Vocal’s Lost Communities Revisited

(Apologies for the way the chart looks. When I posted it all the columns were lined up and it all made sense. For some reason my computer and Vocals computer don't want to co-operate and everything is scrambled. It was legible once.)

Approximately one year ago I posted an article about Vocal and where it’s Top Stories are distributed. At the time my story was posted I received comments from many of you thanking me for taking the time to research this subject. I feel that being a writer, it is just as important to keep people informed as it is to publish a great story. This is why, one year later, I believe it’s time to dig through the stats and let everyone know what has changed both for the good or the bad and what has stayed the same.

Just as last year, the two communities with the highest numbers of participants are Poet with 41,183 writers, up 1,786 from last year’s 40,094 contributors, and Fiction with 34,204 writers an increase of 2,567 over last years, 31637. Both communities have enjoyed a healthy increase, but the numbers don’t show parody when it comes to Top Story awards. Last year the Poet community received 85 Top Story awards in 30 days and so far, this year that community has been awarded 97 Top Story awards in the last 30 days. Even though Fiction has a larger increase in contributors they have only received 61Top Stories in the last 30 days, a decrease of 21 awards based on last year’s performance of 85 for the same time. Readers, please remember that all the latest Top Story numbers are for the recent 30 days. This parameter will change as we move into the less popular communities.

Horror is the community receiving the third highest Top Story awards for the last 30 days with 41 although that group is only12,093 in number. Last year they received 22 Top Stories, so their total is 1 shy of double the previous year. I must assume that the various challenges offered throughout the year help increase the award count in each community they are associated with.

Community numbers verses number of awards garnered are misleading. It would be easy to assume that the larger the community the more Top Stories it receives but that’s not the case. Humans is the largest community following Poet and Fiction with 34,262 members, but has only received 4 awards for this October, 1 less than last year at this time. The next largest is Education with 29,745 members and 1Top Story this month and Journal with 22,972 members and 3 Top Stories this month. The communities with the fewest members are Humor with 917, I guess not many writers have a sense of humor, and Critique having 864, we also don’t like to criticize fellow writers. Their counts are 2 this month for Humor and 0 this month with 2 four months ago for Critique. The chart at the end of this article will list every community and compare last year’s October performance with this years.

If there were a contest to determine which community was the most ignored it would be a hotly contested race between Blush, Chain, Potent, Proof, Cleats, and Wheel. I placed them in this group because none of the stories have received Top Story recognition for a minimum of 10 months. The 10 months appears to be a fluke because it has been over a year or more since an author has received any recognition when placing their work in these communities.

Last year several authors criticized my article because they felt writing is not about the rewards and recognition but the pleasure a writer gets from sharing their ideas with others and I couldn’t agree more. The thing is, if you’re posting work on a platform that recognizes excellence and is willing to include a small monetary reward then everyone should compete on an even playing field. Over the close to three years I have been a member of Vocal, I have been fortunate enough to garner 32 Top Stories but I have never received an honorable mention for a competition entry. That doesn’t stop me from continuing to compete because each competition offers a fresh opportunity. If the whole community that I enjoy participating in hasn’t received a Top Story in well over a year it sends a strong negative message, especially when other communities are getting over 90 per month.

So, what’s changed since last year’s report? Poet is still the golden child, Fiction and Horror are holding their own, and better luck next year for the rest.

VOCAL TOP STORY STATS 2023 v. 2024

Community October 2023 October 2024

Poet 85 97

Fiction 85 61

Horror 22 41

01 1 in 3mo. 1in 5mo.

Art 2 2

Beat 5 2 in 3mo.

Blush 2 in 9 mo. 0

Book Club 5 2

Chapters 12 3

Cleats 1in 1yr 1yr 3yrs.

Confessions 9 1 in 2mo.

Criminal 2 2 in 8 mo.

Critique 2 4 in 5 mo.

Earth 2 1

Education 1 1

Families 3 2 in 4 mo.

Feasts 9 3 in 5 mo.

Fiction 85 61

Filthy 2 in 6 mo. 1 in 7 mo.

Futurism 1 2 in 5 mo.

FYI 1 2 in 3 mo.

Gamers 1 2 in 5 mo.

Geeks 9 4

History 2 in 3 mo. 4 in 8 mo.

Horror 22 41

Human 5 4

Humor 6 2

Interview 3 in 2 mo. 1 in 4 mo.

Journal 6 3

Longevity 2 2 in 3 mo.

Lifehack 4 in 3 mo. 2 in 10 mo.

Marriage 2 in 9 mo. 2 in 1 yr.

Men 1 2

Motivation 4 3 in 3 mo.

Pet Life 2 4 in 2 mo.

Photography 2in 3 mo. 2 in 5 mo.

Poet 85 97

Potent 1 in 1 yr 6 in 2 yrs.

Pride 2 in 3 mo. 12

Proof 2 in 1 yr. 2 in 1 yr.

Psyche 1 12

Serve 2 in 1 yr. 2 in 11 mo.

Styled 1 in 4 mo. 1 in 10 mo.

Chain 2 in 1 yr 2 in 1 yr.

Swamp 2 3 in 3 mo.

Tracker 2 in 4 mo. 2 in 9 mo.

Unbalanced 1 2 in 9 m0.

Viva 2 1 + 1 in 2 mo.

Wander 5 1

Wheel 2 in 9 mo. 2 in 2 yrs.

Writers 17 6