As most of you probably know, I started a substack a few weeks ago. So far I have kept both blog and substack going, although most of my posts have been on the latter. The question is whether there is any reason to continue to do so. Are there readers of the blog who can't, or for some reason prefer not to, read the substack? Are there people who would find the blog but not the substack?
Of my two recent posts here, one was a new idea that I wanted to get some response to before revising it for the substack. The other was an announcement of a planned speaking trip. I will put that on the substack as well, but was concerned that some people might be reading only here.
Suggestions? I've been running the blog for eighteen years so feel reluctant to shut it down, but I'm not sure there is any good reason not to. I would still leave it up so people could read all posts, at least until I find a good way to set up the old posts as an archive.
19 comments:
Please choose a single channel for communicating. That makes it easier for me to keep track of your thoughts.
Only a matter of time before google kills bigger off anyway
As a reader, I see no difference. Blogger and Substack both have a RSS feed and can easily be followed in Feedly, which I use. Maybe there is a difference as a writer? Good luck making a choice between them!
Maybe I'll have to adapt to blog content coming in by email, but I'm not a fan of content via email. I subscribed to the substack, but I've only read a few of them.
Is there a good reason why you can't publish the free content to both and let the users choose the method of consumption?
I currently read the blogger blog through RSS feed on Dreamwidth. Gu Si Fang says Substack supports RSS, so I presume I could get it the same way, but I haven't tried it yet.
Cease updating here, no difference I can discern.
I follow you on the Blog.
G.
Substack may seem like a good solution now but its not controlled by you and you have no say in the future of it. Why would you move from one jail to the other? Why not host your own website on servers that you actually own? All it needs is a small computer ( Raspberry Pi,...) a static ip ( or ddns ) a domain and some software depending on your needs! You should be in full power of your blog not some business or other entity.
I am really curious why you decided against a self hosted solution and looking forward to your response!
Personally I don't mind either way, I'll just change the RSS endpoint I'm following. But if you switch, you might loose some readers in the process? Unclear.
I am subscribed to both. I think Substack is a better platform than Blogger but the difference is marginal.
I am going to disagree with the Anonymous poster who said you should run your own server. Server management is a job. How much time, technical skill and money is required varies depending on many factors. And no matter what, sometimes you will get an Ungood surprise. Perhaps even Plus Ungood.
I do recommend good backups of all your posts in cases something happens.
I noticed that Robin Hanson recently moved Overcoming Bias to Substack, and it looked like he somehow moved all of his old blog posts over. I dunno if something similar is doable here.
I'll miss the old aesthetics, but the beat goes on.
It seems as if you have to log in to read things on Substack. I probably won't sign up for it; I have an increasing resistance to adding more things that require me to log in.
Switching over to substack may be a good idea in terms of format/discoverability, but I'd strongly recommend leaving this blog up as you suggest you will. Not only will many people have posts on here bookmarked/linked from elsewhere, many of the posts here will have been indexed by search engines and seen substantial traffic. Shutting down the blog would make it far harder for anyone searching for an old blog post by title to find it via a search engine.
I'd like you to keep it. I recently cancelled all my Substack subscriptions because I got tired of the extent to which Substack tracks me. For people who haven't noticed, every link in a Substack post is a tracking link. Unless you're trying to make money from it, Substack offers nothing that an RSS feed doesn't do better.
I didn't know about your Substack.
Keep the blog URL live, with a link to the Substack on it.
If you haven't moved over old posts, leave them visible here.
If you have moved them, remove links from the home page, but leave them live for anybody who has old links to find.
If you're really ambitious, create auto-forwards for each old post to the old post's new location on Substack.
I suggest leaving the blog intact for as long as you can tolerate it for the sake of avoiding linkrot of posts all over the web that point to it.
It makes sense to concentrate your posting on just one, it looks like that's Substack, but it should be easy to have the new posts linked on the blog for those who prefer following you there rather than the effort to join and follow Substack.
I have to admit I had not subscribed to anything on Substack before you raised this question and I added subs for you and Scott Alexander - which now show up kind of unwanted and unnecessarily in my mailbox - while I'd rather follow an RSS feed.
Substack seems okay at present and Blogger hasn't turned evil yet. I'd like to see independent bloggers thrive, but it's a lot of work to find and maintain suitable hosting.
Leave it up. This form is more digestible to me.
It looks like you have shut it down.
G.
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