Writing

Substack gonna Substack (again)

I have a piddly little newsletter on Substack and after four issues, have been mulling over what to do for Issue #5 and all others going forward. In the end I decided I needed to offer more than funny/random links, I needed to offer stuff that was uniquely me, because you can’t get that stuff anywhere else unless someone clones me in my sleep.

And while it’s been challenging to get together all-original stuff™ for future newsletters, Substack keep making it harder for me to think of having a future on the platform, because I continue to question their motives and their competence.

I found their editorial on “censorship” to be a facile and weak defense of being hands-off in moderating content on their platform. It just means they are allowing hate and disinformation to find a home on Substack. They seem to be blind to where this may ultimately lead–but with more writers abandoning Substack, they might figure it out eventually.

Here’s a recent story on writers leaving on Mashable: Why Substack writers are leaving the platform, again

But while this is an ongoing (and serious) concern, it’s not even what I’m going to discuss here. It’s the release of their new iOS app and the rollout of it, and how it feels like a calculated move to benefit Substack, possibly at the expense of the writers it offers a home to.

In its initial release (which they will be changing–more on this in a bit), anyone installing the app on an iPhone or iPad would see an option to “pause email notifications” as shown in the tweet below. This option was enabled by default.

(I’ve also included a redundant image of the screenshot in the event the tweet goes away.)

Image
Pause email notifications = Never see a newsletter in your inbox again

From Casey Newton’s Platformer (hosted on Substack):

(Substack co-founder and CEO Chris) Best told me there were practical considerations for this design choice. Many people enable notifications for both Substack and email, and receiving duplicate notifications might be frustrating.

But the company also believes in the superiority of the app as a place to read. “Email is great for all of the reasons it has always been great,” Best said. “It’s low friction. It’s this direct connection where you can reach out, unmediated by the algorithm. But it’s obviously not the best version of that reading experience.”

Let’s step back and examine what Substack, at its base level is, and how it works:

  • Substack hosts newsletters from a variety of writers on a variety of topics
  • In exchange for 10% of revenue (if the writer offers paid subscriptions) Substack handles almost all of the business/technical stuff. The writer uses the provided editor/tools to put together a newsletter, hits the Publish button, and is done.
  • The newsletter then makes its way to the email inbox of anyone who has subscribed (and is also available for viewing on the Substack website)

It’s pretty simple and works as expected.

What that “Pause email notifications” does is not pause notifications. The wording is either deliberately or ineptly misleading. What it does is prevent newsletters from being sent to a subscriber’s email address. That meant that if you installed the app and didn’t change the defaults when setting it up, you would never again get any newsletters from Substack in your inbox, which is, you know, the entire point of Substack. That the CEO apparently thought this was fine because email is “not the best version of that reading experience” is telling. I find it hard to believe the ambiguous wording of this option was anything but deliberate, in order to get people to shut off newsletter emails entirely and make the app the only handy way to view newsletters (I suspect few people search for them on the Substack website, but do not have any definitive info on this one way or the other).

They have since changed this toggle to default to off after getting a great big ol’ backlash over it (no surprise there–perhaps they thought it would be smaller and they’d be able to ride it out) and have said a future update will remove the option from the onboarding process of the app and will just be something that can be toggled on under settings, should the user wish to do so.

I toggled this option off when I installed the app on my iPhone after realizing what it would do. This morning, I noticed several of my newsletters did not arrive in my inbox as they should have. I opened the app and the option was toggled back on. Great.

What I have since done:

  • Removed the app from both my iPhone and iPad
  • Begun setting up a trial on Ghost to see how easily I can move my piddly little newsletter over
  • Mulled cancelling the subs I have paid subscriptions for. I am very good at mulling.

At this point, I have little confidence that the people behind Substack care about the effects of spreading disinformation and hate (they will continue to rail against “censorship” all day long, I suppose, while their platform continues to grow ever more toxic). I have no confidence in their vision for the platform, as the way they initially set up the onboarding experience of the iOS app suggests an attempt to corral writers’ work into an app over which they will have no control. I am no longer comfortable providing them money through the subs I have.

