Wait, it's February already?

I should post something then...

Feb 9

More than a month without writing anything here? That’s quite a bit.

It’s not just because I’ve been busy/tired/procrastinating. The truth is that I don’t know what to do with this Substack.

When I first heard about Substack, I really liked the idea. I quickly found many great writers to follow, read, and get to know. I wanted to join in on the fun. But I already had a few blogs. Maybe I could start a Substack to talk about my blogging, and tell you what’s going on over there, as you can’t be following all my blogs and I always create new ones and shut down old ones (I did it again a couple of weeks ago).

This is what I did for a short while, but then I thought I could write original content here too, only links to my blogs wouldn’t be enough to grow this thing, and let’s be crazy, have a few paying subscribers too.

Still, every time I wrote something new here, I had the feeling that I should have been writing it on my blog instead.

And then Musk bought Twitter, chaos on the web ensued, and it made me think a lot about how we’ve been using the internet for the past couple of decades. You can read a lot of these thoughts in the previous post here, also available on my blog.

I finished the post saying that the Substack situation probably deserved its own post. I guess this is what you’re reading at the moment.

The thing is that I felt a weird shift with Substack during the past few months. They made a few changes (and still are) that indicate that it doesn’t really want to be a newsletter/blogging service anymore, but rather its own environment, almost a social media.

And I’m not too sure how I feel about that.

Also, in their own newsletter, they recently promoted the *quote* journalist *unquote* who got hired by Musk to uncover the “Twitter files!” You know, the thing that Musk and other Right-Wingers thought was going to show that Twitter silenced their kind and that instead “uncovered” that Twitter’s moderating team was actually trying to do its job and follow the law and the rules until they got fired by Musk. That, somehow, didn’t sit well with me. Musk has also talked about buying Substack, several times. And Twitter shutting down Revue - its own newsletter service - is a clear telltale sign that it may actually happen.

And even if he doesn’t buy Substack, this place remains one of these companies where we create content that we barely own in order to enrich some billionaire (or multi-millionaire, or whatever). As I mentioned in that previous post, we have become too dependent on them and I think we need to change that from now on. We’ve been giving them too much money and - more important - too much power for the past 20 years or so.

So yeah, I’m wondering what to do with this Substack, basically.

I like the service, I really do. I’m not sure I like everything else surrounding it.

What am I going to do?

I’m not too sure yet.

I think that I’ll keep this open for now.

I’ll keep on crossposting some articles from my blogs.

I could resume summarizing what’s been happening on my blogs.

I probably will.

However, don’t be surprised if your e-mail address (as part of my mailing list of people who have subscribed to me at some point) gets moved around a little bit. And please, bear with me (and remain subscribed) in these uncertain times.

If you’re still reading, I’d be curious to know what you think. My analytics (if they’re to be trusted, are they?) tell me that between 100 and 200 people read this newsletter, and I think your opinion matters.

In the meantime, here are my various plans and ideas.

For the near future, no real change. Maybe I’ll use this place more for directing you to my blogs. It was its original purpose after all.
Eventually, I’ll probably move elsewhere. Project Mushroom is currently working on a newsletter system that is decentralized, Fediverse-compatible, and not owned by a billionaire or a would-be-billionaire. I’m following closely what they’re doing and if I like it, I may just move there.
I’m also looking at newsletter options directly from my blogs. But that may mean needing to have one newsletter per blog, which would mean more work (available time is still one of the reasons why I don’t write enough these days). Not to mention more blog and website maintenance (it can be time-consuming at times).

Talking about my blogs, here are the three that are currently active:

Liminal Web, where I post pretty much whatever goes through my mind and deserves a spot on the web. If I just shut down all newsletters and focus on blogging only, this is where you’ll find my soliloquies.
Setouchi Explorer, my blog/site devoted to my corner of Japan and the Setouchi Triennale. (the site’s French-language counterpart is still active too, but do you care?)
MetaStructure is quite empty at the moment, but this is where you’ll eventually find the fiction that I’m writing. I have been writing more fiction for the past few months, but as opposed to blogging, posting fiction as I’m writing it is a perilous exercise. So content will come, not just yet.

I advise you to subscribe to them individually if you haven’t done so yet, it’s one of the safest ways to keep track of me on the web.

If you were subscribed to Swamp Media, I stopped it (for now). Its goal always was to be multi-authored but my co-authors’ lives have taken busy turns recently and they can’t be a part of it anymore, for now. My being the sole author of both Swamp Media and Liminal Web didn’t make sense. It may or may not return in the future. No idea.

Social media-wise, I’m less and less active on Twitter and more and more active on Mastodon. You can find me there Davidb@zirk.us and there David@spore.social.

What else?

Let’s talk about money for a minute.

My following is not big enough to make a living from writing online, and it probably never will, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t give me money for my work. It would help pay the bills and motivate me to create more content, more often. :-)

If you want to be a part of the people supporting my work, you currently have two options. Becoming a paying subscriber here or you can “buy me a coffee” for one-time donations. I’m contemplating starting a Patreon, but I’m not sure if I have a following big enough for this. What do you think? Your opinion matters on the issue, especially if you would like to support my work and can do it.

Okay, I think that’s all for now.

I’ll probably be back in a few days with links to my recent blog posts.

Thanks for reading.