Community Verification
Combating AI through Networking
Dear Vocal Fam,
In light of DK Shepherd's article on the pervasiveness of AI infiltrating our community, I have been brainstorming ways we can turn this problem around and I think the simplest solution might actually have a silver lining! First a quote to show you in a brief snapshot of what was discovered:
"So over the last few months this account has received not one, but six Top Stories. Several of these Top Stories have a Highly Confident rating on being 100% AI just using a basic scanner. The user's last Top Story has over 50 comments and 70 likes. And according to scans, it's AI generated content. Not only has this account garnered Top Story Awards but they’ve placed on several Leaderboards.
According to my findings they have received the following awards:
6 Top Stories ($5 each)
2 Honorable Mentions ($3 each)
2 Most Discussed Stories - 2nd Place ($10 each)
1 Most Supportive Commenters - 3rd Place ($5)
1 Emerging Creators - 1st Place ($20)
1 Emerging Creators - 2nd Place ($10)
1 Emerging Creators - 3rd Place ($5)
1 Most Subscribed to Creators - 3rd Place ($5)
That’s a total of $101 in Vocal prizes.
And yeah, this really bothers me. But what can I do about it?"
WHAT CAN WE DO?
Network!
We each of us already do an excellent job of connecting offsite and have for many years. We cheer each other on through accomplishments and comfort each other through losses. We KNOW who is real and who is .... new. And we have strong leaders that manage the groups and take steps to prune out disingenuous content and engagement. I'm reminded of the excellent article earlier written by Hannah Moore.
"Now, I’m not claiming you’re my bosom buddies and inviting you all to my wedding or anything, but I AM saying that there are voices here who I have come to think of as friends. Perhaps it’s the emotional nudity. I mean, we’ve been through a lot together, right? We’ve had some laughs, of course, but tears, too. And honesty, alongside play. We’ve experimented with stuff we’ve liked. We’ve experimented with stuff we have not liked so much. We have had differences of opinion. And we have also had kindness and encouragement, we have lifted each other up and we have championed one another. We have not turned away from one another’s metaphorical lumps and bumps. We have made missteps, forgiven them, and had them forgiven. What is that, I ask you? Because it looks a lot like friendship to me."
Some of the newbies ARE real, and they must find it difficult sometimes to break into older established channels and make new friends. It takes some effort to network and now they need to show they aren't AI, too. But it's generally quite obvious by a glimpse of someone's social media as to whether it's a long time account and filled with various friends and family members or whether it's new and seems rather... spammy. For those that want to only connect on Vocal, sometimes it's enough to see their collection of stories to recognize it as a person with good intentions.
We should pull together to combat this problem instead of letting it push us away from doing what we love. We need to protect this platform. It's certainly been my home for a long time and even though we each have our ups and downs with one another and the rejection that goes along with not being picked for contests or top stories we are resilient because we are creators and this is our passion.
Community Nomination
The easiest thing we can do is to nominate each other for verification. Established members can be immediately given a verification checkmark next to their profile and then we can all have the ability to "Introduce New Members" on a biweekly thread and nominate new members who we are certain are not AI. New members can also identify themselves here in the comments and let us know how to reach out to them offsite (in whatever way they are comfortable with) to show us they are not AI.
And the silver lining?!
We can all make new connections and grow together, because for me the greatest benefit Vocal has ever offered is the chance to get to know all of you!
Much love,
Les xx
Update: for those uncomfortable revealing their pen names, genuine comment section engagement works too! Just step up and say hi. Introduce yourselves however you are comfortable. If you are here for the right reasons we want to support you :)
About the Creator
Call Me Les
Aspiring etymologist and hopeless addict of children's fiction.
If I can't liberally overuse adverbs and alliteration, I'm out!
Website: lesleyleatherdale.ca
#elbowsup
~&~
She/Her
Keep reading
More stories from Call Me Les and writers in Writers and other communities.
Vocalizing
When I was browsing my work to create an anthology piece of my fictions, I noticed I actually tend to write more non-fiction here than I realized. So rather vainly I've gathered it up, just in case anyone might be interested in yet another piece on a writer's self-aggrandizing examination of themselves.
By Call Me Lesabout a year ago in Writers
The Ritual of Winter Challenge Winners
Welcome to the Winners Announcement for The Ritual of Winter challenge. This prompt focused on winter rituals and the meaning that settles into them over time. The top pieces stay grounded in ordinary acts and repeated routines, letting winter shape the work through pace, attention, and restraint.
