Ho Ho Ho - All I want from Vocal is...

There is no doubt that Vocal is a great platform for Creators. And it is always exciting to see what the platform rolls out next to make Vocal a more robust experience for the Creators. AND they LISTEN to their Creators about their needs and wants. Check out this article below by Justin Maury , Founder and President of Creatd (Nasdaq: CRTD), the parent company of the Vocal platform.

As you will see, some of the things in that article have already come to pass, like QuickEdit and Following known as Subscribe. But did you see all the other great stuff they talked about?!! Commenting and Recurring Creator Support!

And look at the line up of Creators that contributed needs and wants. Kathryn Milewski, long time Vocal Creator and six time Vocal Challenge winner (see her tips on winning a Vocal Challenge here) gave her wishes in this article:

And though I didn't know all the Creators that were featured in Justin Maury's article, it didn't escape me that our very own Gerald Holmes was listed as having voiced a desire for commenting. And there was a link to his article Vocal Plus sharing his thoughts on why Vocal+ is worth it.

My Wish List

I even wrote a Wish List of my own not long ago:

But that wasn't the end of it for me. I had even more thoughts since then on what I wish for.

MORE Wishes

I would love....

• Put More Plus in Vocal+ - At the end of our stories (such as this one) there is a "Read Next" suggestion. But guess what -- it is NOT one of MY stories even though I am a Vocal+ Member -- why is that Vocal? Couldn't you pretty please promote the Creator at the end of their own stories instead of some random Creator? And as a Vocal+ Creator, couldn't we have ALL the story previews at the end of our stories be OURS instead of any other Creator? That would be a very nice PLUS to the Vocal+ Membership.

• To have the ability to download an archive of my entire Vocal account.

• To have all the subcategories listed for each Community so that one could readily jump to stories published under the various subcategories. Either by having a toggle on the Community page title (which would be "Journal" in the sample below) or as clickable links across the page under the main title (indicated by the "not-so-straight" yellow line), or perhaps as a filter option in the white box.)

• And actually, wouldn't it be nice if ALL the data shown in the white box on a community page were clickable filters so that we could actually check out the creators and top creators that have contributed to that category? As someone who works with databases on the daily, you can tell I get really geeky about the potential for utilizing data to create a deeper user experience.

• Be able to search my story list FROM my story list --- not have to search ALL of Vocal

But What Are Other Creators Wishing For?

Now that I've shared what Vocal has forecasted for us, what some big name Creators have expressed as their wishes and what I have expressed as mine, let's have a look at what other Vocal Creators are wishing for.

Wish List Articles from Vocal Creators

Here's an article from Creator Analise Dionn, Vocal... Your Purgatory is Killing Me!, wherein she expresses the desire for shorter approval times. And she asks for a warning that you're under the word count if you try to submit. Now that could be handy. I do tip my hat to Vocal that they recently gave us an on-platform word counter. That is a very nice feature indeed. But I have to say, Analise's request for the pop up warning of under or over word count would be a very nice plus on the word count feature.

Natasja Rose has a lovely article with her five suggestions to improve Vocal for users. She has some really great ideas too. The one that intrigued me most was a Vocal App. She really got my attention there. She had some other really great suggestions too and stated them well. Take a peek -- I think you'll join her chorus.

Courtney Capone was inspired by another creator and wrote her own wish list article as well. Her wishes circled around story cover photo management, profile alterations, and hearts open to all.

Courtney Capone - I want my stories in categories like Sarah St.Erth said so they're easier to find. I would also like to choose the order in which those categories appear on my profile so that I choose what people see first and put what I consider my best foot forward.

And here is what Sarah had to say:

Sarah St.Erth - I would like to be able to categorize my stories, or remove them either back to drafts or entirely without having to ask support. Also place the stories I want featured where I want them:) prob some big asks here. --- Oooh one more from me, FONTS!!!!

And Allison's wishes fell right in there with Courtney and Sarah

Allison Rice - ...I want to customize my personal profile page to feature what I want, in the order I want. I want to group by subject, season, topic, serial, community or Alli’s personal favorites. Also, please add a COMEDY community. ☮

And Keila Aartila is also right there with them.

Keila Aartila - I agree with Sarah St.Erth - and I would like to see the story approval rates pick up again - it's hard to promote when they're sitting in submission!

Then there are requests for more capabilities with Stats:

Caitlin McColl - I'd love to be able to know on the stats page which stories were read every day...instead of guessing which ones numbers had gone up from the day before! Not sure how to do that..maybe even just highlighting the reads # in bold so its easy to see at a glance there were new reads on it, and maybe in brackets beside it + 2 or +5 etc). Also a comment in each article function

Siobhan Flynn - I would LOVE to be able to connect with my readers better. Where's it be by allowing comments or messages on my pieces publicly or by private DM's.

Sally Frazer - I just want a better search tool that has filters and actually works

Judey Kalchik - I want to group my posts, likely by community.

And this offering these niffy thoughts for the Vocal Wish List:

Cendrine Marrouat - I would like to be able to access more detailed stats, especially as a paying member. The info I'm looking for is locations, gender, age groups, etc.

We need an RSS feed capability. This would allow us to display our posts on our websites more easily, and take advantage of tools like IFTTT to automate our sharing.

Another request: Allowing people to receive our posts directly in their inboxes. And, of course, more social sharing buttons: Pinterest, LinkedIn, Tumblr, etc.

And though this request might seem humble, it would be a GREAT asset to formatting stories:

Kevin Rolly - Single spacing...

And here are requests from the Poet Creators amongst us:

Kristen Michele - More poetry challenges. There are so few, and they are so far between.

Heather Cumbo - No word minimum on poetry

COMMUNITY REQUESTS

Not only were features requested, but more Communities, too. Vocal currently boasts 40 Communities with its recent launch of the Interview Community, but Creators have voiced a desire for still more, with requests for a Comedy Community and Men's Community.

Lightning Bolt sure gave it his all when he wrote up his requests for a Comedy Community:

And for a Mens Community, we have these supporters and their persuasive arguments:

Gerald Holmes - A men's community would be nice -- but I don't think it will ever happen on Vocal. ....not allowing a voice because some people in that voice may be toxic is not a good reason to not allow that voice.

Certainly Tom Bradbury felt there was a need and penned this very compelling article in support:

Perhaps because of the social reformation taking place getting rid of masculine toxicity, there are concerns on what a Men's Community would be. Rachel M.J. tackled that issue in her article in support of a Men's Community:

And there is this entire edition of the Vocal Creators Chronicle promoting a Men's Community that they would call Hiraeth.

And though this article doesn't speak specifically towards requesting a Men's Community, Christina Elizabeth's article provides heart wrenching evidence of why one is needed.

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So with all these wishes gathered up into a single Wish List, we're all hoping that the good folks at Vocal are "checking our list and checking it twice" and going to give us all something that is really nice.

And on that note, Merry Wishmas to All and to All a Goodnight