Things I Wish Vocal Had

1. A dedicated History community. I would call it Archive, in keeping with Vocal’s naming conventions for their communities. This community would be great for several reasons. One, most history articles are currently shunted off into a subcategory of whatever community approximates to their primary subject( The Swamp for political history, Humans for history that doesn’t quite fit in another community, Beat for music history, etcetera).

However, I believe that Vocal and the larger world would be better off if there were a history-specific community. Also, this community would be great for aspiring historians, as I believe it would inspire them. In addition to this, it can act as a conduit for those that are currently pursuing a degree to establish their publication history. Not everyone getting a degree in history is trying to be a professor. Some do it for the love of the subject, some it’s a stepping stone to a law degree or any other pursuit.

But having this community would both grow Vocal while providing opportunity.

2. A rating system and/ or allowing nonmembers to like. I know this is opening creators to the negative aspects of this, but I also feel it would help readers know if something is worth their time to read. This would be a great way of curating how good a story is. Also, having it open to nonmembers is beneficial, because not everyone is going to make an account to read our stories. A lot of my friends and family are in this category. I appreciate that the read counts no matter what, but requiring membership to like a story makes a story's reception hard to gauge. For instance, my most-read story has a like rate of 11.71 percent versus the ones with the best percentage (it’s a tie) have a like rate of 37.5 percent with eight reads each.

3. A read time. I know this might hurt some authors, such as myself, who tend to write longer stories. But I think readers would go for a story that is a 15-minute read with 4.5 stars. I would most likely pass on a 5-minute read with two stars. But also, a lot of people want to know what they’re getting into before they start reading. I sometimes look up the “read time” for a book before I start in, just so I know what to expect.

4. Stubs- a community for articles greater than 100 words(not poems) but less than 600 words. Not everything needs a 600-word explanation, or can be sustained for that long without just turning into rambling. Also, a lot of people look for advice online. A lot of how-to guides are more pictures than words, so requiring a 600-word minimum might start to get unnecessarily lengthy.

5. A read next that suggests a piece from the author you just read. I think we’ve all seen the wild suggestions that come up in Read Next. You’ve just read an article on platypus toes, why are you getting an article on the best cinnamon roll recipe as the next suggestion. There is currently a workaround for this. That is to link your articles at the bottom of your story. I do this. I’ll probably continue to do this, just out of habit if nothing else. But I think improving the algorithm that makes suggestions would help, especially for newer users.

Thank you for reading my work. If you enjoyed this story, there’s more below. Please hit the like and subscribe button, you can follow me on Twitter @AtomicHistorian, and if you want to help me create more content, please consider leaving a tip or a pledged subscriber.

More from this author: