Vocal's Dead Communities
Observations On The State Of Some Communities
Introduction
I suppose this is a Critique of Vocal's treatment of its own communities.
There are forty-Eight Vocal Communities with another four mooted about six months ago. Many communities could be combined, in my opinion,
Geeks & Gamers Cleats & Unbalanced Chain & Trader Proof & Potent
The music is "City of the Dead" by The Clash
What Do I Mean By Dead Communities?
Everyone can still submit stories to any Community, but many communities have not had a Top Story for a very long time. This implies that Vocal are not taking notice, because some of the stories are excellent but just end up sinking in the system.
I will list a few here:
Blush has not had a Top Story for two years, but stories are being submitted regularly.
Cleats has not had a Top Story for a year
Criminal has had no Top Story for six months despite being featured in a Challenge
Earth has been free of Top Stories for eight months
Lifehack has been devoid of Top Story nominations for six months.
Marriage has not had a Top Story in ninee months.
Potent is almost impotent, no Top Story for two years.
Proof is eight months without a Top Story, and I think could be merged with Potent, but maybe Vocal is just ignoring them both.
Serve again is nine months without a Top Story.
Styled is another seemingly off Vocal's radar with no Top Story for eight months.
I always wondered why Chain is out of alphabetical order, and I do believe it could be merged with Trader but no Top Stories for the last year.
Unbalanced could be merged with Cleats but has not had a Top Story in the last six months.
Has WHEEL fallen off? No Top Story here for the last year.
Conclusion
I do believe I am the only Vocal Creator I know who has contributed to every community, and some were a bit awkward for me. But this does leave me wondering do Vocal want to ditch some of the communities.
If they are not getting Top Stories I don't think it's lack of quality stories, but it may be that Vocal just find them tedious and therefore never read stories in those communities.
They will of course deny that.
Hopefully this list will become obsolete and these communities will get some Top Stories.
Thank you for reading.
About the Creator
Mike Singleton 💜 Mikeydred
A Weaver of Tales and Poetry
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Comments (9)
And now, let us join a fellow Stephen in paying tribute to the fallen: https://youtu.be/pRb6Ztzo1Aw?si=Tn_XZJawgYPcAgjC&t=261
There is so much to read, and as someone mentioned, some have specific readers, each community does need a moderator who is interested in specific content, I shy away from what does not interest me. But I agree, I have visited areas which have older stories and commented on a few, Only one said thanks, it seems people just leave after a while. So sad.
Sometimes I wonder whether it makes sense to produce content for communities where top stories are rare - maybe there's a gap in the market waiting to be filled? I do feel that both Cleats and Unbalanced (the two on your list that interest me most) tend not to attract much readership on the site. Maybe a lot of the content here is a bit too specific? I'm not sure my musings on non-league football in the northeast would travel all that far from County Durham!
I did notice this too and I was actually wondering what's the explanation for that... thank you for this informative summary, I really needed it!
Thanks for pointing this out, Mike. I'm guilty of ignoring most of the communities and that's something I should probably consider changing.
I think the communities have specific readerships, which is quite natural.....I think a better approach would be to assign a moderator per community to actively select a winning story, I guess. Fiction and Poetry are less specific.
Thanks Mike!!❤️
I agree with you on this count and combining the ones you mentioned would be a good idea. I go to those communities and read a few and leave comments, but most times I do not know a lot on the topics of those communities for I have to search for an article that I have a little knowledge.
Agree with all of this Don’t get me wrong it’s nice to see my article is still top story for potent but it’s been two years and I’ve written other things in that community I wish vocal would listen to it’s creators just a little bit more