Taking a Stand Against Spam on Vocal

Vocal has always been more than just a publishing platform. It is a place where real people share real stories. We have built Vocal together, and we are incredibly proud of the creators who continue to shape this community.

Recently, that mission has faced new challenges. And it is not just Vocal. The entire internet is affected. I saw a commercial last night about how Amazon is using machine learning to detect and remove fake reviews. YouTube now requires users to log in before they can watch embedded videos to prevent bots from inflating views. It seems like almost every website now prompts users with a Cloudflare verification to prove they are human.

Everyone is facing this same fight.

As we've grown, we have seen an increase in spam, low-effort content, misleading story submissions, and even coordinated phishing attempts. These behaviors disrupt the creative space we have all worked so hard to build. They bury quality work in noise, reduce engagement, and erode the trust that holds our community together.

That is why I am writing this to you now. I want to be transparent about what we are doing to protect this platform and to support the creators who use it with care. Here is what we are putting in place to keep Vocal safe.

Zero Tolerance for Spam

Vocal has a zero-tolerance policy for spam and abuse.

That includes:

• Submitting stories to irrelevant communities to game the system
• Comment spam, low-effort replies, or “story drop” link-bombin
• AI-generated or plagiarized content uploaded in bulk
• Fraudulent or phishing-related posts

Accounts engaging in this behavior will be removed permanently without warning. And in cases of criminal activity like fraud and phishing, they will be reported to FBI and FTC.

All New Accounts Will Be Manually Reviewed Before Publishing

In response, we are rolling out a major change to our moderation system. All new accounts will now be manually reviewed before they can publish stories.

This means that if you’re just joining Vocal, publishing might take a little longer. But this small delay serves a greater purpose:

• To protect the platform from being flooded with fake or low-effort content
• To verify and support real creators from the start
• To ensure that your work isn’t buried by noise

We know this might be frustrating in the short term, but we believe that the long-term benefit to our community is worth it. And we appreciate your patience.

About Comments...

We know some of you have experienced increased moderation on your comments, and in a few cases, some of you were false flagged by our systems.

Our moderation tools are still evolving. They have been effective at catching harmful and spammy behavior, but they have also made some mistakes. This has been recently noticeable during unofficial challenges, where some good comments were misinterpreted as spam.

We are actively adjusting these systems to be smarter, more accurate, and more understanding of how you engage with each other. If you were affected, please know that you were not being targeted. You were caught in a system that is trying to protect the community, and we are working every day to make it better.

Your Role Matters

Vocal is a community, and keeping it strong takes all of us. As we continue to improve our systems, we ask that you keep doing what many of you are already doing:

We are not here to limit creativity. We are here to protect the space where creativity thrives.

We know these updates have brought changes, and we appreciate your patience as we work to make Vocal stronger, safer, and more focused on real storytelling.