Vocal Creator Chat: 11/28/2023
A place to connect and discuss all things Vocal.
Have questions about creating stories, growing your audience, and getting rewarded on Vocal? The Vocal community and team are here to help answer your questions and feedback together.
Every other Tuesday at 12 PM ET, we'll assemble the Vocal community, as well as our Creator Experience and Product teams, in a thread to respond to creator inquiries for one hour.
Please follow Vocal’s Community Guidelines and don’t spam your own profile or stories in the thread. We encourage the community to report users or comments that break these guidelines.
Some updates and reminders from the Vocal team:
- 📚 We launched the first installment of the Vocal Book Club! Participate in the comment thread here.
- 🏆 We announced the winners of the Vocal Writing Awards. We are publishing a resource with the full list of shortlisted entries today.
- 1️⃣ We made a snafu in our Snafu Senryu judging. Yes, another counting mistake. It's become extremely clear that numbers are not our forte. We issued an additional runner-up (congrats Josie Brown) and will shed some more light on this topic in this week's Neolomicro Challenge Winners Resource. We are quintuple checking those winners.
Got questions about Vocal or feedback about what’s new? Leave a comment in this thread to join the Vocal Creator Chat.
Also, be sure to join our Raise Your Voice Threads every other Thursday at 12PM ET to champion inspiring stories and outstanding creators on Vocal. Save it to your calendar so you don’t miss it.
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Vocal Creator Chat
Monthly on Tuesday @ 12PM ET, we we'll assemble the Vocal community, as well as our Creator Experience and Product teams, in a thread to respond to creator inquiries for one hour on Vocal. Subscribe now
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Vocal Bonus Leaderboard: 05/01/2024
Welcome to the weekly update of the Leaderboard! We're thrilled to showcase Vocal's most discussed stories, popular picks, and rising stars. Let's dive into this past week's standout contributors and their remarkable achievements.
By Vocal Team5 days ago in Resources
Peanuts and Crackerjack
Bottom of the ninth inning. The game is tied with two outs, two strikes and a man on second. I tap the bat on home plate. The rigid vibrations it creates reminds my aching digits that this isn't over. The practice swing only adds to the heft of mental burnout... Man on second, willing to chance it. Pitcher eyes him but doesn't give in to the dangerous bluff. I kick up dust, readying the peculiar stance I've had since the days of little league. The bat lays stiff upon my cramping shoulder. Pain has no reason to be acknowledged; it's a fleeting afterthought. The sun sits passed high noon, but the stadium lights are on anyway. They trick my brain into believing they are the cause of this sweltering heat. Sporadic clouds are motionless, they too, don't want to miss this exhilarating predicament. Anticipating the next pitch, intensifying roars from the crowd rumble the stadium... Behind me, the crafty catcher adjusts his stance and spits to the dry dirt. Behind him, the staunch umpire doesn't flinch or even blink; he knows how important his call will be. The pitcher winds up, his grip tells me its gonna curve. The release is fierce! Beads of sweat from his hair and face disperse in every direction as the force of his might is unfailing. My left leg lifts—an instinctual move that will increase the power of my swing. It's all down to my two, bloodshot eyes. They lock onto the speeding, white dot as it instantly becomes the target I intend to destroy. The swing is late, but I manage a solid tip. The ball is taking a fast bounce toward the pitcher who is recovering from the almighty throw! Man on second leaves in a desperate rush! I fling the bat to the side with a sense of urgency and make a mad sprint to the only destination I have—first base. Three defenders race inward to be the first to retrieve the skidding ball. Man is almost on third! I watch the open glove of my adversary, wondering if I’ve done enough to win this race. I switch my attention to his eyes, looking for a clue, some kind of reaction that tells me the ball is in the air and heading his way. All I see is frustration. The deafening roar of the crowd spikes! Something happens that I can’t see! My opponent abandons his post right as my left stride touches the bag. I waste no time turning my head to see the pitcher laying on his stomach, pounding the mound with an open glove. He misses the opportunity to out me and the ball has quickly bounced past him. Excitement grows! This isn’t over yet... It's become an imperative fight to tag out the runner heading homeward. The catcher falls to his knees in obvious despair as he watches my teammate make the run of his life. He knows it’s going to be close when he sees the shortstop fumble the ball a second too long. I jump up and down with no plans on leaving first base. All my chips are on the speed and agility of the active runner. His cleats dig into the dirt, trailing a dust-filled cyclone from the rapid and strenuous strides. With a thrusting dive and an outstretched arm, he lands on his chest to begin the crucial slide to home plate. The shortstop fires the ball to the catcher! It immediately begins closing the gap! Nail-biting doesn't begin to describe the anxious vibe permeating the stadium. The bench begins to celebrate even before he reaches the plate. Forty thousand cheering fans reach maximum crescendo, filling the air with a glorious sound. Everyone knows how this story will end… My teammate is met by the entire bench as his fingers inch across home plate, instantly followed by the unmistakable motion of the catcher's glove attempting to tag him out—its milliseconds too late. The ump swings his arms outward, officially calling him safe.
By Lamar Wiggins4 days ago in Fiction
OF MOTHERHOOD.
Dear mother-to-be, I wanted to let you know how very, very special I think you are. I don't think there can be any job that is more meaningful than the one you are about to begin, that of being a mom. You are the most important person in the world to your precious unborn baby, and you will be for many years.
By Catherine Nyomenda5 days ago in Writers
Comments (22)
how do vocal creator get paid?
