Seriously, What Is This About Vocal?
All Recent Top Stories Are Previous Challenge Placements And Winners
Introduction
This is just about the flood of winning Challenge pieces in Top Stories.
Has Something Gone Wrong?
WTF Vocal. Since Wednesday 24th of December 25 every Top Story has been a previous Challenge placement or winner.
There was no Leaderboard this week, and it looks like something has gone terribly wrong.
Dharrsheena told me this:
"This will be the final Leaderboard update of the year, we'll be back at it January 7, 2026. Wishing everyone a happy holiday season."
This was stated in last week's Leaderboard. So there won't be any Leaderboards till 7th January
I don't begrudge people success (well, there are three creators I do begrudge success for, but out of eight hundred thousand, that is not many), but every Top Story has already received a bonus, and that implies that new work is not being considered.
It's not because I won't get an extra five dollars. There are probably lots of creators who have written great stories, like this one:
There have been no announcements that I am aware of (I checked Discord too), and I am sure many who expected to place on the Leaderboard will be disappointed.
Can we have some answers, please?
About the Creator
Reader insights
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Very well written. Keep up the good work!
Top insights
Heartfelt and relatable
The story invoked strong personal emotions
On-point and relevant
Writing reflected the title & theme
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Comments (17)
Maybe the Vocal Administration went on Vacation. Everyone need a holiday including Vocal, Administration. I for one would not know how to run a online platform such as Vocal. AI is not dependable yet.
Yech! You won't get answers. Good catch and good for you for pointing it out. Calvin and the double-dipping is an excellent shot across the bow, too. It is exhausting sometimes. Annoying to me is that the TOP STORY category is the one that garners readers. Seems to me, that is what the readers GO TO first, then Poetry, then Fiction, but only if it is short. Last week, what I saw scrolling through Vocal was story after story after story by the same person, all at the top of the chart (Latest Stories), and they were more like "articles" based on things they read. Flooding the zone, if you will.
Here, here Mike. I do not support the double-dipping approach because it is easy and gives the vocal customers some item off. Writers who get placed or win challenges get more money than I will ever earn in ten years of writing, so why give them an extra special boost? They may be great sdtroe3irs but there are a large number of great stories that never get recognised.
I commented on one of the top stories and noticed after to my surprise and confusion that it was published 3 years ago. Also, very much appreciate the shout out to my story!
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It is a bit suspicious....
Mr. Mike enjoy the rest of the holiday and next year in a week will be better. Just look on the bright side.
Normal Top Stories seem to have resumed
Itβs the holidays. Letβs embrace the spirit and cut everyone some slack.
And yes, why is Vocal giving top story to two and three-year-old stories now? No story from this year is good enough? To be honest with you, I'm getting t tired of some things I've been observing lately, like the same person getting a weekly top story.
Have you also noticed that they are recycling the challenges titles again and again and again? It's utterly boring and uninspiring. If I remember, don't they remember?
This also struck me as singularly odd, Mikeydred. Is Vocal embracing recycling in a new way?
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I think it's lovely. A reflection of some of the great winning stories of 2025.
Mike, they need a holiday too. They just left some really great stories for reading if anyone needs a distraction. Those are my thoughts anyway. They deserve a break like the rest of, strange as this method may seem. Enjoy the rest of your holiday. No stress. π€π€π€π€π€π€
"This will be the final Leaderboard update of the year, we'll be back at it January 7, 2026. Wishing everyone a happy holiday season." This was stated in last week's Leaderboard. So there won't be any Leaderboards till 7th January. As for the Top Stories, I have no idea what's going on. Maybe everyone is on leave for the holidays, so they pre-scheduled challenge winners for the Top Stories till they return to office
Yes, I was wondering aout this too.