Trying out solar-powered tech. Working well so far. t.co/S3jWViwDR… 
Campfire reading.
Currently reading: Coasting by Elise Downing 📚 micro.blog/books/97817878… t.co/ZFtvMjxIi… 
Night in the woods. t.co/wYypvgors… 
I hope I never end up with enough followers that a stupid but amusingly rude typo I make ends up trending.
@iroughol @ianjsilvera Oh, yes, I’d forgotten about the job quitting requirement - although it is in the piece I linked.
@Hinchcliffe @londoninbits Well, a big chunk of cash is never a bad thing…
They do seem to have done a poor job of filtering for people with business/marketing skills as well as editorial ones, though, and I suspect that was the major flaw in the initiative.
@MattNavarra 👍🏻
@ianjsilvera Yup - they’re pretty selective who they talk to, and we’re clearly too small fish. :-)
It was always clear that they were boot-up grants, yes, but the lack of follow-up, and the quiet closure of some of the support they were offered beyond the grants is worth noting, I think.
And it’s not pretty…
onemanandhisblog.com/2022/08/substa…
(2/2)
What happened to Substack Local? What happened to Substack’s health care initiative? Are comics creators still flocking to the platform?
A year ago, there was a blaze of publicity around all these things — but what’s the outcome a year on?
Time for some follow-up.
(1/2)
Somewhere between #metaverse hype and cynicism, there’s a more prosaic (augmented) reality struggling to emerge…
This week’s newsletter:
- Some more thoughts on the “helpful content” update
- Why Facebook is killing its best tool
- And an obituary of a genuine mag trailblazer…
Currently reading: Mistletoe Winter by Roy Dennis 📚 Such a melancholy book. It’s absolutely bursting with Roy’s joy in nature, and his knowledge of it. But his awareness of the climate crisis ever hovers in the background, like Banquo’s ghost. micro.blog/books/97819133…
Apparently I’m in the mood for photographing sunflowers at the moment. t.co/HrXNyQnJp… 
Lovely light on the Adur this afternoon. t.co/4CE7zUrut… 
@djknowles22 @guardian Commiserations on your loss, Mr K.
A field near Petworth in the heart of the English summer. t.co/z4vCG8Igf… 
Yes, Substack is down. While you’re waiting for it to come back up, this piece - about its growing pains - is worth your time:
The more we learn about the Warner Bros Discovery / Batgirl mess, the weirder it seems. bleedingcool.com/movies/the-bat…
@iroughol Oh, no intention of coming back. Passed 20 years since I proposed last week, and it’s still the best decision I ever made.
A long dive into the current and future fortunes of the tarnished newsletter platform Substack. The easy ride is over. These are the hard yards. onemanandhisblog.com/2022/08/substa…
Wow. Tinder’s a decade old. It’s been two decades since I dated, (happily married!) and the landscape has changed out of all recognition in that time. But is it for the better? thecut.com/article/dating…
Aaargh. Why does @iroughol always end up as Isabella not Isabelle in my posts? And why do I always end up correcting things after I publish, no matter how long I spend proofing them? t.co/zZbvdO0MT…
So, here it is:
onemanandhisblog.com/2022/08/substa…
The easy ride is over. The next few years of economic — and PR — pain will determine what happens to the platform that’s come to symbolise the newsletter renaissance.