Good morning, afternoon, or evening, depending on where you are.
This post is going to be quick and probably won’t come as a surprise as this newsletter has been inactive for quite some time.
This is to inform you that I’m closing it. There are a bunch of reasons for that, mostly two:
I don’t have enough time to write a newsletter in addition to all the rest (for which I also don’t have enough time)
I don’t like the direction Substack has been going: trying to become a social network, having a pretty lax attitude with content moderation, and these sorts of things.
I’m not closing the account, I want to be optimistic and leave the door open to something in the future, but this is not for now.
So, what’s next?
I want to refocus writing on my blogs, and I took the liberty to transfer my list of subscribers here (that’s you) there.
A lot of you were already subscribers to one or more of my blogs. I hope I didn’t make a mistake and subscribed you twice. If that’s the case, I want to apologize in advance.
I’m not sure whether you’re going to receive a notification from those automatic subscriptions but you should receive a notification the next time I post something.
Also, I fully understand that you may not be interested in all of my blogs, so do not hesitate to unsubscribe to the ones that are not for you.
When you read this, you should be subscribed (or in the process of being subscribed) to these three blogs:
Setouchi Explorer: my blog that talks about my corner of Japan - Kagawa Prefecture and the Eastern part of the Seto Inland Sea.
Liminal Web (same name as here): my blog about everything else. Some serious things, some hopefully fun things, and everything in between.
MetaStructure: I’ve been trying to write fiction more and this is where I post most of them.
Once again, feel free to unsubscribe from the ones that are not for you.
Money?
Some of you were generous enough to be my paying subscribers here. If you wish to continue doing so, you have several options.
Simply remain a paying subscriber here. As I’m not closing this account, if you stay subscribed here, you still can help me finance my sites and more.
You may wish to unsubscribe from Substack and subscribe to another service. I have set up a few that allow both one-time payments and recurrent payments. Namely Patreon, Ko-Fi, Buy Me a Coffee, or simply PayPal. You’ll find the links on each of the blogs.
If you do not wish to become or remain a paying subscriber, please don’t. I’m already touched that you’re willing to be my reader.
Social Media
While I think I spend way too much time there, I feel I need to mention the places where you can find me these days.
Facebook Group: I administrate a Facebook group devoted to my corner of Japan and the Setouchi Triennale
Mastodon: Where I mostly talk about Japan, art, climate, and the crows that live in my neighborhood.
Firefish: Another micro-blogging platform that’s part of the Fediverse (i.e. can communicate with all other Fediverse platforms) and where I talk about pretty much everything else. In a sense, my Mastodon account is a bit of a companion to Setouchi Explorer and Firefish goes with Liminal Web, but in reality, the limit is quite porous.
PixelFed: It’s the Fediverse equivalent to Instagram (I’m also there until I’m not) but it’s much better in many ways (not being owned by a billionaire and being part of the Fediverse for starters)
BlueSky: It’s not as awesome as the Fediverse, but it’s a fun place.
Threads: I’m not a big fan, but I use it more or less.
I may have forgotten one or two (oh there’s YouTube too, you can find the links on the blogs) but that’s the gist of it.
Alright, I think this is it for now.
I hope to see you on my blogs soon.
And for no reason whatsoever except for the title, let’s finish with some music. (fun fact, this song was everywhere when I arrived in the US during the summer of 1998, and it’s been special to me since, lots and lots of memories attached to it)