Vocal (And Others) We Need To Be Told
You Broke The Rules, Follow The Guidelines Is Not Enough
Introduction
I have seen a few Vocal Creators getting stories rejected for "not following the guidelines", although this does not seem to be as frequent as it used to be, it is still an annoying thing when it does happen.
I wrote this piece a long time ago on how to try and deal with the situation:
So What Do We Need To Be Told?
If we have done something wrong we need an explicit reason why, so that we can rectify the situation. Often mine were rejected because the YouTube video could not be viewed in the USA, but I was never told why.
YouTube is atrocious with licensing information, I have asked for a notice saying where videos can be viewed but never received a reply. This does not seem to be a Vocal problem now but it gripes a bit when readers cannot listen to music, especially on my playlists and Beat pieces.
So if our stories are rejected we should get reasons like:
- "Not Enough / Too Many Words"
- "Pornographic / Explicit Pictures or Content"
- "Illegal Use Of Copyrighted Material"
- "Plagiarism"
- "AI Generated Content without flag"
This is a notice I got from Pixabay this morning, which always worries me, but they still publish the pictures but they don't appear in safe search.
Someone had complained about the image, and while it shows a bomb going off I don't see what the problem was that the person who reported it had, but Pixabay gave me a full explanation of what had happened.
These are their terms of service and if you go through them you can find out what is allowed and what could be a violation.
This is my page, and it has three items that have resulted in Pixabay violations
Conclusion
This is just a request for Vocal to be clearer to creators when stories are rejected, and always give an explicit reason for the rejection.
About the Creator
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Comments (13)
Definitely second this. The Vocal team keeps up such good communication with the community in many areas but I feel like this one has lacked just a bit. It would certainly help out the writers and reduce the number of rejected stories.
Okay the person who reported that photo of yours is such a wuss! And yes, I would love for Vocal to follow Pixabay's footsteps
Hi Mike, I had a story rejected this week and racked my brain trying to think what I had done wrong. I was mortified, waiting for that note to say you have been banned for ...... Then I realized I had not made the word count. I'm too used to poetry, I guess. I will not make this mistake again, though. Thanks for the insight.
Interesting topic. Thanks for the info.
I have asked for this in the past as I have also aksed for a possible area where we may inquire as to why a story of our failed to reach the judges in challenges. I suggested it be a pay request ( perhaps $5.00) for the serious person wanting to know.
What a reasonable request to be made and to make sure we all do the right things. Good work.
⭐️👏Clear guidance is the best and information on rejections should be clear - otherwise Vocal is relying on the writer to interpret their guidelines. If guidelines need to be flushed out and updated, all the better. Agree, agree, I hate when sites give blanket answer and referral to their guidelines. Refer back with specific issue.
Thank you, it makes sense. I had a story rejected recently, vocal told me why, maybe, so I corrected it, vocal rejected it again, with explicit ressons stated, so I eliminated certain names of characters, vocal rejected it again, so I gave up. Looks like vocal just like the content of my story.
Well done. I've been seeing those kind of stories on Discord mostly and I've often thought it was weird there wasn't more of an explanation. Hopefully this gets taken care of soon.
Well said!
Very helpful suggestions. Would be easy for Vocal to implement
It would definitely be helpful to have clearer guidelines about what is and isn't allowed.
This is great Mike. Many a time we may cross a line we're not aware of and it's good to know so that we can cross back.