Vocal Media Introduced Reader Feedback on Stories: But It’s Tightly Controlled
You still can’t leave freeform comments, but you can provide “reader insights.”
Vocal Media recently announced a new feature: “Reader Insights.” According to an article on Vocal announcing the change, “Reader Insights will give creators feedback on their stories and help direct their content creation on Vocal.”
What are Reader Insights on Vocal?
Writers on Vocal have long been asking for the ability to leave comments on stories. However, this new feature still does not allow the ability to leave a comment. Instead, readers have the choice between three “primary Insights.”
These are:
- Good Effort
- Nice Work
- Outstanding
For a little extra feedback, Vocal offers additional choices:
- Heartfelt and relatable
- Expert insights and opinions
- Eye-opening
- Excellent storytelling
- On-point and relevant
- Easy to read and follow
- Compelling and original writing
- Masterful proofreading
How to find insights from your stories?
As far as I can tell you won’t see notifications when a reader leaves an insight. But when I clicked on one of my stories and scrolled to the bottom, I could see they had been added.
Just like when someone likes your story on Vocal by clicking the heart, the insights are anonymous. You will never know who left them for you.
Why not allow readers to leave comments?
The article announcing the change doesn’t explain why Vocal has decided to add this type of insight, but not the more community-friendly ability to leave comments as you can on Medium.
I can only speculate why Vocal might not want to open the door for comments. For one thing, with set phrases to choose from, Vocal is avoiding spam, trolls, bullying, and writer feuds. All of which Medium has its fair share of.
But to avoid these downfalls, Vocal is also eliminating any chance of building a community where writers can network and form relationships. They’re also missing out on giving writers authentic feedback on their stories. Because really, how much does it mean when an anonymous person clicks a box that says “masterful proofreading?”
In some ways, I find it a bit of a relief to post an article on Vocal. There is a lovely silence there, and I never need to argue my points. If someone doesn’t like what I have to say, I’ll never have to know about it. But all the same, there isn’t much room to grow when you write into a void and never hear much back.
And this is one of the reasons that Medium, despite all its faults, remains my favorite place to write. Can you imagine what a dull place Medium would be without the comments?
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