Personal newsletters as a calmer alternative to social networks
philipithomas.com
Personal newsletters as a calmer alternative to social networks
1–10 of 75 posts
Re: Personal newsletters as a calmer alternative to social networks
#2Hmmm, I like this idea. It's more or less rebranding good ol' blogs that do the same thing (more or less) as "Personal Newsletters" which I'd imagine have a wider appeal and may get wider adoption/traction?
Telling people "I have a blog" or "I have a substack" or any of the other many alternatives, doesn't sound quite as nice as "I have a personal newsletter".
And I've been telling people I have a blog since the 90s!
Re: Personal newsletters as a calmer alternative to social networks
#3Hmmm, I like this idea. It's more or less rebranding good ol' blogs that do the same thing (more or less) as "Personal Newsletters" which I'd imagine have a wider appeal and may get wider adoption/traction? Telling people "I have a blog" or "I have a substack" or any of the other many alternatives, doesn't sound quite as nice as "I have a personal newsletter". And I've been telling people I have a blog since the 90s!
OP here.
Blogs have a permanence about them. I think that permanence make people hesitate to write - almost like the posts are academic papers.
I prefer "newsletter" instead because it sounds more ephemeral and personal. You can delete or hide them in the future.
(For Postcard specifically - I'm working on the ability to add better privacy controls to individual posts - so that they can be public, unlisted, or private.)
Re: Personal newsletters as a calmer alternative to social networks
#4This is an interesting idea, however, I find it difficult to find time to even sit and scroll through Twitter and read news-based newsletters. It would be nice to have long form updates from friends and write my own as well, but I think with the pace of living this is not possible - which is unfortunate!
Re: Personal newsletters as a calmer alternative to social networks
#5This is an interesting idea, however, I find it difficult to find time to even sit and scroll through Twitter and read news-based newsletters. It would be nice to have long form updates from friends and write my own as well, but I think with the pace of living this is not possible - which is unfortunate!
I'll write a separate post about how I use a newsletter. But, addressing some of your points:
- I write a personal update every month. So, there's a cadence.
- When I write a post, I still share it on social media. So, people who prefer socials can still receive updates.
- My philosophy is "Write once, share everywhere." Email is just one way to get content - but Postcard even has full-text RSS on it.
Re: Personal newsletters as a calmer alternative to social networks
#6This is what I liked about the open blogosphere of 2000 to 2008. Whereas something like Twitter is optimized for the fast-take and the brutal one-liner, blogs allowed actual conversations. You could write something serious, develop the idea, and maybe some other people would engage with it, also at a serious level. But then the walled-gardens began to gain ground (Facebook, Twitter, and then later Instagram) and the era of the blogs came to an end. (Yes, they still exist, but they most exist as standalone essays, not engaged in conversation with other blogs.)
Re: Personal newsletters as a calmer alternative to social networks
#7I like the idea of building a newsletter in order to interact with like-minded people. The hard part is to convince these people to subscribe. If you are already well known, it might work. If not, you are back to social networks.
Of course one might question the point of trying to be noticed. But if you want to connect with interesting people, find contract work or grow a small company, building relationships is essential.
Re: Personal newsletters as a calmer alternative to social networks
#8Hmmm, I like this idea. It's more or less rebranding good ol' blogs that do the same thing (more or less) as "Personal Newsletters" which I'd imagine have a wider appeal and may get wider adoption/traction? Telling people "I have a blog" or "I have a substack" or any of the other many alternatives, doesn't sound quite as nice as "I have a personal newsletter". And I've been telling people I have a blog since the 90s!
But Substack is a newsletter service?
Re: Personal newsletters as a calmer alternative to social networks
#9Hmmm, I like this idea. It's more or less rebranding good ol' blogs that do the same thing (more or less) as "Personal Newsletters" which I'd imagine have a wider appeal and may get wider adoption/traction? Telling people "I have a blog" or "I have a substack" or any of the other many alternatives, doesn't sound quite as nice as "I have a personal newsletter". And I've been telling people I have a blog since the 90s!
But Substack is a newsletter service?
True, I guess I'm lumping in anything that's even close. I have read many things written on substack and I'm only subscribed to one or two. I suppose I'm just counting anything with an email side and a web side?
Re: Personal newsletters as a calmer alternative to social networks
#10After the last few years, when I hear "newsletter" my brain translates it to "poorly-proofread overlong blog post with lots of pleas to subscribe to a Patreon"