75 and Counting
Thoughts on Vocal Challenge Entries
No; this isn't yet another TLC show about a hyper-fecund family that lives in a questionably-jumbled home with no evident source of income except endorsements by far-right Great Replacement shills.
It's almost even stranger than that.
So far there are 75 entries into The Rule Everyone Knows challenge that aren't correctly placed within the Fiction Community.
So as to distract myself from writing an entry, because we all do better when we are under the gun, don't we?- I tried to figure out why this would be the case when the actual rules of the Challenge are clear and easy to follow.
One male-appearing profile entrant appears to post their content randomly, each within a different Community, some of which are also entered into Challenges, most of which are illustrated by an AI illustration, and many of which are clearly undeclared AI-created content. None match the Challenge prompts.
A different female-appearing profile entrant has the same dubious technique- random Communities with disparate subjects, some of which are entered into Challenges, many which contain links to Amazon unrelated to the topic, several are clearly unattributed AI-created content. None match the Challenge prompts.
Yet a third male-appearing profile entrant has a 'series' posts detailing historical figures headed by broken-linked videos, with links to the same unrelated -to-the-topic Amazon content as the profile above, (is this a duplicate account from the same person?) scatter-shot through random Communities, some of the content is included in Challenges, some of which have the structure and flow of unattributed-AI creation. None match the Challenge prompts.
Yet another female-presenting profile creates pop culture content , and a newer male-presenting profile that appears to favor non-fiction motivation subjects frequently assign their content to different Communities and drop it willy-nilly into Challenges. None match the Challenge prompts.
And that is just one of the open Challenges available to Vocal + members at this moment.
Yes- that is correct: all of these profiles are marked as Vocal+.
So, Judey- what are you trying to say? What does this mean? Why do you care? These are all good questions. I hope my answer isn't a let down.
I am NOT 'afraid' they will win a Challenge. In order to even be in the running the entry must be placed into the correct Community. So all of these random entries NOT placed in Fiction are not even considered as valid entries and are immediately disqualified. And, as Justin mentioned about two weeks ago ineligible entries are not deleted from the Challenge while the Challenge is open.
I DO encourage you to read Justin's piece (linked below) to understand the working behind Challenges, ways you can suggest new Challenges, and flat out just be better informed about this platform. In fact, I encourage you to follow Justin so you'll get notified of his content when it is posted.
My opinion of these at the very least careless appearances of non-prompt following pieces and clearly misplaced content is that the profile seeks, at the minimum, eyes on the content.
For at least two of the profiles, which I highly suspect are 'owned' by the same 'person' since they link to Amazon content bearing the name of the same 'author'- it's also a way to sell their product.
That is a shame, should I be correct. Vocal is allowed to be used to sell product, as long as it is legal. Strangely-underlined sections that link to entirely different product placed into random sections of a writing platform and into Challenges that will never be won- this seems a hard way to make a living.
Also- in the opinion of this writer, a waste of time. Not very bright. Just annoying.
That's all.
About the Creator
Judey Kalchik
It's my time to find and use my voice.
Poetry, short stories, memories, and a lot of things I think and wish I'd known a long time ago.
You can also find me on Medium
And please follow me on Threads, too!
Keep reading
More stories from Judey Kalchik and writers in Writers and other communities.
A plot based on a dream or current events.
Dean Winchester and Scooby-Doo The group that concludes of Mystra; {Dark-Queen, my twin-sister} Lord Cyrus-Emery, known as “Wolf-Gang,” Phoebe Shadow-claw known as “Shining-One,” Luna; know as a Mage, people call her, “Spirit-Walker,” Aurora known as “Leviathan,” Sophia-Goddess of all, known as “Moonbeam,” and myself, Raven-Wolf, known as “Ice-Spirit⛄.”
By Pseudonym “Kathy,” though my legal name is Chantel.6 days ago in Writers
Comments (5)
Vocal stopped having challenges open to non V+ because people like this were spamming their pieces into the challenges. Now that they're V+, what can be done to stop this shit? Of course they're not gonna win but it's soooo annoying!
Great story. I feel your pain. I get so tired of the flood of fake content. And you are so right. I think there's more non-fiction pieces on that challenge than fiction right now. And I saw the same few names over and over and over. I can only imagine how challenging it must be for Vocal to figure out and implement a plan to help deter these spammers. But it's been good to read the latest updates from Justin about their plans.
Thanks, Judey! Lazy and annoying. I read and re-read the instructions. Hopefully I did it correctly and Justin’s piece was great. I didn’t know people could sell on Vocal!
Thanks so much for this well documented story. I am annoyed when I see challenges flooded with such garbage, not even in the correct community. It’s frustrating having to wade through their posts to find authentic challenge entries to read. Justin’s piece was also very helpful & informative.✅💖
You had me running back to check my work. I think that things can be very offhand here, and it is frustrating.