My 69th Piece on Vocal

There’s been a string of number-based milestone posts making it to the front page recently. Usually, they’re based around whole numbers. 50 pieces on Vocal. 100 pieces. Over in the Mikeydred leagues, we’re now in the Napoleonic Wars (i.e. 1800).

However, I’m not patient enough to wait the six months until I hit 100, and I already missed 50. So, I have randomly settled on the to-be count as my milestone.

Again, completely random selection here.

In the spirit of this milestone, this post will be exactly 690 words.

How do I plan to fill the *checks Word bottom bar* 588 words remaining? Here’s a list of my 69 favorite stories on Vocal:

Just kidding. Here’s a couple observations about the platform since I joined back in the ancient era of June 2021.

1. The platform seems to be in a “holding pattern”

Perhaps this will torpedo my chances of a Top Story. Then again, this editorial team has surprised me in the past by raising pieces that were a bit more realistic about Vocal than I assumed they’d want.

Anyhow, back when I joined, Vocal was a very different place. On the one hand, the contests came with eye-popping prizes, though far less frequent than today. On the other hand, your options for interacting were limited to the venerated ❤️. I wonder how many Facebook groups there would be if that hole for interaction hadn’t existed to be filled.

Now the pendulum has swung in the other direction. We have more ways to interact with each other than ever before: commenting, reader insights, tips, pledges. Not to mention, notifications. We have more contests than ever before, though the prize pots have reduced to $1,000 cumulative compared to the old system where that might have been the 3rd Place prize (remember third place?).

Yet, we haven’t seen a new feature released in a while, and existing initiatives appear to be dying on the vine. The push these days seems to be turning the platform profitable while previously they seemed more focused on growing the user base and platform features.

Whether they will succeed or not remains to be seen.

2. I once saw someone republish the same story with a different title and get Top Story for it

And that’s always bothered me. It wasn’t subtle, either. To her credit, the creator laid this all out in the opening paragraph, billing it as an “experiment” because the original post “didn’t get enough attention.”

So, when the Vocal editorial team then raises it to the front page, what precedent does that set? Does that mean we should all start publishing our pieces twice or more?

Or are they not actually reading the contents of the stories they promote? And that’s a whole larger issue if they aren't.

I also think the whole idea of the experiment was straight up narcissism. I’ve had pieces that flopped hard on here that I really loved, but what did I do? I went out and found ways to get them in front of new eyes, not try and game readers on this platform.

I’d link to the actual post, but it has since been deleted when the creator decided they were done with Vocal after having a later Top Story revoked when the editorial team made yet another “interesting” decision to this time raise a hit piece wrote about another Vocal creator to the front page.

I don’t have enough words to share my thoughts on whether that post should have been written in the first place, but the Vocal editorial team unnecessarily turned up the heat about 1,000 degrees by putting it on the front page. Once again raising the question of whether that means they condone this sort of content.

But giving someone a $5 bonus and free exposure sure seems to signal that they do, doesn’t it?

In conclusion, the word cap bites me in the ass

690 words for my 69th piece sure sounded amusing in theory. Maybe we don’t always deserve a nice bow at the end of every article (/rant). Either way, you’re not getting one here.