Two day 1/18 to 1/16 I count 18 am I to small to count
X shows a number link click but you don’t show any, why?
I was wondering if Vocal might ever offer a "print your favorite stories" in a book offer? Facebook does that with memories accrued.
Are these finished now?
WHEN WILL I BE ABLE TO SEE EARNING IN MY WALLET
Not sure if this will be seen, so will try to submit this feedback on the next one as well, but having just published a story where I discuss a podcast, I think it's an absolute miss that there is no Community for this kind of content. Having looked around, I tried Beat, but the description and tags make it very clear that this space is for *music*, not podcasts. I then looked at Interview, but that one is almost too granular in that it's only for interviews, and this is a horror podcast I'm discussing. This could be as simple as adding a "podcast" tag to Beat, but I can't be the only one finding themselves a bit lost on where this kind of content belongs. For now, I've shoehorned it into Beat with the tag "industry." On a related note, why require a tag before publishing? I feel like this is the least used feature on all of Vocal when it comes to readers searching for content, not helped by the fact you can really only access them by scrolling all the way to the end of a story. There is no other way to actually see stories using a tag than to follow that strange user journey and then save the link for future use. I'd even go so far as to hypothesize that tags have even lower usage than tipping and pledges, and those involve actual money
Sorry I'm late! Any chance of a banner for the stories that placed in the Vocal Awards? I'd love ya forever 😘
Dear Vocal, do Honorable Mentions still receive $3 bonuses? I don't see that bonus mentioned on today's (11/29/23) Leaderboard.
First time reading the Vocal Creator Chat that I can remember...🤔 This is a blast and I will attempt to join in at some point. So humble of you to admit your math challenges but Thavien is right, your alternative runner-up also doesn't have the correct number of syllables to meet the format. Perhaps someone else or an independent team can be hired for task?
Thank You for correcting Your snafu in Your Snafu Senryu Judging. However, by the looks of it You're probably going to have choose another runner-up. The first line has 4 syllables, not 5. The word "twinkling" is a 2 syllable word. It's not split up to be pronounced twing-kuhl-ling. It's twing-kling. I enjoy how the awkwardness of the moment is captured in the poem. It's cute and rather lovely. I think most of us have experienced a moment like that before. Vocal's Curation Needs to double check before They select winners. When it comes to making poems in the 5 -7-5 syllable format I use a variety of tools from the dictionary to syllable counters that conform to the English language. Please, Vocal, double check again. It would be a missed opportunity to not select a properly qualifying snafu senryu, which would become another snafu on Your end.
Hi, I’m late to the chat… but at least two of those listed in the new compilation of shortlisted stories for the awards were also on the winners list. (For haiku and romance… possibly more.) That means the actual creators of the shortlisted stories still aren’t being recognized. Hopefully it gets corrected so we can leave them some love. 💕
Love that you all did the spotlight on the VWA shortlists! Will the winners/shortlisted authors get any sort of badge on their profiles?
Hey Friends (and new friends), Matt here. Despite pulling back from publishing this last month as I've worked on some larger projects, it's been my most productive month with 3/5 of my stories hitting top story, so a big thank you to all of you beautiful people. With that said, this was my favorite piece I wrote this month: https://vocal.media/fiction/shattered-swords The Vocal team has been doing a great job, so thank you all for your service. If I had one change to make, it would still be a change to the "Creators we are loving" real estate where we can really bring creators to life. I can think of fewer things that would help combat AI/Inauthentic content in one go than that.
Hello vocal (and everyone here). I'm mohammed, and I've been trying to be more active on vocal in recent month (after a few years' hiatus 😅). I don't know if it in the worklist, but it is still not possible to write and post stories from chrome on android. When you write or even paste words, the work counter doesn't count them and thus the submission option doesn't appear. There has been times when I wanted to post a quick poem but had to wait to get home on a computer 😅. Also, Donna Renee's suggestion of a block button is a really good one. There are too many AI accounts popping up and it gets annoying
Vocal are you considering a delete option on the right side of notifications? Help! I am up to my neck in notification alligators
Maybe revitalize the leader board to be a weekly awards voting of three favorite stories from the past week. They do not have to be Top story or recently published. I wasn't sure about the community voting when it was first announced, but I think Vocal staff did a phenomenal job with it.
Do non vocal+ creators get bonuses for 5 or 10 posts?
Hi :) Just curious if it's stated somewhere or if it will perhaps be revealed in the short list compilation of how many entries there were per category for the Vocal Awards. Inquiring minds and all that... Thanks!
Thanks for owning the mistake! And thanks for all your hard work here, we do appreciate you even if we whine a lot :) PS Please make a block button top of the priority list? I got another new subscriber who apparently posts all AI-generated content without disclosing it (yes I reported it) but I do not want to directly feed my writing to them and other such accounts. Thank you!
Howdy from Texas! There has been discussions regarding the same people appearing on the Leaderboard category wins. In order to recognize more creators, Vocal's rule of consecutive wins in a category should be changed to one category win per month. Creators should be recognized and it is important. By limiting one win per month, we would see new names on the leaderboard.
Hey, Vocal community. Not a lot to say here. I'm Paul, the word misuser, poetry rulebreaker, and fiction writer. Still trying to NanoWrimoing to the very bitter end. Wanted to say hi and also to Team Vocal, well done for taking responsibility and holding your hands up to the mistake. No system is ever perfect, and the fact you keep correcting, makes me happy. Anyway, Hope everyone is fine?