Vocal Top Stories

Yes, that subtitle is correct. We've arrived at Part 4 of my Vocalite manifesto. The end is in sight! If you've been following along I appreciate the time you've taken to read these. They're not short. If you're just tuning in you can check out why I'm writing these pieces in Part 1:

In this installment I'll be focused on Top Stories. And I'll be upfront this one is definitely in more of a processing and spit-balling stage than the others. I'm also going to ask you all to humor me as I start this one off with a little anecdote.

One evening a couple of weeks ago I opened up Vocal on my phone and clicked over to Top Stories. At the top of the list was a name I recognized and I thought "How on earth?"

I clicked on the piece entitled "The Big Sleep" (sound familiar to anyone?) and started reading. My "How on earth?" was replaced with a "What the heck?"

This piece that had just been awarded a "Top Story" wasn't a story at all. It was a summary of a story and it had been posted in the Chapters community. I wondered if it was AI generated so I ran it through a scanner. It didn't get flagged for AI content.

So I just copied and pasted the first parts and searched them in Google. Ding ding ding. We had a winner. It was eerily similar to the Wikipedia plot page for The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. If Wikipedia was the original source, it's not a word for word copy and paste job but it follows the trajectory of the Wikipedia summary to a tee and then there is some random analysis of theme and tone at the end.

I reported it and when I woke up the next morning it's Top Story status had been revoked. But the incident begged the question, how did a summary of a novel get selected as a Top Story in the first place?

Was it an accident?

Did the person choosing it think it was a good story?

I noticed that shortly after this summary "story" was published the user had published another piece entitled, "Why Doesn't My Article Go to Top Story?". Did someone at Vocal just feel bad for the user and decide to pick something this user had published that got passed an AI check to give them the Top Story they were after?

It made me wonder if there are any standards at all for what qualifies as a Top Story or if they're just participation trophies being handed out left and right to whoever is publishing enough content to get attention.

Don't get me wrong, I think a lot of Top Stories are actually great pieces, but when a story like the one mentioned above gets chosen for such a distinction (even if it ended up only being for a few hours) I question if it's really a badge of honor at all.

Over the past year, I've noticed a gradual increase in more questionable Top Stories being selected. There have been AI ones and plagiarized ones in the mix. And some that leave me scratching my head about how they got selected. Even some of mine...

I don't think every Top Story has to be a perfect masterpiece. If that was the case, yours truly would be out of the running completely. And yet, if a piece is getting recognized by Vocal in front of other creators and anyone checking out the platform I think they should represent what the platform values.

If Vocal wants to be regarded as a platform for writers and storytellers that are putting forth authentic work that engages readers in meaningful and creative ways then that's what should be displayed on the Top Story page.

And that leads to the questions that are the driving force of this piece: How are Top Stories selected? And is that selection process a good one?

I could be totally off base, but I've noticed there seems to be some kind of formula and routine with how Top Stories are awarded.

A couple months ago I published a poem and a fellow creator left me some very kind and encouraging feedback. They also raised the question "how is this not a Top Story?"

I lightheartedly but also with complete seriousness said, "Well, I got one last week so it'll be about 20 days until I get another one." And almost exactly 20 days later I did.

I'd already begun to recognize a pattern of people who publish stories at a similar rate to me that would get a Top Story right before me and then would get them right before me again the next month. People who posted a lot more frequently seemed to be on a bit of a fast track and would usually be on a 15-20 day cycle. For people at my rate there seemed to be about a 25-30 day cycle. People who posted a little less frequently seemed to be on a 45-60 day cycle.

There were exceptions of course, but there was enough consistency for me to pick up on it (unless this is all in my head, very possible). It made me suspect that there may be some sort of default list of Creators that is constantly cycling to help determine where Vocal picks its Top Stories from.

And I don't believe this has always been the case. It's a trend that I picked up starting in October. Prior to this past fall, things seemed less routine. For example, I had a month in which I received three Top Stories and there was a different month where I received a couple Top Stories within days of each other. It is entirely possible that the quality of my work has declined and that I'm just not writing as many Top Story Quality pieces, but when I do get one these days I'm sometimes surprised at what makes the cut.

