Community Verification

Dear Vocal Fam,

In light of DK Shepherd's article on the pervasiveness of AI infiltrating our community, I have been brainstorming ways we can turn this problem around and I think the simplest solution might actually have a silver lining! First a quote to show you in a brief snapshot of what was discovered:

"So over the last few months this account has received not one, but six Top Stories. Several of these Top Stories have a Highly Confident rating on being 100% AI just using a basic scanner. The user's last Top Story has over 50 comments and 70 likes. And according to scans, it's AI generated content. Not only has this account garnered Top Story Awards but they’ve placed on several Leaderboards.

According to my findings they have received the following awards:

6 Top Stories ($5 each)

2 Honorable Mentions ($3 each)

2 Most Discussed Stories - 2nd Place ($10 each)

1 Most Supportive Commenters - 3rd Place ($5)

1 Emerging Creators - 1st Place ($20)

1 Emerging Creators - 2nd Place ($10)

1 Emerging Creators - 3rd Place ($5)

1 Most Subscribed to Creators - 3rd Place ($5)

That’s a total of $101 in Vocal prizes.

And yeah, this really bothers me. But what can I do about it?"

WHAT CAN WE DO?

Network!

We each of us already do an excellent job of connecting offsite and have for many years. We cheer each other on through accomplishments and comfort each other through losses. We KNOW who is real and who is .... new. And we have strong leaders that manage the groups and take steps to prune out disingenuous content and engagement. I'm reminded of the excellent article earlier written by Hannah Moore.

"Now, I’m not claiming you’re my bosom buddies and inviting you all to my wedding or anything, but I AM saying that there are voices here who I have come to think of as friends. Perhaps it’s the emotional nudity. I mean, we’ve been through a lot together, right? We’ve had some laughs, of course, but tears, too. And honesty, alongside play. We’ve experimented with stuff we’ve liked. We’ve experimented with stuff we have not liked so much. We have had differences of opinion. And we have also had kindness and encouragement, we have lifted each other up and we have championed one another. We have not turned away from one another’s metaphorical lumps and bumps. We have made missteps, forgiven them, and had them forgiven. What is that, I ask you? Because it looks a lot like friendship to me."

Some of the newbies ARE real, and they must find it difficult sometimes to break into older established channels and make new friends. It takes some effort to network and now they need to show they aren't AI, too. But it's generally quite obvious by a glimpse of someone's social media as to whether it's a long time account and filled with various friends and family members or whether it's new and seems rather... spammy. For those that want to only connect on Vocal, sometimes it's enough to see their collection of stories to recognize it as a person with good intentions.

We should pull together to combat this problem instead of letting it push us away from doing what we love. We need to protect this platform. It's certainly been my home for a long time and even though we each have our ups and downs with one another and the rejection that goes along with not being picked for contests or top stories we are resilient because we are creators and this is our passion.

Community Nomination

The easiest thing we can do is to nominate each other for verification. Established members can be immediately given a verification checkmark next to their profile and then we can all have the ability to "Introduce New Members" on a biweekly thread and nominate new members who we are certain are not AI. New members can also identify themselves here in the comments and let us know how to reach out to them offsite (in whatever way they are comfortable with) to show us they are not AI.

And the silver lining?!

We can all make new connections and grow together, because for me the greatest benefit Vocal has ever offered is the chance to get to know all of you!

Much love,

Les xx

Update: for those uncomfortable revealing their pen names, genuine comment section engagement works too! Just step up and say hi. Introduce yourselves however you are comfortable. If you are here for the right reasons we want to support you :)