Community Creator Chat 10/9/24

As of posting this, it’s been five months since the last Vocal Creator Chat. So… I doubt I’m the only one who has missed its regularity. Regardless of that regularity changing over time, it had become expected. Even predictable, to some extent. Now, it seems to have plateaued or paused or perhaps memory-holed…

My intention isn’t to complain, though. I want to offer this article as a space for anyone who wants to ask questions, express concerns or frustrations, or compliment the team. Consider this a town square, since ours has been changed or deleted quietly, or something.

With my luck, the normal chat will be reinstated the day after I publish this. 🫠 But whatever happens, it will be good for us to either dry run the real thing, or just talk to each other.

To be clear, I hold absolutely no power to get things changed. If you're hoping that by posting issues here, that somehow I can do anything...well, I can't. This is for us to talk to each other, to have something solid to refer to, to clear our minds. If you all want me to, I can email a copy of the comments to Support. That's the most I can do, though.

I hope it goes without saying, but please be kind, even to the Vocal leaders and crew. I say that because I know we all have some frustrations, and I don't think it's helpful to be mean or unkind in that.

So what’s eating at you? Who or what do you want to bring attention to? Any predictions or hopes (or dreads) about the future of Vocal? Any confusion, admiration, venting to be expressed about writing life, this platform, etc.?

***

I’ll start.

I’m dying to know if the Vocal Writing Awards will continue but I haven’t heard anything official. I know I’m not alone in my desire. In fact, wasn't October the month for the submissions last year? I asked about this five months ago, but has anyone else gotten an answer, one way or another?

Also, how are we feeling about our new ability to revert stories to draft and change communities? And to turn off comments on individual pieces? I, personally, and loving them. I just wish that non-V+ creators could edit their stories. Speaking of, can V+ peeps also edit the title/subtitle/image now? That would be awesome if true.

My only suggestion at this point is for the copy/paste function to work in Vocal's editor. I hate having to split screen with Google Docs to match formatting differences after I've pasted my story.

***

Let the conversation commence! ;D