In the past my pieces that were chosen as Top Stories were usually what I considered some of my best work. Lately it's been a mixed bag. Sometimes I think there was some intentional selection in a piece of mine that became a Top Story but other times I think my name comes up on some list that says it's my turn and the last thing I posted is what gets chosen.

I used to think every piece I published had the potential to become a Top Story, not that they all should, but it was at least a possibility. Now I feel confident that no matter how good something might be if it's not my designated window, there's no chance.

There is one major exception. And that is the Raise Your Voice influence. I used to post suggestions on the Raise Your Voice threads pretty consistently. I've been more sporadic lately. I think I lost a little motivation because it often feels like there are some great shout-outs happening but it doesn't actually prompt people to read the suggestions. But I try to keep doing it because a lot of times suggestions get chosen as Top Stories.

It got me thinking there might be a way for Vocal to improve the Top Story selections by using Creator suggestions more frequently. Maybe Vocal+ Creators could be allowed to nominate one Top Story per week? Obviously they wouldn't all be chosen, but it could give Vocal an assist in pieces to choose from and then they could devote some time searching out unknown Creators with talent who haven't been discovered yet to fill in the gaps.

Vocal's a big platform and at least for me I think the people who read my pieces have a better idea about when I've actually struck some gold (or maybe some copper, gold is kind of a high bar) that merits a Top Story. And I think it would be more of an honor than just having one of my pieces that may or may not be any good featured when it's my turn to get attention.

In a comment on a previous part to this manifesto fellow Creator, Paul Stewart, mentioned something that I think is a great idea: a roundup every so often of some Top Stories and explanations of why they were chosen.

I think this could actually be feasible as a daily roundup option if Creators nominate stories and explain why they are nominating them. For the ones Vocal chooses they could feature what the nominator said about the piece with their own affirmations. And then for any Top Stories they award outside of nominations the Vocal team can explain why they were picked. The last Top Story of the day could always be a piece called something like "Today's Top Stories".

This would require a great deal more intentionality and also some patience on everyone's part. There would have to be a way to submit nominations. Creators who submit nominations would have to explain why they think the piece they're nominating is deserving. Vocal would have to consider the suggestions and make selections. They would have to keep an eye out for undiscovered Creators who are publishing great work too. And they would have to put together daily round-up pieces about the Top Stories for the day.

Maybe that's too much. But what is the workload right now? Scour all of Vocal for good material? Keep up with what every creator is publishing to be ready for when something Top Story worthy comes out? And then also look for unique pieces in different communities and check out all the new creators' pieces? Now that sounds overwhelming.

If this process were to be implemented it might mean that a story won't become a Top Story for at least a week after it's published. And I'm not sure that's a bad thing. It could actually remove the Top Story influence from the Weekly Leaderboard. Would that even the playing field a bit? And it would potentially do away with the need for Honorable Mentions on the Leaderboard. Could be $15 a week that could go to Challenge prizes.

Like I said at the beginning of this piece, it's not as well-developed in the logistics as some of the others in this manifesto. Maybe I've missed the mark with this one and aside from checking for AI and plagiarism no changes are needed for the Top Story selection process. If that's the case, please let me know!

What I do know is that I used to be really proud and excited when one of my pieces got chosen as a Top Story. I felt like it was being recognized alongside really great work from other creators. But there are times now when I feel like other than the number of days since my last Top Story I have no sense of why a piece of mine is getting chosen. And if I happen to have a piece on the Top Story page next to a plagiarized or AI piece it's pretty embarrassing.

Ultimately, I hold the view that Top Stories should be intentionally chosen to represent the best of what Vocal has to offer and should always be checked for AI and plagiarism. How can Vocal make sure their selection process achieves that? Maybe using Vocal+ nominations and publishing explanations for why each Top Story is chosen could help. And of course verifying that any piece selected as a Top Story is original creative work written by the person publishing it.

I am really looking forward to feedback on this one! Shoot my ideas down, suggest improvements, point me in a different direction! All input is welcome!

Part 2: The Vocal Leaderboard

Part 3: Vocal Challenges

Part 5: Vocal AI Policy

Part 6: Conclusion