THE DEATH OF DISCUSSION
Substack sinks to the level of cable television
Besides enjoying the rush of sharing my addled Boomer thoughts to the Interweb, I have had fun sharing ideas and thoughts with other writers on this website. The comments following some articles are often as interesting and eye-opening as the initial post.
Yet there has been a growing movement among those who post on Substack to prevent non-paying readers from adding to a discussion or posting any comment whatsoever without first ponying up ransom money for the freedom to chat. It has caused me to stop reading some of my favorite writers.
Those hungry capitalists who now are demanding payment for sharing their words of wit have put themselves in the awkward position of being forced to submit regular offerings to please their subscribers. I would not care to have that unnecessary pressure put on me and I can’t get over the number of Substack participants who now insist on posting boring and time-consuming podcasts that are typically as interesting as those stupid ads on the Internet that require you to watch a seeminly endless video before deciding the product is a ripoff.
It is simply narcissism? Have these contributors now become teenaged girls, desperate for attention and approval? I suppose TikTok is not sophisticated enough for some of the attention ghouls.
I don’t know and I don’t care. All I know for sure is that Bidenomics, the heirarchy of needs, and common sense have made purchasing Substack subscriptions lower on my list of priorities than food, fuel, home maintenance, two dogs, a monthly gift to Boys Town and my monthly contribution for the care of my pig Carlton at the Ironwood Pig Sanctuary.
A typical subscription to read the (often repetitious) words of a Substacker runs about $100.00. An annual subscription to the Theosophical Society’s QUEST magazine is $27.00. There are three writers on Substack whose offerings I always look forward to and I’ll become a paid subscriber to one of these in four months. I don’t feel I can afford more. I currently subscribe to two paid Substacks.
I guess I’ll sign up for Truth Social now that I’ve been given a lifetime ban from Twitter.
PEACE
I can understand why some writers (like R.Malone) would allow everyone to read, but not comment, because some writes seem to attract a lot of trolls. It helps keep the comment section elevated. But I agree if it’s only to attract more paying subscribers, it doesn’t seem like a good business model.
I definitely agree there are a lot of writes just churning out echo chamber content, adding a lot of links and not adding much original thought.
I only subscribe (paid) to two Substacks, Igor Chudov and Brad (Euphoric Recall) , both for their excellent content and they seem like good people. Curious who your top picks are for subscriptions. Wish I could afford to subscribe to more as well, just to help support great writers trying to get heard on alt media.
There will be no paywall for scott m. As I have said, no one in hisorher right mind would pay to read my stuff.