11 Comments
User's avatar
Jim's avatar

Great news. Count me in.

Aaron Ross Powell's avatar

I admit, this setup still feels a bit like a hack. My dream would be for Substack to officially support blogging, perhaps by letting you create a blog section of your newsletter, and have posts show up on the website and then be automatically bundled into emails to subscribers at a pace subscribers could set for themselves. E.g., "Email me all the latest blog posts every day, or once a week, etc.)

J.K. Lundblad's avatar

This looks like a really good idea and good use of the platform!

Gérard Mclean's avatar

Do you have to send out things to email, though? I thought you could just publish to the web and it sorta hangs out there for people to find if they go looking...

Aaron Ross Powell's avatar

I think so? But then I shut off the option of notifications for anyone who does want them, and while Substack has RSS feeds, the culture of using feed readers instead of email to track blogs is basically gone. Thus I plan to send them via email, but to a separate list that people have the option to turn off if they only want to get my essays and/or podcast episodes in their inbox.

My ideal scenario would be for Substack to support blogging, and then let people choose how often they want to get an email, and have the system generate and email to them bundling all of the blog posts published since their last email.

Gérard Mclean's avatar

That would be awesome. I’m watching your project because I want something like that and I’m very tired of WP (hosted and local) endless updates and security ... and Medium which is not the same :( ... I want a newsletter, but also a side “blog” for less fleshed out stuff ... and also, don’t really want everyone seeing everything and calling the police for wellness checks 😁😁😁😬😳 ... anyway...

Paul Crider's avatar

Oh I like this idea!

Mark Kolke's avatar

I tried initially - and then again in response to you query, two things happened.

1. when I tried my first keystroke I got a pop up telling me an email was sent to me to verify my identity before I could respond.

... this is my copy/paste version of that:

Here’s a link to sign in to Aaron Ross Powell. This link can only be used once and expires after 24 hours. If expired, please try logging in again here.

Sign in now

© 2023 Aaron Ross Powell

548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104

2. I went to check my in-box, and there was an email asking me to verify, and inviting me to click on it; only then could I get to this window and pop in my thoughts. I don't think it's me, but you might want to check your settings - something is triggering Substack to do that for you, and I suspect you might not want that. I know I wouldn't want a roadbock between me and my readers who want to comment on what I've posted.

Cheers,

Mark

Mark Kolke's avatar

p.s. the 'double-authenticate' process will discourage writers; as a subscriber you already know who I am, so why the extra step?

Aaron Ross Powell's avatar

What do you mean by the "'double-authenticate' process?"

Mark Kolke's avatar

Congrats on sticking your toe in uncharted waters.

I'm a new follower of yours, so for me the 'jury is out', so I won't offer opinions of any kind until I've had a meal or two your writing to digest ...

However, under the heading of 'blink-like impressions, hoarders, ADHD distractions freaks, and general common sense', GET A CLEANING lady, clean out that gong show office and let your focus grow!

Cheers,

Mark