Conclusion to a Vocalite Manifesto

Making my once hypothetical Vocalite manifesto into a reality became a much larger endeavor than I ever anticipated. It turns out I had a lot of ideas and a lot to say about some of the areas for improvement on the platform.

I am so grateful for all the wonderful feedback and input you all provided. It has been incredibly encouraging to hear how much other Creators love Vocal and care about the platform's future.

I'm going to try and keep this short because you've heard enough from me over the past week. And I'm excited to bring this particular project to a close even though I don't think the push for change ends here.

This series opened up with an invitation for you to voice your ideas because I want to promote suggestions that will help the whole Vocal community and are aligned with what the community desires. This conclusion aims to take the next step in achieving that goal.

Below I've outlined proposed changes in several facets of the Vocal Platform as well as the options of maintaining current practices. Though this is still not an exhaustive list I did my best to include the majority of ideas that I put forth in the previous parts of this manifesto and ideas other creators put forth in the comments I received.

As you read through them, I encourage you to think about which ideas you would support. Not just your ideal options, but any that you think would be beneficial improvements to the way things are currently. And maybe looking at this list leads you to determine you're not in favor of any of the suggestions! That's okay too!

*Bolded options have been implemented by Vocal since this piece was published

Leaderboard

• Discontinue the Leaderboard Entirely
• Remove Most Supportive Commenters Category
• Remove Most Subscribed to Creators Category
• Remove Popular Stories with the Most Likes Category
• Make the comments for Most Discussed Stories be Vocal+ to count
• Extend the Most Discussed Stories Category if others are removed
• Reinvent the Leaderboard to be Unique Superlatives that Change Each Week
• Make the Leaderboard a Once Every Two Weeks Occurrence
• Make the Leaderboard a Once a Month Occurrence
• Leave the Leaderboard As It Is
• Limit the Leaderboard Winners to Vocal+ Members

Challenges

• Get Rid of Honorable Mentions (6)
• Award Monetary Prizes to Honorable Mentions (22)
• Keep Honorable Mentions As They Are (3)
• Increase the Runner-Up Prize Values (16)
• Differentiate Runner-Up Prize Values Based on Word Count (11)
• Differentiate Runner-Up Prize Values Based on More Challenging Prompts (10)
• Differentiate Number of Runner-Ups/Honorable Mentions Based on the Number of Challenge Entries (12)
• Keep Runner Up Prizes as They Are (4)
• Add a 3rd Place Prize to the Challenge Podium (22)
• Make 2nd Place $250 instead of $200 (12)
• Keep the Podium As it Is (2)
• Check All Challenge Winners for AI and Plagiarism (30)
• Don't Check Challenge Winners for AI and Plagiarism
• Have At Least 1 Fiction and 1 Poetry Challenge Per Month (19)
• Keep Challenge Types Totally Flexible (5)

Top Stories

• Check All Top Stories for AI and Plagiarism (34)
• Don't Check Top Stories for AI and Plagiarism (1)
• Limit Top Stories to Vocal+ Members (12)
• Allow Vocal+ Members to Nominate 1 Story per Week for Top Story Consideration (16)
• Publish Definitive Criteria for What Stories Can Be Selected as Top Story (16)
• Daily Vocal Published Round-Ups of Top Stories Explaining Why They Were Chosen (5)
• Weekly Vocal Published Round-Ups of Top Stories Explaining Why They Were Chosen (11)
• Monthly Vocal Published Round-Ups of Top Stories Explaining Why They Were Chosen (10)
• Intentional and Human Selection of Top Stories (No Algorithms) (24)
• Keep Top Story Selection As It Is (1)

AI Policy

• Total AI Ban (25)
• Allow AI as Long as It's Disclosed (10)

Consequences for Undisclosed AI

• Removal of the AI User's Account (24)
• Removal of AI pieces (24)
• Added Restrictions on an AI User's Publishing Amount (14)
• Increased Moderation of the AI User's Content (10)
• Adding AI Content Label to the Undisclosed AI pieces (11)
• Blacklist From Receiving Top Stories, Challenge Placements, and Leaderboard Prizes (19)

Non-Vocal+ Memberships

• Eliminate Non-Vocal+ Memberships (5)
• Restrict Publishing of Non-Vocal+ Memberships to 1 Story per Week (17)
• Moderate the Approval of Non-Vocal+ Memberships More Strictly for AI and Plagiarism (21)
• Make No Changes to Non-Vocal+ Memberships (6)

Now I'm going to make a big request! If you have the time I would greatly appreciate it if you could make your own Vocalite Manifesto. You don't have to publish it as a story! (However, if you feel so inclined, please go for it!)

But if you could fill out the Google Form below that would be wonderful! Thank you, Dharrsheena Raja Segarran for the feedback on using the Google Form instead! It doesn't collect email addresses, but I would love for you to include your name so I know it's not the feedback of some random internet troll! (And if you do decide to write a story, please add the link here!)

I'd like to keep a simple tally count to each bullet point above to show how many Creators are on board with each suggestion. You probably noticed a (#) next to several of the list items. Those are my endorsements and the endorsements of those who have already submitted the form!

Note that it’s necessary to consider some categories somewhat independently because the assumption can’t be made that your preference in another area would be put into practice.

If there's an option or suggestion I neglected please just include it in the comments and I'll add it to the form and the list in this piece.

If there are categories you don’t want to address that’s fine! Feel free to expand on your reasoning for supporting particular ideas in the comments, but don't feel like you have to!

I plan to send a message to the Vocal Team on Monday, June 9th, a day I'm labeling Manifesto Monday, with an outline of the changes that have the most support. This will allow four weeks for Creators to add their input!

And I know I've already asked for a lot, but if you know of a Creator who is unlikely to come across this piece that you think would like to add their input please share it with them in a comment or through other means! I wish I was in contact with all the great Creators of this community, but I'm afraid I'm not! But I do want to hear from them and I value their input!

Alright! That's a wrap! Thank you for your time! I hope it hasn't been in vain. And thank you in advance to everyone that helps contribute to this declaration of desired change for our beloved platform!

Current # of Creator Responses: 35

*Leaderboard section of the form has been removed because Vocal has already made changes!

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Part 1: Introduction

Part 2: The Vocal Leaderboard

Part 3: Vocal Challenges

Part 4: Vocal Top Stories

Part 5: Vocal AI Policy

Check out L.C. Schäfer's Vocalite Manifesto linked below: