The Perils Of A Vocal Creator
The Things That They Have To Deal With
Introduction
Still relevant, maybe even more so
This might sound like a moan, and in some ways it is, but on top of this, I still maintain that Vocal is an excellent if flawed platform, and is my own preferred platform of choice.
When I first started on Vocal, there were manual reviews of every story (I think) and often stories were rejected with a ridiculously nebulous message "Story Does Not Meet Quality Standards" which was basically basically a lazy coverall.
There was no explanation of why the story had been rejected and often a simple resubmission would see it published, which begged the question "Why was It Rejected In The First Place?". Vocak would never answer, and that attitude is still prevalent today.
Over a year back I pointed out a major fault in Vocal's reporting in this piece, Vocal refused to acknowledge this and told me that I must be doing something wrong.
That Was Then, But This Is Now
While we have issues with Vocal on many points, it is still a relatively robust platform and allows creators to publish and share their works and actually make a little money from reads, bonuses and challenge wins.
The problem is the insidious spread of plagiarism and the use of AI-generated text. We have seen work by plagiarists and AI be awarded Top Stories, which does damage Vocal's credibility, although usually they are then removed.
The problem is more, and more, creators are having to police the submissions. Two of the biggest champions of this are Judey Kalchik
and Cendrine Marrouat
Check them out for many articles on how to protect your creations from plagiarism and how to spot and report AI creations.
This is Vocal's Plagiarism report page if you find anything of yours and your friends that has been stolen. I think it could be used to include unacknowledged AI content.
While I am ok with people using AI as a tool AI content should not be allowed as a main story.
It could be used as an aid, but it should not appear as a story in itself and certainly should never be deemed to be Top Story worthy.
I have been accused of plagiarism for quoting sources, and for the images I generate for my stories where I need one.
The thing is creators just want to write and share their work, not spending their creation time checking for plagiarism and unacknowledged AI.
While I meet and get to know people on Facebook, new Vocal users I often check their stories for AI or plagiarism if they look suspicious, and especially if they have published twenty stories in the last day.
I do feel that we are under attack on two fronts and we can only protect ourselves if we work together.
I just want to write and share my work, but I know every word that I put on Vocal or Amazon can be picked up by unscrupulous lowlives for whatever purpose they want. We have to hope that we can spot them and take them down and that Vocal will back us up when we report plagiarists and AI cheats.
In Conclusion
Keep vigilant and maintain close Vocal Facebook friends so you can all look out for each other. I know this is extra work for us all, but that is the nature of the domain that we now create in.
I believe that we can achieve victory in this, because we are consistent in our creative approach, and the plagiarists and AI cheats are fly-by-night opportunists.
We must have faith in ourselves and must report every instance of theft of our intellectual property that occurs.
Thank you for reading
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Comments (19)
Well said Mike, I've got a couple of major projects in the pipeline and have had to use AI extensively on the first part of one of them (no spoilers), but I agree, AI should be used wisely - not exclusively. I don't have a problem using it or seeing other writers use it, I do have a problem when that use of AI isn't acknowledged in some way.
I think plagiarism has reduced or maybe I'm unaware of of it. AI on the other hand, is still rampant
Nicely presented and I completely agree,
I look out for it too! Especially when others try to copy, spam, or manipulate. On another platform, we have issues with commission artists spamming writers for work and even going so far as to make duplicate accounts and pretend to be different people.
Totally agree with all that you wrote, Mr. Mike. Just keep doing what you are doing here. Good job.
I am always on the lookout for plagiarised content - I'm lucky because I've only had my page and identity stolen, not my content. I harassed the person into oblivion and threatened legal action - they were banned and were never seen again. I'm always keeping an eagle eye for anyone who copies other people's stuff - it's simply not fair that we have to do this checking ourselves though. Thankfully one thing is true: the slop creators are not seeing much worth in publishing that much on Vocal as people aren't reading, liking or commenting - so there's a lot less than there once was. However, there is still enough for it to be a problem. I definitely hope that Vocal does something more about this in the future. Great thoughts in your piece, as it always has been - you tend to say what all creators are thinking x
Good thoughts and reflections, Mike, as always.
Unscrupulous knaves are ubiquitous; this is sage advice, Mikeydred!
LOVE THE SONG, "UNDER ATTACK"
Bots are so destructive. This woke up my cobwebs I'm my brain. Months ago I found one of my stories were stolen by some dude. I wrote him and the paper where I found it. Now I know how to report to Vocal. We live in a different world now in 2025. It's so different that 1975 when I first began studying Journalism. Let's protect one another. Let's don't accuse one another of being a bot. There are so many possibilities of stolen identities and stolen stories. So, to all my colleagues let's stick together and hang tight with each other. Most of us just want to see our thoughts and stories of life published without any harm to anyone. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
It’s such a mess at times! Great article ❤️
I totally agree with all of this. No AI for me
Mr. Mike - Is that an AI Generated pic of me on your heading? - Thought so - btw; A 'Pickpocket' in our 'hood is no more than a "DiP" Jay
Agree with Dharsheena, Vocal would be in a heap of poop without those two helping them. For free!
Judey and Cendrine should seriously be paid or given huge bonuses by Vocal for all their time and effort!
You make some excellent points, Mike! Great work, as usual.
They may be fly-by-night opportunists but they also tend to have a lot of ways of coming back, different identities, accounts, etc. And they do tend to keep on coming back. They are pernicious, & thanks for fighting the good fight.
Thanks for sharing, Mike. AI in general is getting out of hand across the globe. Even the art we generate is taking money from the artist on unsplash and other legitimate free sharing sites. I use it when I can't find the right image but always search those legit places first.
Great article