when I saw the words, 'Chosen for further distribution'. I couldn't believe my article was being recommended to people instead of being hidden away, as it had been on Vocal. I continued to be recognized for my work, but I knew little about publications or the website itself. I invested more time in Medium and it paid off.

One of my articles ending up getting over 4.8k views. The article was one that I'd written about the criticism surrounding Chun Li. I also published it to Vocal, where it remained unviewed. How could I write something that gained so many views on Medium but absolutely none on Vocal? Was the read/view counter broken again? I couldn't understand how something I'd gotten so many views on and amassed exactly zero on Vocal.

I posted my thoughts on social media, and someone said that perhaps I wasn't promoting my work on Vocal as much. I was exhausting every resource that I had to promote Vocal at that point, and even went a step further. I made a subreddit for Vocal, but barely anyone showed interest. I even considered trying to get a group together to make a Vocal newsletter, but ultimately haven't done so yet.

How was I supposed to promote my writing on Vocal when the odds are stacked against me? Not only that but why wasn't Vocal helping me? They've been claiming since the early days that they wanted to add a follow button but have yet to do so. So, this leaves me with two questions: How am I supposed to succeed on Vocal if Vocal won't help me, and why is my writing good enough for Medium but not good enough for Vocal?