I love the idea of Substack. But I am rapidly souring on the people behind it and the decisions they are making. It sucks.

Substack, “freedom” and my stupid little newsletter

I created a newsletter on Substack because it’s free, all the cool kids are doing it, and I thought it might be a good way to exercise some creativity, coupled with a dose of discipline. The discipline part is maybe in need of some fine-tuning. I stalled after four issues, trying to rethink what I wanted to do with the newsletter and having only vague notions but no actual content to go along with any bold re-visioning. But eventually!

In the meantime, the editorial staff of Substack pushed out a newsletter to everyone on the platform because they’re feeling the heat by hosting anti-vax writers decrying censorship.

You can read it by clicking the link below. And DO read the comments!

Society has a trust problem. More censorship will only make it worse.

As I read through the comments, I noted that they seemed to be mostly, “Boo censorship! Yay Substack!” at the start and continued mostly along those lines. Further in, though, you start to see the “uncensored on Substack” voices appear. That’s right, the lunatic fringe, safely protected on Substack because of freedom (until they cause legal troubles or other reasons, one of which I will get to shortly). These people use Substack to peddle conspiracy theories and the usual bullshit we’ve all grown used to. Substack lets them because they don’t believe in censorship, even though refusing to publish these writers would have nothing to do with censorship any more than requiring a driver’s license is censoring driving (insert your own terrible analogy here, I’ve got plenty more to spare!)

Substack’s staff doesn’t seem to want to take responsibility for the content it hosts, much like the social media companies they sneeringly look down on in the above editorial. I get it, as the platform grows, it becomes a massive pile of work to control, with the headaches to go with it. So they wrap themselves in the righteousness of being anti-censorship while allowing increasingly lunatic content to flourish.

And guess where that leads? That’s right, to Substack being known as “oh yeah, they’re the guys that host all the crank newsletters.” More reputable writers and creators who don’t peddle bullshit and lies will start moving off Substack, and more cranks will move in. Substack will defend itself as a champion of freedom as it swirls down the metaphorical bowl.

Or maybe not. Maybe it will all work out, or it turns out to be much ado about nothing. But the fact that this kind of theorizing is already in the air is not a good omen for the platform. I’m hardly the first to express these thoughts. I’m probably like the twenty-third, at least.

It’s made me think whether I want to stick with Substack, and it makes other issues with the platform (their editor is surprisingly bare bones for a place that targets writers) stand out more in relief. For now, I mull, which goes well with the mulling I am doing over the content of the newsletter. But I’ll make a decision soon.

(Originally I was going to quote from the editorial and object to certain reasoning and/or leaps of logic, but I don’t feel the piece warrants that kind of dissection. I found it pretty facile, that’s my hot take.)

Remember writing prompts?

close up photo of gray typewriter
Generic photo because I’m pretending I’m writing on Medium or something. Also, accurately reflects how I operated a typewriter. Photo by Leah Kelley on Pexels.com

Yeah, it’s been awhile. I remember vowing to do every prompt in a book filled with a thousand of them. I did ten. Here’s the last post regarding the prompts from just over five years ago: 1,000 creative writing prompts: No more of 1,000

Basically, the prompts weren’t working for me. Maybe that makes me a bad person. Probably. Either way, I gave up after achieving a mere 1% of my stated goal. I feel like I could do better. That I must do better.

So I’m going to start again, and absurdly I am going to use a book of 5,000 writing prompts that I reviewed two years ago. Here is the Goodreads link to the book:

5,000 WRITING PROMPTS: A Master List of Plot Ideas, Creative Exercises, and More

I feel these prompts will be better-suited to what I want to do, and I’m not necessarily going to try completing all 5,000 of them, though that would probably win me some kind of internet prize.

