Please Don't Read My Top Story...

I agree with this sentiment. Even when it comes to friends I'm like, "Come on give me something more insightful. Let me know that You've read my story and not just commented "Congratulations!"" Naomi's mentioned it with Vocal Etiquette. Keila's mentioned it with link bombing. Loryne's mentioned this with spammers and even plagiarists. Hell, I know that I've commented before on people's stories only because it was top story. Still, I wanted to make sure that it was about their work, even if it was something like a poem inspired from their work. Part of the solution to this is what You the writer can do. You need to let a lot of the ingenuine actions of others roll off of You like water off a duck's back and under the bridge. Pay no mind to it. Don't allow others' behavior to live in Your mind rent free. Last I checked, Your mind's valuable real estate, why should anybody live there for free if they're not valuable to You? Sure, we don't get to choose the actions that other people do within our lives, but we sure as hell get to choose how we want to react. You don't have to reply to every comment or read a story from every single person who commented. Just focus on doing You. Do something, make something, be somebody. Be You. Later.

I don’t think I’ve read anything of yours before, but this was an insightful piece. Thanks for sharing your thoughts! 😊

When I started reading this post I literally remembered the article you linked from Naomi. I remember reading it at the time and agreeing with it, and this kinda hits the same point. Generally I don't leave comments if I don't have anything of substance to add (I might give a like though).. but yeah when I come across these short comments like "great story" etc. I don't really know how to reply to them, because they don't have much to reply to. I don't really get too mad about it, because I know most people want to give their support, but are maybe too busy with their lives to delve too deep into whatever I write. I love getting useful feedback because I want to keep improving, and I love starting some interesting discussions on topics I either write about, or read on here (Naomi usually has interesting takes on things and I love it!)... Anyways, I do agree with you here, short/insubstansive comments can be annoying sometimes, but every now and then someone does leave either an interesting take on something, or corrects something in my writing and I do appreciate that

❤️💯📝😉

I’m sorry I’m just now seeing this. Novel linked it in her recent story. Thanks for linking to mine. I agree with you, and I’ve ranted about this too—people leaving insincere comments on Top Stories are essentially link bombing without leaving a link. Like you said (and I have said), they just want to be seen on the front page so people will click on their profile. And if they do subscribe, they ignore most of your stories because they’re too busy commenting on Top Stories. They comment because they want comments, and they subscribe so you’ll subscribe back. It’s really shitty, but it’s not going to change. This is the world we live in, everyone surface level and out for themselves. I’m done ranting about it, because the people who agree are not doing those things… and the people who are won’t stop. I’ve unsubscribed from nearly everyone. I just regularly check out my favorite writers I’m excited to read stories from, and if people leave a sincere comment I will check their stories out. Even then, I’m not going to comment unless I mean it. Having said that, I like your style of truth bombing, and I will check out more of your work later this week. I’m taking a brief break from writing my ass off. 😊

I have never liked anything anywhere because it is popular, but I see the trends on this page and it bothers me. Thank you for pointing this out and also mentioning Ms. Allen's article. We need to read the truth about some behaviours out there...

Yeaaa it’s a mess sometimes! Definitely go back and edit your original story to include direct links to part 2 (at the end of part 1) and link to part 1 at the start of part 2 and so on as you write it. If you are Vocal+ you should have access to quick edit feature to do that. You just really need to make it as easy as possible for readers. People usually won’t bother going to look for the other parts on their own unless they are a very loyal and interested reader (aka real life friends or friends from the fb group or discord server). :) Also, those of us who have been here awhile have likely stacked up a lot of subscriptions and it is very easy to get overwhelmed and miss things. I was gone for a week and had over 400 notifications when I logged back in! 🫣🤯

Ah Cezanne, I have ranted and raved. Many have. Then you just get sort of tired of it all and just write because you love to write, and then accept the few genuine friends that you make along the way. There are those who only care about TS, as you say. Nothing has changed with my rants. Hope you have better luck. All the best. I will check out your other works. Also remember that there are a lot of us, sometimes it takes time to get back around to everyone's work. But most of your rant is spot on. Bravo for being brave.

This is totally true!

Hi Cezanne. I am subscribed to you but I must have missed when you published parts 1 and 2 of From Feet to Fins. I almost always follow up if the story is part of a series. As for the insincere comments, I do get a lot of linkbombing as well so I do understand what you mean. I've left both part 1 and 2 open in my tabs and will be getting to them tomorrow because I'm going to bed shortly. I'm not doing this because you complained about people not reading your story. But I genuinely wanna read because I am obsessed with mermaids! I'll leave you a comment after reading on both parts! 🥰

I'll be there on the Nineteenth, and I'm looking forward to it! I hope my two previous comments speak for the veracity of that. I know just what you mean about Top Stories, those comments sections end up absolutely littered (and it's not like you can even delete the spam, just report it!). Moreover, I totally agree that the people who type insincere praise are also spammers, just as much as those who blatantly link-bomb. I was once Top Story before Vocal even had comments, but even so, the volume of likes and reads was preposterously high compared to the figures I garner in the ordinary way. So, where are all these admirers when I don't happen to be Top Story?! (Doctor Strange voice) "They care SO much!!!"

I've been there. And have a noticed a downward trend in the amount of reads for Top Stories in general. Not sure if it's because it's close to summer and people have less time to browse or whatever the case is... As I was reading post it reminded me that I was one of the original people who wanted to read more of Feet to Fins. I just read and commented on it... Creating a reading list is something that Vocal is working on, where you can add stories that you want to read before the notification gets buried. I fully agree with what you said about the spammers. They are a waste of time. We may have to deal with them a while longer until they give up and leave or Vocal finds a way to deter them from disturbing and disrupting the true creators, like yourself. Thank you for sharing this.

This is so true and honest. A lot of people don’t even read the stories they’re commenting on to the very end! They just like and leave the most vague comments every single time… some of us actually are lovers of reading others work but most are just out for attention.

Yeah, I will agree, this is most frustrating.