Vocal Top Stories, Are They Needles in a Haystack?

I decided a week ago and committed in one of my stories, to work toward a story for each of the Vocal communities.

This was inspired by Mikydred, one of Vocal’s greatest mentors. Many of you are familiar with his work. If not, check out his stories on his profile.

So far, I have ticked off 20 of the 48 communities. Some will be tough for me: Chain, Cleats, Gamers, Trader, and Wheel. I just don't care much about these topics. I will deal with that when I get to them, but they will be my final four.

I decided to do this because I, as a writer, like to be challenged. For this reason, I enter as many Vocal challenges as possible, even though some are not in my usual wheelhouse. It goes back to one of my mottos for writing:

“If you always do what you have always done, then you will always get what you have always got.”

If I ever won a place in one of these, I would open a bottle of champagne. The number and quality of entries is enormous.

It made me think about top stories and if there is a bias among the different communities. Top Stories seem to come up more often in some communities than in others.

So, on March 15, I analyzed the last one hundred top stories and the communities in which they were published.

It took fifteen days to collect one hundred top stories, so the information in this story covers the first fifteen days of March.

The results were interesting, especially if you are a ‘Top Story chaser.’

Where is the needle?

As shown in the image above, two communities dominate the "Top Story" stakes: Poets and Humor. Fiction, Psyche, and Beat are the top five, in that order.

I calculated the odds of getting a "Top Story" in each community over the same fifteen-day period.

Poets has the most stories submitted. However, it doesn’t have the best chance of becoming a 'Top Story. That privilege goes to Humor (a 4.6% chance).

Two other communities had fewer top stories -Critique with five and Viva with two -, but both had a 4.1% chance of having a 'Top Story.'

Psyche, Fiction, and Chapters had a 2.8%, 2.6%, and 2.3% chance, followed by Poets with a 1.4% chance. All the other communities with less than 1% chance.

Though these percentages seem low, you don't want it easy to get a 'Top Story'. If it were, it would lessen the value of what they represent: top stories.

Eight communities shown in the table above have had 'Top Stories' within the last month. For these, it is more of a timing issue when my analysis is conducted. For example, Art, Confession, and History had a 'Top Story' two days before my start date.

For the other 22 Communities, the last 'Top Story' was anywhere from two months to three years ago (Potent). I don't know whether these communities are monitored to the same degree.

What else did I learn?

In just 15 days, communities with a Top Story published 13,106 stories.

That is a lot of stories. Timing is key to making your story shine. Like many things in life, being in the right place at the right moment matters.

I felt encouraged by this. My six top stories —two in Writers and one each in Fiction, FYI, Humor, and Motivation—must have been memorable to at least someone. I do not know how top stories come about, and whether they are judged by a single person or several.

I also realized I was not doing too badly with a hit rate of 2%.

I noticed a couple of concerns but did not spend much time analyzing stories in detail. It would be good to get other creators' opinions on these and whether Vocal can or should take any action.

Number 1 Community - Humans:

This Community is about relationships. As of today, it has 77,938 stories and 35,655 creators.

I wondered how conversations about flying with a baby on JetBlue, Air Canada, Air France, Spirit, and WestJet relate to relationships. Each airline has four to five stories on this topic, over twenty stories in one day.

Number 2: Several Communities:

Vocal doesn’t allow AI-generated stories, yet one person has overwhelmed various communities with them. This person has shared over four hundred stories about flying.

None of these have been read, so they are spam, but with the technology we have today, there must be a way to clean up the sites.

Is there a Community Watch on Vocal?

Can we report incidents like this?

It would be great if Vocal could block, ban, or remove people who spoil others' experiences.

I hope you've found the stats of interest. If nothing else, take solace in the numbers and realize that even if you do not have a 'Top Story,' it does not mean it is not good.

Don’t let that deter you from continuing to write and create. Vocal is a good community platform that offers lots of incentives for creators.

Let's continue the dialogue about ways we can collectively work to keep it that way.

Till next time,

Calvin