I am so excited about the coming election year that my hair is practically on fire, but let's start with why you will still find me on Substack in 2024--and how I'll give you alternatives to pay me
I appreciate your nuanced take on Substack -- this is the best one I've seen. There has been a reactive quality to the discussion that can distract people from thinking strategically about how to build "pro-democracy" media capacity. Your essay helps reframe the discussion in a more productive way.
Naomi Klein talks about how one of the American left's political challenges is that so much of its communication occurs through social media run by vested interests -- and that the media's very structure can distort the quality of our interactions in insidious ways. She may have been thinking more about Twitter, but to my mind she could have been talking about Substack too. The Substack Nazi dustup has significantly played out in social media, and I think that has impacted the debate in both positive and negative ways . . . and the latter haven't gotten the attention they deserve.
It makes sense that you are choosing to stay with Substack. I hope that your workaround is reasonably painless and all of your paid subscribers support your approach.
All that said, I'm switching my fledgling little blog from Substack to Ghost because 1) it has some features that work a bit better for what I do, 2) the Nazi dustup reminds me that I'd prefer to partner with a nonprofit vendor rather than one influenced by VC money, and 3) I'd like to keep subscription fulfillment simple once I get to the point of charging for content.
Dear Steve--thanks for this, and for elevating Klein's observation about technology's role in polarization--so much more to be said about this, including I am interested in whether the demands on universities, and individuals for that matter, to speak out on social issues have escalated with the ability to broadcast those views to millions. Change.org is one of those tools--which, when it was born, I thought was terrific, and now seems just a way to collect and sell email addresses, not to mention signatures from people who may care about the outcome of a conflict but not really be invested in it.
I checked out Ghost: I think one practical issue for me is Substack's podcast integration, which I am not seeing elsewhere. But as I wrote the post, I became more committed to standing and fighting for the Substack space. So we will see where that goes :-) The Patreon workaround is certainly more cumbersome for me, but it may also be cumbersome for me readers, so I will be interested to see what happens with that.
Thanks, Claire. I’m good --not going to read the nazis.
Read Rachel Maddow’s “Prequel” for the overview of nazi activity over the last many decades. Rachel has the audio which is so effective as well.
I listened to the podcst--it's awesome.
Happy New Year, Clare! Keep up the good work ✍️💙🇺🇸
I appreciate your nuanced take on Substack -- this is the best one I've seen. There has been a reactive quality to the discussion that can distract people from thinking strategically about how to build "pro-democracy" media capacity. Your essay helps reframe the discussion in a more productive way.
Naomi Klein talks about how one of the American left's political challenges is that so much of its communication occurs through social media run by vested interests -- and that the media's very structure can distort the quality of our interactions in insidious ways. She may have been thinking more about Twitter, but to my mind she could have been talking about Substack too. The Substack Nazi dustup has significantly played out in social media, and I think that has impacted the debate in both positive and negative ways . . . and the latter haven't gotten the attention they deserve.
It makes sense that you are choosing to stay with Substack. I hope that your workaround is reasonably painless and all of your paid subscribers support your approach.
All that said, I'm switching my fledgling little blog from Substack to Ghost because 1) it has some features that work a bit better for what I do, 2) the Nazi dustup reminds me that I'd prefer to partner with a nonprofit vendor rather than one influenced by VC money, and 3) I'd like to keep subscription fulfillment simple once I get to the point of charging for content.
Dear Steve--thanks for this, and for elevating Klein's observation about technology's role in polarization--so much more to be said about this, including I am interested in whether the demands on universities, and individuals for that matter, to speak out on social issues have escalated with the ability to broadcast those views to millions. Change.org is one of those tools--which, when it was born, I thought was terrific, and now seems just a way to collect and sell email addresses, not to mention signatures from people who may care about the outcome of a conflict but not really be invested in it.
I checked out Ghost: I think one practical issue for me is Substack's podcast integration, which I am not seeing elsewhere. But as I wrote the post, I became more committed to standing and fighting for the Substack space. So we will see where that goes :-) The Patreon workaround is certainly more cumbersome for me, but it may also be cumbersome for me readers, so I will be interested to see what happens with that.