Hi,
You’re getting this because (in most cases) you have a Substack that looks interesting to me, and because I have an email address for you. Feel free to unsubscribe if that interest isn’t reciprocated.
I’ve been writing on Substack for more than a year now. In many ways, it’s a replacement for the blogosphere of the early 2000s, which couldn’t compete with the ease of ad-funded social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, and with the reluctant move online of traditional media.
The great thing about Substack is that the subscription model encourages long-form bloglike posting, and provides writers (if they choose to ask for payment) with an incentive to keep posting.
The negative side of that is that we don’t get the engagement that was such a great part of the early blogosphere. I am just reading an interesting article, and I hit the paywall. And then, comments are restricted to paying subscribers. Substack Notes should help that, but doesn’t really seem to have taken off. And, AFAICT, Substack doesn’t let me use its own email addresses x@substack.com to add subsribers.
So, what I plan to do with this newsletter is
(a) some very old-fashioned blogging, pointing to posts you might have missed, and plugging some of my own; Here’s an appropriately themed starter
and (b) to discuss ideas for making Substack more blog like
My first idea to get closer to the original blogosphere is to offer:
(i) to anyone on the recipient list who has a paid subscription tier. Give me (john.quiggin@icloud.com) a free top-level subscription and I will recommend you; (ii) and to others who are still free. Comment or email me and I will recommend you
Then I’ll restack and comment on anything I find useful.
If you’ve read this far, thanks and please comment and share. I welcome new subscribers, particularly those who are using Substack.
Very welcome idea.