Interaction On Vocal Top Stories And Challenge Winners
More Observations On The Vocal Platform
Introduction
Although I am not the most interactive or supportive Vocal Creator, I do drop into Top Stories and Challenge winners every now and then if the title or image catches my eye,
And recently I have noticed something that I see as a strange anomaly.
The Things That I Noticed
Most top Stories are Fiction or Poetry, Challenge entries are whatever the challenge is, but they are also mostly fiction and poetry.
I believed that most Vocal Creators don't see my work as worth reading, and Vocal seldom do, but usually hearts, comments and reads go into double figures.
I dropped into some Top Stories and even though they had been Top Stories for a few days they were still in single figures for reads and hearts, in fact, one had two hearts and no comments and it was not a bad story at all.
The criteria for choosing Top Stories is here:
but I doubt that today it is followed as the same Creators are chosen for Top Stories with the odd person we haven't seen before.
Often when a story is chosen for a Top Story, it may have very few hearts and comments but the exposure then brings in comments, hearts and reads, but not always.
It may just be that Vocal Moderators are not on the same wavelength as Vocal Creatorss when they make their choices, but as I have reiterated many times we really don't want the criteria for Top Story choice or Challenge winners to be public otherwise Vocal stories would become nothing but a tickbox exercise, and we would not want that, would we?
I am not linking any examples, but I am hoping that you will drop into the Top Stories and Challenge winners and check for yourself.
And More Thoughts
I have often asked what would you rather have, a thousand reads on a story or a Top Story. The Top Story gives you $5 and the thousand reads $6 and you know that people have given you their time reading it.
I only have three stories that have passed the thousand-read mark and two of those did it within three or four days, but overall I do get a lot of reads so I am a success on Vocal, I do know that, and people are always telling me how good my work is.
I share a lot of other Creator's stories but can count on my fingers how many times mine have been shared by other creators, but that won't stop me from sharing other Creators' works, because that is part of how this platform works to benefit every creator. This weekend I have shared twelve pieces on these three links:
I am sure that this piece will hit double figures in reads and hearts and maybe comments, but I feel a little sad for those who get a Top Story, and then see they have very few reads, and I know some will say they got their five dollars but I still believe most of us would prefer reads and comments, and the Top Story is just a nice little extra. That is how I feel when I get a Top Story or Challenge Placement (though I have only had one of those so far).
Conclusion
I don't know what the answer is, but go and check out some Top Stories and if the story has less than ten reads or comments then drop a heart and a comment, and you know, the chances are that they will then check you out and read one or two of your stories.
Thank you so much for reading this, I really appreciate it.
About the Creator
Mike Singleton 💜 Mikeydred
A Weaver of Tales and Poetry
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Comments (18)
Thanks for this, Mike. I was so confused by the Through the Lens challenge. My entry submission immediately became TS, then a surprise bonus 1 week later for top 3 most added subscribers ... And the ultimate dream- folks like you chose to share elsewhere... which means more than anything in the bigger picture (pun intended). My heart won already after the unexpected encouragement from folks like you - my memoir gained a beautiful chapter with a prompt that inspired a fitting story to sandwich between others.... But until I read this article from you tonight - I spent the afternoon beating myself up to figure out what I did wrong in the challenge to be knocked out or disqualified...did i get disqualified on technicalities? Unwelcome theme? Did I misread the prompt originally? Nope...I now know. Just the alignment of the stars 💫 Really... thanks for posting this and for making me feel like a winner anyway, by reading and sharing my story, Mike!
Insightful piece Mike! Thx 4 sharing!
Always great advice!!! Congratulations on Leaderboard Honerable!!!❤️❤️💕
The poetry category seems to be a catch all if it doesn't meet the 600 word requirements of the other communities...
Heyyyyy Mike! Congratulations on your Leaderboard placement! 🎉💖🎊🎉💖🎊
I think part of it is also that really long stories require me to have the time to really give them my attention. I usually read one or two stories when I have a couple minutes. I've read some great longer stories here, but I usually set aside time for those.
I'm guessing the person who doesn't get a lot of interaction on their Top Story is someone who doesn't interact enough with what other's publish. But this is just my speculation, I could be wrong
To be honest, I thought this piece was going in the direction of those who aren't getting engagement should not be getting Top Stories. Which I'm glad it did not conclude that, otherwise I'd never get on the front page 😉
That is some great advice you've gathered here! I'm trying to get back on this platform, but school seems to have too much pressure on me...
Some have my top stories have had quite a few reads. Most have not. And my winning stories haven't had a lot of reads. My very first 1st place challenge win won with a whopping total of 9 (yes NINE) reads. My stores have never been huge read getters, nor do they get shared. As for top stories, honestly, I find the alleged criteria dubious given my experience. I am glad though, that they don't list quality as a factor because at least that's honest. It's the same people over and over again. if you're in the "club" which I once was for a minute, you get top stories all the damn time. If not, well, you could write a veritable masterpiece and ...nothing.
I've only started maybe for a month interacting on vocal; I had actually thought for a year writing nothing but highlights of people's work (primarily poetry) that I think are phenomal, but the poetry section is exhausting with poetry dumps (a better search interface would solve that) and some categories are choking in AI articles, so I haven't really done it even though I've had a draft of rules for over a year. The unofficial challenges have been something I really enjoy as it helps to sort through potential spam and really engage with work. I always read the work (though if I'm foggy I might say something that sounds like I haven't). I have almost exclusively been focusing on commenting because I like to interact but then thought, maybe hearting would be something that makes a writer seen more. I realize now my comment is getting so long it could almost be a response article. I guess the tldr is that I like both. Top story gives me an immediate bolus, but more reads gives me more interaction.
I receive a lot of hearts and comments for my work. I like seeing what people think of my work. I also like reading others work as well and leaving comments. Good job on this article.
I have received lots of comments, hearts and such on short fiction, poetry and more and it doesn't peak for a T.S. even so. I have never won an honourable mention or the likes in any challenge, official or unofficial. I just keep writing and hope that someone feels something, that someone new might subscribe and as Kelli said, the boost from a T.S. feels good although further and fewer between them now. I don't keep track of my statistics ( maybe I should?)
Man, am I with you on this insight. I can’t even imagine 1000 reads. Wow, impressive, Mike. I am stuck while I have gotten top stories, which still thrills me, I cannot place in a challenge ( just one runner up) it’s disheartening to say the least. I’m not taking away from the talent that does place. Just venting, I guess. Thanks for another great article ❤️
Another very thoughtful piece on how the Vocal algorithm works. I write what I want to write as it makes me happy. If it gets Top Story great, if not oh well, I had fun writing it.
It's difficult to answer this one. I think it's a balance of the criteria above and the quality of writing, I guess. And things are always subjective.
I agree that it seems that all top stories often have the same 'feel' to them and they come from the same subtopics (or genres). I write whimsical stuff that gets very little attention. I think it is because it is too philosophical, and people don't like that, but I will keep writing because it pleases me to do so. I don't read everything that comes through on my feed simply because it is too much :-) I haven't even hit 1000 reads yet and it's been years. I do always enjoy your writing though.
I like this it’s clear and to the point well said