I am going to use the same parameters as I did back in 2016, so I will repost them here:

My intent is to write ultra-short stories that are no more than a few paragraphs long, working through the prompts in order. When I am done, I will perhaps have a party of some sort.

Sometimes the short stories will be longer and sometimes instead of a story I will answer the questions (most of the prompts are in the form of questions).

I will begin doing this in the next post.

UPDATE, December 15, 2021: Weirdly, it’s just one day later and the very book I’m using has shown up on sale in Book Bub again. It’s like this was meant to be. Or just a complete coincidence.

Note that below is just an image, not a link, since the sale will expire a few days after this post goes up, and I don’t want people crushed by being offered the book for full price.

Things you wrote that make you go, “Hmm”

I use the Drafts app to capture notes on the go and my typical use case is to invoke it through a complication on my Apple Watch. I tap the mic icon, then dictate whatever witty/clever thought I want to record. Sometimes the voice dictation is not completely accurate, but I can usually get the gist of what I meant from context. I found the note below in Drafts and:

  1. I have no recollection of making this note
  2. I have no idea what it means. Bad voice transcription? Fever dream? Who can say? It feels like something an erratic AI would compose, with actual meaning just out of reach.

A mystery for the ages.

11 leaven 30 you might have a talk tonight 11 leaves 30 you might have a talk tonight

Using Obsidian to try to keep myself organized

Not actual obsidian, though it would be totally cool if I could find some way to make an igneous rock keep my life organized.

In this case, it’s the Obsidian note-taking app, which promises “a second brain for you, forever.” This sounds suspiciously like promising immortality, but I’ll settle for just keeping all of my notes in a single location, so my current and only brain has an easier time remembering to find things.

Why Obsidian. Well, let’s face it, it’s a new (to me) app and I like new toys, so I had to try it out. There’s a mobile version that can sync over iCloud Drive, allowing me to make notes from any device, which is convenient. So far this doesn’t sound much different from other note-taking apps like OneNote or Evernote, but Obsidian also uses a plain folder structure and text files, so everything is portable and accessible through simple apps like Notepad (Windows) or TextEdit (Mac). Because nothing is proprietary or stored in the cloud (unless you choose to put it there), your data is secure and yours alone. Obsidian also supports Markdown for quick formatting and has some features that promise to expand it beyond just a random collection of notes, such as:

  • Backlinking. Obsidian allows you to easily create links between notes, expanding what notes can do.
  • Plugins. Both core and community-made, extending the capabilities of the app.
  • Graph view. This visually shows relationships between notes.

Really, if I can just stick to Obsidian for all my note-taking, that would be a huge improvement over having to search for notes in OneNote, Ulysses, iA Writer, Drafts, the iOS Notes app, Notepad, Notepad++ and whatever else I’ve used over the years. None of these are bad programs–some of them I really enjoy using! But scattering my notes over all of them just makes it harder to find things, and stuff gets lost or forgotten. Or both. Lostgotten.

We’ll see how it goes, but I am cautiously optimistic that this is the beginning of some actual organization on my part and will usher in 2022: The Year of Really Fantastic Organization.

NaNoWriMo 2021 update #2 (I think, or is it #3?)

Well, it never happened.

About ten days ago I went back to the idea of picking up on an unfinished NaNo project and re-read the 22,000 or so words of The Journal. And I liked it! Enough that I chose to pick it up, knowing I was unlikely to hit the 50,000 word goal, even with that head start.

But then the writing part never happened. I muddled about, then worked on other stuff. And so here we are with only three days left (including today) and unless I can manage 9,333 words per day, I will fall short. Alas.

But I think I will revisit The Journal, anyway, just on my own schedule, whatever that may be.

Technically, I didn’t actually “lose” NaNo 2021 because I never officially declared a project, but still, I feel bad. Fortunately, I have no cookies to console myself with, because I’d convince myself I need a lot of consoling, a lot of delicious chocolate chip-flavored consoling.

