Vocal Bonus Leaderboard: 01/14/2026
Celebrating creativity, engagement, and community building on Vocal.
Welcome to our weekly Leaderboard update! We're delighted to highlight Vocal's most popular stories. Join us as we recognize this week's standout contributors and their remarkable achievements.
A reminder of some ground rules we use to formulate the Leaderboard:
The time period of data analyzed for each weekly Leaderboard is collected from 12:00am Wednesday - 11:59pm Tuesday ET each week. Only top level comments and replies by unique Vocal+ creators will count, comments or replies by the story author will be excluded. You don’t need to be Vocal+ to appear on the leaderboard. You can appear on the Leaderboard once per week. You can appear on the Leaderboard multiple weeks in a row. No AI generated content.
✨ Most Discussed Stories this Week ✨
Here are the stories that have sparked the most comments with their engaged readers this week.
🏆 Winners
🥇 First Place ($20 Bonus): Sandy Gillman - Cosy Bite
🥈 Second Place ($15 Bonus): Tiffany Gordon - Remember Goodness Pays...
🥉 Third Place ($10 Bonus): Sara Wilson - How to Pretend You're Not Being Controlled by an Alien Parasite.
🏅 Forth Place ($8 Bonus): Rachel Robbins - What I learned about Vocal Challenges from...
🏅 Fifth Place ($5 Bonus): Judey Kalchik - The Correct Way to Eat M&Ms
🌟 Honorable Mentions ($3 bonus)
Kendall Defoe - Political Thirty-Three
Each winner will receive a well-deserved bonus in their Vocal Wallets within the next 72 hours.
Congratulations to all the winners! We love what you bring to the table at Vocal. Here's to another week of excellent writing and reads.
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More stories from Vocal Team and writers in Vocal and other communities.
Instructions Included Challenge Winners
For the Instructions Included challenge, we asked writers to tell a story through instructions and to trust the form to carry what could not be said outright. Across the top entries, that trust paid off in many different ways.
By Vocal Curation Team4 days ago in Resources
Time to change your life.
Is it even possible for you to change your life? A lot of people, more than there should be, are unhappy with their lives. But what are they doing about it? Usually nothing. People talk about how shitty their lives are and want change, but are they not taking the actions to change?
By Jen Phillipsa day ago in Humans
Not Just For Clean Up: A History Of The MCU's Department of Damage Control
Initially an organisation that seemed to exist to help the heroes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, from Phase Four onwards, the Department of Damage Control has shifted into a more antagonistic role. Most recently seen in the Wonder Man series, the current incarnation of Damage Control seems to target superpowered individuals, regardless of whether that person poses an active or intentional threat.
By Kristy Andersonabout 12 hours ago in Geeks
Comments (18)
Scrolling this late and it’s kind of grounding to see how much conversation actually happens here — not just numbers, but people really showing up for each other in comment sections. I caught myself recognizing a few of the titles and remembering the little back-and-forths they sparked, which feels like its own quiet win beyond the bonuses. It made me wonder how much unseen community-building happens that never lands on a leaderboard at all — do you ever think about ways that kind of impact could be acknowledged too?
Congratulations 🎊 👏!!!
Congratulations y'all
Congratulations!
Congratulations everyone! 🎉💖🎊🎉💖🎊
This is nice. Only my second time on the leaderboard, so thank you to everyone who took the time to read and comment. ❤️
Thanks and congratulations everyone!
Thank you much everyone! Congrats 2 everyone featured! Happy 2026! 🥳
Congrats, one & all. ⚡️
It's been a long time since I've been here. Thank you!
Congratulations everyone
I knew that grilled cheese story was a masterpiece! Days later and I'm still eating grilled cheese because of it 🤣🤣 congrats, Sandy! And everyone else!!!!! Also, I actually PLACED? 🥹🥹 This is my first time. I've had an HM before, but this is my first time placing 🤭🤭 I am honoured 🥹🥹
Congratulations Everyone 🎊
Congratulations to all.
I see Sandy leading the board! That piece was truly awesome. I am still hungry for more work like that! 🎉 Congratulations, my lovely! Congratulations to: Tiffany 🎉 Sara 🎉 Rachel 🎉 Judey 🎉 PAAUULL! 🎉 Kendall 🎉 Lightning Bolt 🎉 Lamar 🎉 Mother Combs 🎉
Congratulations to everyone mentioned, you encourage me to keep writing xx
Congratulations! One day I’ll make it back up there with y’all. 💖🥂
My thanks to those that read about, commented, and hopefully will now follow the instructions to; eat M&Ms the correct way!