Linda, Your super sleuthing is much appreciated. Vocal offered me a free one month membership to try out their site and participate in one of their contests. I never took them up on their offer and now I am wondering if that was a dumb move.

I am going to make a prediction that will not be appreciated by most Medium writers, but I can never keep my mouth shut.

The four people who win that pot will not be regular Medium writers. They will be writers outside the Medium community who join Medium, win the contest, and then never return.

The reason - there's far more talented writers outside of Medium that there are in Medium. There are writers who have been honing their craft for decades and publishing personal essays that win awards already. That's too large of a pot not to attract one of those maestros.

Don't get me wrong. The contest are a great incentive, but personally, I would rather be rewarded for my consistency than a one hit wonder. Bonuses were a better motivator for me. But I have never had a competitive bent.