Uncovering the Vocal Media Paradox: The Truth Behind Why ONLY SOME Articles Get Attention

Something Felt Off on Vocal

As a small writer on Vocal, I started to notice something.

Nothing was necessarily wrong, but something felt off.

Take one account I came across as an example. They have around 40 published pieces.

Almost every single one of them is marked as a “Top Story.”

Out of roughly 40 pieces, I could find only ONE that wasn't.

Now, I'm no brainiac, but that caught my attention.

At first, I thought: maybe they're just really good. Fair enough.

But then I noticed that a lot of the Top Stories seemed to come from the same specific accounts.

So I thought to myself: could it simply be because so many people are constantly releasing stuff here — just like the piece I'm writing right now?

The AI behind it has to have some kind of preferences. And if it doesn't find a new article that it considers good enough, maybe it prefers choosing something from an account that has already had a Top Story before.

That would actually make sense. With so much being published, maybe Vocal isn't deliberately overlooking smaller writers. Maybe the system just falls back on writers it already knows.

At least, that was my first theory.

Then something happened

I started thinking about it again, because something still felt off.

At one point, I commented under one of this guy's pieces:

“This is a work of art 👁👄👁”

And then something interesting happened.

Suddenly, he went through my profile.

He liked my stuff, one piece after another.

And under them, I kept seeing basically the same kind of response:

“wow 💟💌💟💌💟”

Again.

And again.

And again.

That's when something clicked for me.

It felt less like someone had randomly discovered my writing, read through it and genuinely had something to say about each piece — and more like I had interacted with him, so he came over and returned the engagement.

And that made me wonder: how much of the engagement on Vocal works exactly like this?

What if people are deliberately going through each other's accounts, liking everything and leaving quick generic comments because they know that engagement tends to come back?

In other words: engagement farming.

And suddenly, those circles of familiar accounts and repeatedly featured writers started looking a little different to me.

Maybe I was looking at Vocal the wrong way

So I started thinking again, and that's when I realized I might have been looking at Vocal the wrong way from the beginning.

Maybe Vocal isn't really about making “great” work and hoping that the best writing naturally rises to the top.

Maybe it's closer to a social media platform for writers.

And if that's the case, suddenly a lot of what I was seeing made more sense.

It pays to know people. It pays to like their work. It pays to comment on their pieces, and it pays when they do the same thing back to you.

Eventually, you get these little circles of writers constantly engaging with each other — and because engagement can translate into more visibility and potentially a better paycheck, everyone involved has a reason to keep the circle going.

Vocal presents itself as a place to publish your writing, but from what I've seen, succeeding here can start to look a lot more like succeeding on social media.

The writing is the content.

The writers are the network.

And “wow 💟💌💟💌💟” might just be networking.

But who is actually reading?

And realistically, I don't think most people come to Vocal because they're looking for something to read.

I think a lot of us are here because we heard that we could write something, publish it and potentially make some quick money.

And I'm one of them.

I'm not going to pretend I came here with some noble mission to enrich the world with my writing. I came here because getting paid for putting my thoughts into words sounded pretty damn good.

And if most of us are here trying to make money rather than looking for something to read, then who exactly is the audience?

Maybe that's where those engagement circles start making sense.

We're writers trying to get readers while the “readers” are other writers trying to get readers themselves.

And then there's “Top Story”

This is where I still have a problem with the “Top Story” label.

Again, I'm not saying that the account with roughly 40 published pieces is producing bad work. Maybe those stories are genuinely great.

But think about that number for a second.

Around 40 published pieces.

All but ONE marked as a Top Story.

At that point, my question isn't:

“Is this writer good?”

My question is:

“With the amount of writing being published on Vocal, how does one account manage to get selected almost every single time?”

If 100 stories get published, why does the same person keep getting picked?

Am I really supposed to believe that, out of all those new stories from writers nobody has heard of yet, the best choice just happens to be someone who has already been featured again and again?

There HAVE to be great stories buried somewhere in there that almost nobody has read.

And that's what bothers me.

A “Top Story” feature should theoretically be one of the best opportunities to discover those pieces.

Instead, when the same familiar accounts repeatedly appear there, it starts feeling less like discovery and more like reinforcement:

Top Story → more readers → more engagement → more visibility → another Top Story.

Meanwhile, some writer you've never heard of might have written something incredible that's sitting at three views.

That doesn't mean the writers getting Top Stories are bad.

It doesn't mean they don't deserve attention.

It just makes me wonder how much great writing never gets the chance to compete in the first place.

So, is Vocal rigged?

And that's my opinion on why the system can feel rigged.

And honestly, no shame if you farm engagement.

No shame if you like other people's work hoping they'll like yours back.

No shame if you've found a circle of writers who constantly support each other.

If it works, it works.

My problem isn't really with the people doing it. Vocal gives you a reason to do it.

If visibility can lead to more engagement, and more engagement can lead to more visibility and potentially more money, then of course people are going to figure that out and use it.

Maybe that's just what Vocal is: not purely a writing platform, but a social network built around writing.

And maybe I was wrong for expecting it to work any other way.

But I still can't stop thinking about all those stories sitting somewhere with three views while the same familiar names get discovered again.

If everyone is here to write, who is actually here to read?