The dreaded writer’s blocks

No, this isn’t about my effort or lack thereof during National Novel Writing Month (that will be another post), this is about a quote from an overview of various writing programs:

This program focuses on productivity, allowing you to successfully avoid the dreaded writer’s blocks.

First, I want to know, who is this dreaded writer?

Second, what’s up with his/her/their blocks? I understand wanting to avoid them–blocks sound like they could hurt–but what are they? What are they made of? Where do they come from? Can I get some and also become a dreaded writer?

Bonus observation: Why do so many pages covering writing apps have such poor writing? Is it meant to be ironic? Have the authors of these pieces suffered from too many of the dreaded writer’s blocks?

National Novel Writing Month 2021 Update #2: In which a tumbleweed is spotted

A visual representation of my effort so far this month:

Sass by Laramie Briscoe — Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs ...

I’d like to say I’ve been busy with other things, and that is true, to a degree. I’ve also been horribly distracted by stuff outside my control. I’m willing to still give this a go two weeks late, so come Monday I’ll provide Update #3, which will tell the tale of whether I actually wrote something. It could happen!

To NaNoWriMo or not NaNoWriMo (2021)

About a month ago I wondered if I would do Inktober this year and voilà! I did a drawing on the first day.

I then did no further drawings, going 1/31.

I skipped National Novel Writing Month last year and didn’t regret the decision. My circumstances are different this year, and I’ve been mulling over whether to take part.

I’m still not sure, with mere hours before it officially begins.

What I do know is that if I do take part, it will be as a full-on pantser, perhaps even a full-on pants-on-head.

I have made a few decisions if I do participate:

  • I won’t continue a previous story
  • I won’t rework a previous story
  • In other words, this will be something 100% new
  • Probably something spooky or weird

But really, there’s a good chance I won’t actually do it. I like the idea of plunging in completely unprepared, though. It adds a certain zest.

Tomorrow I’ll update (for real) with either my announced project, an excuse for why it isn’t quite announced yet, or an admission that it ain’t gonna happen.

I started a newsletter

No, I don’t know why. But I can explain how I got here:

  1. I decided I wanted to move away from Gmail for [reasons]
  2. I began searching for other email services
  3. I initially settled on Outlook.com because I already had a subscription to Office Microsoft 365, anyway
  4. Outlook.com is mostly fine but doesn’t really do anything new with email, and the UI is bland and boring. I began looking again.
  5. I settled on trying out HEY email. Yes, they like you to spell it all shouty like that. HEY got me a new email address and I like the way it looks. It does a few things differently and while I’m not yet convinced I’ll stay with it long term, it’s a fine second email service for me to play around with.
  6. HEY offers something called HEY World, which lets you write an email that gets posted to your own custom mini-blog. Mine is here: https://world.hey.com/stan.james
  7. Two friends humored me and subscribed, but the whole thing is pretty basic. But it gave me a taste of something different, and eventually I wanted more.
  8. Today is also the day that Austin Kleon moved his weekly newsletter to Substack. I read several other Substack-hosted newsletters and began mulling moving my random thoughts from HEY World to Substack, where I can experiment and be weird on the internet.

Which brings me to my Substack newsletter, cleverly titled Stan’s Random Newsletter. You can see it here: https://stanjames.substack.com/ (I also have a handy link on the right sidebar of this blog.)

Can I just keep posting random nonsense here on my blog? Yes! Will I continue doing so? Yes! So why use Substack? Because there’s something about a newsletter that’s different, even if it’s simply the convenience of sending the random thoughts directly to someone via email. If they like the random thoughts, they can get more without doing anything. No websites to remember, no fuss, no muss (what is muss, anyway?)

I have no idea how long I’ll keep this up or what will come of it, but I’ll play around with it for a while and see where it goes. I’ll start by padding it out with some of my HEY World posts, because a smart author knows how to utilize existing resources. Or something.