Breakdown

Maybe I've had too much time on my hands of late, paired with an overwhelming mental health need to stay distracted. (It's a grief thing, but that is another story.) But that kind of leads me into why I fell into the writing of this story, so...I haven't been the best at keeping up with my readers of late.

It's not that I don't appreciate them or admire them as creators or thoroughly enjoy their work. I just haven't been able to focus. I suppose my mental energy (along with my physical and spiritual energy) had plummeted. Please forgive me.

I wondered if I had lost subscribers due to this...I currently have slightly less than 300 with only a small handful of them being family and personal friends. But, to be honest, I've never kept up with the numbers too well before, either. And before I get started along my journey or rant-mania, I must disclose that my math, at best, is (+5 -5) as mediocre science model requires, but the sum total of my point is that I hope you find some validity in my thoughts/findings. I find it more important to subscribe to others than to be subscribed to. But it works two ways, right?

To Whom and Why do I subscribe in the first place?

* Maybe your work has caught my eye or piqued my interest. I may have read your story from another fan on a Leaderboard or Top Story or from a preferred genre/community.

* Maybe I found you because you were a winner/runner-up on a Challenge. I'm always on the look-out for others who can teach me a thing or three. How else would I get better at my skill?

* Maybe I found you under my comment section and I appreciated your kindness, found a kindred spirit, or had fun with our banter?

* Maybe we met on a Vocal social media platform/chat where others share their work?

But anybody who knows me, knows I like to keep people like I keep memories. And my Vocal friends are no exception. Even if I don't agree with philosophies, values, or viewpoints, I still can appreciate your humanness and seek to understand the world better through your eyes and words. You sincerely always have worth in my eyes. In other words, I will be like that bad penny that keeps showing up on your comment page, wishing you the best. (There have been only a few that I have discarded, thinking them to be AI or if I felt there was no chance of finding higher ground with somehow or someway.)

So, I took a gander at the people I have subscribed (under your subscriptions tab) to so I could see what they had been up to, and what they had written down. As I began to search, my eyes were drawn to the last time they had published anything. (I didn't want to miss too much.)

Of the 256 creators that I keep under my wing (perhaps a small sample,) the last time EACH published:

* about a dozen had published in the last 7 days

* from the last 7 days up through a month, 120 published

* 1 month to 2 months, the number was 25

* from 2 months through 5 months, there were 40 published

* from 6 months through 12 months, 50 published

* from a year ago , 36 published

* from 2 yrs ago, 24 did

* there were only 4 who did between 2 yrs and 4 years.

For those of you who have been adding it up, that is a total of 311 of you to whom I have subscribed, that have published, meaning 55 were "lost?"

To me, the total number of publishers wasn't that much of a surprise, but when I looked as to what I might have surmised as to WHY those Creators stopped publishing on Vocal, was the question that needed to be answered!

I started looking at their profiles and the last stories they had published to see if I could find a clue. Findings: There were seldom any clues to be found, virtually disappearing without notice or complaint. Even seeing three Vocal Investors among the causalities :(

But as I perused, working backwards on my timeline, I did find these disappearances the MOST disturbing because these particular Creators had ACHIEVEMENTS under their virtual accoladed belts (going back until 7 months ago of last publishing:)

Dean Hardy (1st place Book Club Achievement)

Kelly Robertson (2nd place 24/7 Companion Challenge)

Ruth K (1st place Love Unraveled)

E.B. Johnson (2nd place True Crime)

Penny Fuller (1st place Snacktime Sonata & 2nd place Neolomicro)

Ava Mack (1st place Passing Ships, 1st Critique, 1st Sensational II)

Lili Sejor (1st Dragon Beside Me)

J.L. Green (2nd place Small Kindness)

Lena Beana (1st place 2023 Vocal Writing Awards-Young Adults Fiction

Jennifer A.G. (1st place Fantasy Prologue, 1st Vocal Writing Awards-Free Verse Poetry, 2nd Christopher Padini's Fantasy Fiction Challenge, and 2nd place # 200)

Have we really "lost" you? If so, WHY?

Vocal, why is talent going away??? Is there something you can do? Is there something we should all be doing???

And since this song literally keeps popping into my head, and was always one of my favorites, let's include it and give this story the rightful title!