A Vocal Top Story Phenomenon
Something I Have Noticed About Comments On Vocal Stories
Introduction
This might just be a series of coincidences or my imagination. I am not anyone who Vocal takes any real notice of but over the past six months, something has been happening. It may be some kind of AI algorithm picking up on words and may be other words combined with mine that causes it, but this is what I have noticed.
So What Is Going Down?
Whenever I remark that I believe that something is worthy of a Top Story in the Story comments then it almost always seems to be chosen as a Vocal Top Story. These are two lastest ones
One has a lot of reads and one has a few reads, so I don't know if my words influenced Vocal's choice.
This is Vocal's guide to how Top Stories are chosen.
However, I don't think this tells the whole story. Very often it is a case of the same people getting Top Stories. I wonder why some of mine are chosen.
It talks about Engagement and Vocal+ membership but I often see stories with zero engagement being chosen. This may be because they have been read by non-Vocal members, but when you see no hearts and no comments you have to wonder why this has been chosen by Vocal as a Top Story. Once it is a Top Story then usually people start to read it, though the standard comment is "Congratulations On Your Top Story" so you have to wonder if the commentator has read the piece and if the creator receives the relevant recompense for that comment on their creation.
There were a couple that I had commented on, and I was going to try this with but they have already been chosen as Top Stories.
Conclusion
People seldom suggest that my stories could be top Stories, but most Vocal Creators and Administrators do not see me as a writer, just as a name that they know. I think there are maybe ten people who see me as a serious creator. and I am fine with that because a lot of people read my work.
But I still wonder if commenting that something is worthy of being a Top Story has any effect on how Vocal chooses Top Stories.
By the way, I have had three Vocal Top STories this month so I am not stort of Vocal nominations, but I woulder if my comments do have an effect.
I'd love to know your thoughts.
The music is "Win" by Nasty Cherry.
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Mike Singleton 💜 Mikeydred
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Comments (10)
Interesting thoughts. Shall we test it out? I think this should be a Top Story.
I think at times it depends when they put it as Top Story and hie many people are in then. Are there more people online or on Vocal in the morning or evening, that kind of thing. Might have to do with amount of reads.
🤔 hmmm. Now I don't feel so worthy of my two "Top Story" acknowledgments. Ugh. I like Dharsheena's comment, " everyone who writes is worthy of a Top Story, even yours"..
My favorite is when they decide to choose 6-8 Top Stories at once. I can only imagine one or two getting overlooked in the “noise.” That happened to me once (though I’m certainly mollified by $5 in either case). The luckiest ones are chosen and then left at the very top of the page for ~12 hours while the editorial team sleeps. As to HOW these decisions are made, I’ve resigned myself to the idea that we’ll never truly know. I believe there’s a list of “trusted” users that are more likely to be picked because they know their content is more likely to be high quality. I also think you can pretty much guarantee it if you decide to host a community challenge and post about it. The editorial team appears to eat that stuff up (announcement, results, and even some of the entries)
To me, everything that everyone writes is worthy of a Top Story, including yours. But I don't mention that to you or anyone because of the fear of what if it doesn't become a Top Story. I don't like giving anyone fake hope and that's why I don't do it no matter how much I feel that it should be a Top Story. So I hope now you know why I don't say that. I'm so sorry if I made you feel sad 🥺 Oh and thank you so much for including my poem! 💖
I average about 1 Top Story per month. Maybe 2, if I'm lucky. I still have no idea how or why they were chosen.
Interesting! I thought my writing was getting better, so that is why 2 TS in one month. Darn! I don't know if it is an algorithm thing or something else. I don't think anyone has suggested a top story for one of my top stories but please do say that about one of my stories.😂 I know I read almost everything I click on! When I say Congratulations on Top Story it is always after I read it! Could it be just me? I like to believe my writing is better now and I am following the guide and that is why I am getting TS and creators we are loving attention! 😉 I hope it isn't something else. This is worth a top story! And Mike, you are a better writer now! 😊💕💙
I can totally see how the AI might be listening to the top creators' recommendations for Top Stories. To me it still looks like a random process, though.
I thought this was going to be about the latest AI TS
Good to know. Thank you for explaining this!