Create Your Personal Vocal Homepage

I'm not a Vocal Newbie (not that there's anything wrong with that), and I'm technologically comfortable.

But, I'm also perhaps too comfortable. I think I know, even if I know that I don't know what I don't know, I still think I know more that I do know.

You know?

Anywho- today I learned something about Vocal that I didn't know. It's been staring at me for quite a while.

It's OK if I'm the only one that didn't know this (but what are the odds of that?) I figured I'd share this with everyone, and then you can tell me in the comments if you already knew it or not.

First Things First

I write for both Medium and Vocal. One of the things I like about dropping in to Medium (not often enough, I know, I know!) to do some reading (I'm a Medium Plus VIP Whatever member, and my reads will add more money to the writer's earnings because of that, so I try to read some each day)... where was I? Oh yes.

One of the things I like about Medium is that there is a personalized homepage for the user, made up of their interests, the topics and the people they follow. It increases the chances that I'll find something in which I am interested and read it.

I've often wished I could do it on Vocal. too.

For Vocal, however, the homepage is chopped into fifths with Top Stories, Challenges, the inevitable algorithm-heavy 'Creators We're Loving' with its every rotating faces, and Resources and Communities highlights.

So- good stuff there, but aside from, anecdotally, people seeing different Creators We're Loving faces depending on their geographical location (suggested, but never verified), pretty much the same for everyone. If you want to see new things you click on the Latest Stories invisible button at the top of the page.

What if it could be better? What if I didn't need Notifications to endlessly scroll to see if JBaz, Dana, Mike, Randy, Poppy, Celia, MoCo (Mother Combs) have written something new?

Here's What I Didn't Know

Sure, I've been Subscribing to folk since that became an option. People to which I subscribe show up in my Notifications, and boy! do I get notifications! You do, too, right?

You can reach your Subscriptions by clicking on your own icon at the top right of the screen, and then on Your Subscriptions.

I'm getting there!

But that's really all I'd done. Asked myself sometimes "Didn't I subscribe to them?" or "What's Jason's writing name", or "Why the heck can't I search for someone...?", and then I check Your Subscriptions.

But there's more to it.

The magic happens AFTER you click on Your Subscriptions.

The Your Subscriptions page automatically opens up to a thumbnailed list of the Vocal Creator writers to which you've subscribed.

And, right next to Creators is Your Feed. KABOOM! Mind blown.

It's a chronological homepage just for you. From the most recent all the way to the Garden (note: mine is currently 2550 pages long), here's all of the work from all of the people to which you subscribe.

No more slogging through the latest regurgitated travelogs lifted from brochures, invitations to buy whatever plant material is guaranteed to solve your ills, AI generated 'spooky' stories of Midnight Manor or villages nestled between two valleys! Nope- just the stories of people that you want to keep up with, and content that you are likely to enjoy.

But... Latest Stories are Bad?

Oh no, no they aren't. I suggest that thumbing through a few pages of Latest Stories will be good for you, including but not limited to:

• find new creators
• stay on top of trends
• find unofficial challenges
• look for your own work being plagiarized (too soon?)

So Much Available to us

Subscribing to creator writers (like me! you can subscribe to me today!0 is free. It also builds Your Feed and creates a personalized Homepage for you on Vocal.

Latest Stories are interesting to cruise through, Top Stories are generally informative and interesting (and interacting there is really appreciated and keeps you plugged into people contributing to the Vocal Community), the Challenges can sharpen your writing chops, and the Resources show you a snippet of what's available to you (for more, go here)

And Creators We're Loving? Heck, I love them, too. (But maybe someday it will be filled with something more useful?)

~

please Subscribe to me (FREE!), and let me know if you already knew about your personalized Vocal Homepage!