I wondered what your thoughts were about Substack. Mine are similar. If I posted consistent content, I think I would feel a lot worse. But I’m not sure what other platform would support my “I write when I feel like it for 12 of my friends and obviously cannot monetize that” habit.
Substack has built a great platform for creating and sharing what we make with others. I think it's why people are sticking around and why it makes it so maddening to see their leadership display such a lack of empathy.
On another note, I'd like to gently counter your statement about your writing. You can absolutely request payment for your writing at any point in time, and at any level. Creating takes time and effort and talent. Let readers decide whether they want to pay for that; if they don't, you're no worse off than before. But I think there's something to honoring the work we do in this way, regardless of purpose or supposed "legitimacy," that elevates the craft for us all. You can also add a link to Buy Me a Coffee or similar to any post if you don't want to contribute to Substack right now. I'm not saying you *should* do any of this; that's up to you. But that there is an argument to be made that you *could* if you wanted to, and why.
Thanks for reading NTMP; I appreciate your support very much.
This echoes conversations I have with Dave about paying our adult children to feed our cats or otherwise take care of things when we are away. He feels that we are family and should do these things for each other. And I do agree with that. But I also want my children to know that the ways they contribute have value and are worth compensation of some kind. We went out of town last weekend and I paid a token amount for one day of feeding pets, so this is fresh in my mind. I’m so glad we are able to stay connected in any way and it makes sense that we would do so through our writing.
I am glad we're able to stay connected here, too. <3 And yes, sometimes we pay the kids for above-and-beyond actions, or sometimes just to show we value them. We don't do it for everything, because that feels transactional and weird--I know you understand that balance.
An update - it looks like Substack will be banning Nazi accounts after all! Collective action gets the job done. It's a start, and I'll take it.
However, while this is a good first step, they are not changing their absolute bare minimum content moderation policy, once again playing semantic games by saying that Nazism is itself an act of violence, so that violates their standards. If only writers would take collective action about transphobia--I'm sure we could make an argument that violence against transgender folks is connected to anti-trans rhetoric.
Just read an update saying Substack is only removing 5 Nazi newsletters, but that at least 70 others remain. I keep having dissonance when I write about any of this. How far have we degraded as a culture when we even have to debate this shit?
I wondered what your thoughts were about Substack. Mine are similar. If I posted consistent content, I think I would feel a lot worse. But I’m not sure what other platform would support my “I write when I feel like it for 12 of my friends and obviously cannot monetize that” habit.
Substack has built a great platform for creating and sharing what we make with others. I think it's why people are sticking around and why it makes it so maddening to see their leadership display such a lack of empathy.
On another note, I'd like to gently counter your statement about your writing. You can absolutely request payment for your writing at any point in time, and at any level. Creating takes time and effort and talent. Let readers decide whether they want to pay for that; if they don't, you're no worse off than before. But I think there's something to honoring the work we do in this way, regardless of purpose or supposed "legitimacy," that elevates the craft for us all. You can also add a link to Buy Me a Coffee or similar to any post if you don't want to contribute to Substack right now. I'm not saying you *should* do any of this; that's up to you. But that there is an argument to be made that you *could* if you wanted to, and why.
Thanks for reading NTMP; I appreciate your support very much.
This echoes conversations I have with Dave about paying our adult children to feed our cats or otherwise take care of things when we are away. He feels that we are family and should do these things for each other. And I do agree with that. But I also want my children to know that the ways they contribute have value and are worth compensation of some kind. We went out of town last weekend and I paid a token amount for one day of feeding pets, so this is fresh in my mind. I’m so glad we are able to stay connected in any way and it makes sense that we would do so through our writing.
I am glad we're able to stay connected here, too. <3 And yes, sometimes we pay the kids for above-and-beyond actions, or sometimes just to show we value them. We don't do it for everything, because that feels transactional and weird--I know you understand that balance.
Right?? Like, do I need to go back to diaryland?
Now *there's* a wayback machine reference. I forgot all about diaryland!
Drinking that smoothie a good way to join the P. F. team
An update - it looks like Substack will be banning Nazi accounts after all! Collective action gets the job done. It's a start, and I'll take it.
However, while this is a good first step, they are not changing their absolute bare minimum content moderation policy, once again playing semantic games by saying that Nazism is itself an act of violence, so that violates their standards. If only writers would take collective action about transphobia--I'm sure we could make an argument that violence against transgender folks is connected to anti-trans rhetoric.
Just read an update saying Substack is only removing 5 Nazi newsletters, but that at least 70 others remain. I keep having dissonance when I write about any of this. How far have we degraded as a culture when we even have to debate this shit?