By Vocal Curation Team3 days ago in Resources
Comments (45)
I find it outrageous and utterly disturbing that an AI account has been placed on the Leaderboard and granted over $100 in prizes. Meanwhile, so many of us only get frustrated for the lack of recognition and support in comments and reads of our human efforts. There should be a system in place identifying humans and not allowing AI accounts.
Well-wrought and a well-deserved top story!
wow, very good story
I love the idea of verification and agree that we have to protect this platform! I got started here nearly five years ago during a very trying time and credit Vocal for aiding me on the path to physical and emotional healing. Congratulations on your top story/leadership board placement!!
This is such a cool idea! I love the verification idea and community nomination. congratulations on your Leaderboard placement! 🎉💖
I used to report them and cared to clean up the site, until I realised that Vocal didn’t care too….. so instead of becoming frustrated, I chose the ‘let them’ approach. Let them post, let vocal not care, let them, let them, let them!
Congrats on your leaderboard placement!
Hi, I'm Neo77, and I'm the new guy here! Good article, by the way!
A huge congrats , this is well deserved
Wooohooooo congratulations on your Leaderboard placement! 🎉💖🎊🎉💖🎊
Congrats on well-deserved TS. more comments below Rachel's comment.
Excellent thoughts, Les! I really love the verification idea and you spun this in such a positive light ☺️🫶 The Vocal community is so lucky to have you!
Thanks for this piece. I have been a member for a couple of years, but not got in the habit of posting regularly yet so still struggling to build a network. Hopefully by working together we can build stronger networks and keep AI content from devaluing our work.
I feel out of the loop--do vocal moderators not scan for AI produced pieces? is there a problem with doing that process? does vocal want AI pieces? it is all just too confusing-- obviously i am a verified human.
everything you say is very nice to build a community, however... a verified person can still post stories generated by AI, also to be able to withdraw money on stripe you have to be a real person because you have to connect the bank. The problem is the stories not the people. However, verification would still be interesting to prevent people from opening multiple profiles, but then Vocal should be the one to request verification for everyone's safety. Leaving this to the community does not seem acceptable to me because anyone who enters new must be subjected to verification by other users and I do not think it is fair, nor encouraging. Identity verification must be done by the platform.
I love the idea of having verified humans here. Seems no matter the platform, a shared experience is dealing with the annoyance of AI being used to take advantage of payouts. I'm still relatively new here but am always up for getting more involved in the community - if not just through comments here, then on Bluesky. Same username. Congrats on the Top Story!
A couple of years ago, I wrote an article on the lost art of the written word. It was my musing - or should I say tirade - about how poorly written, and often unrelatable AI-generated, content is taking up all freelance opportunities because they get social engagement. You have present a new problem, in which AI is good and is winning our awards. Thank you suggesting a meaningful solution.
This is such a cool idea! I love the verification idea and community nomination. I keep my socials away from Vocal for safety sake, but I think there should be ways to moderate verification marks that are fair. It's all so tricky because it comes down to judgement and some creators on the more popular side use AI and never say anything at all. I feel like even established creators should have their profile checked before given an "AI-free" verification mark or whatever it turns out to be. Well, I'm rambling (but I guess that means I'm human). Great article with lots of good ideas and congrats on the Top Story!
Well said! It takes me time to write and gets so frustrating seeing story after story being popped out so fast and to your point garnishing awards. Congrats on Top Story - well deserved.
Some really interesting points here. I will go away and think about verification. Because I am very tired of seeing the same kind of stories clogging up communities I love. I am particularly tired of seeing challenges full of stories that don't meet the brief and are obviously just trying to garner reads. Congratulations on getting your thoughts together on this in such a positive way.
I personally feel most of these people are just scammers who want to make a quick buck. Thanks Les for your support in our community
Anyone that uses AI needs to properly put that in their author bio and piece. It isn’t clever to make people believe it’s there’s because it’s so incredibly easy to spot an AI work. Maybe in the future, AI creative writing will blend in with more cohesive ideas and less repetitive writing, but for now, it all is obviously poorly executed. Garbage in and garbage out, especially if you just put in a lazy prompt. I personally feel AI Shouldn’t be allowed in creative spaces unless they attribute it directly. It’s a lie otherwise
⚡💙⚡
This is such a great idea, Les! I'm glad it's getting the recognition and support here!
Back to say congratulations on Top Story!!!