Thanks! To be 100% scrupulous, I think there may be some effect of buyer's remorse involved, in that Substack has a tendency to sign people up to authors' recommended Substacks at the same time, so if someone isn't on the ball they might not realise they'd subscribed until the first newsletter came through. But the effect was definitely bigger than normal, so I don't think it was just that.
It is always a bit galling that writing something typically prompts an unsubscribe or two, as the email nudges someone who was thinking of doing so anyway (especially as they usually come in before any new subscribes from the post!). I'm sorry that this one had more than normal though, especially as it was a great post (as is this one, though I may be a sucker for anything that talks about probabilities of rolling different types of dice).
I've noticed the phenomenon you describe, which is why I keep my list of recommendations short. I don't want to be responsible for other people getting what they consider spam emails.
On people unsubscribing in response to nuance (not faux both-sides-ism), tho—that's just unfortunate.
For me the chief value of Twitter has been discovering people like you. The only way that it has become "shittier" in my experience is that some writers whose work I found enlightening no longer post here.
Thanks! I think some things are better (Community Notes for example), but I think the promoting blue ticks and deboosting links does make for a less pleasant and useful experience
Your piece definitely didn't annoy me and I'm sorry it came across that way!
I quoted it because I thought it was one of the best cases against trying Bluesky I'd read, and effectively vocalised many of the qualms I had before joining (and still have, even though ultimately decided to give it a go anyway.
I wasn't including you in the annoyed category. But for example, someone sent me a link to a Stephen Bush thread on BS about the piece, where various people were lining up to have a pop (which is fine of course, but I didn't get the impression that all of them had even read it before getting stuck in TBH)
I’m sad to hear about people unsubscribing when what you wrote is excellent and thoughtful. I have subscribed to make up for one of those losses!
Thanks! To be 100% scrupulous, I think there may be some effect of buyer's remorse involved, in that Substack has a tendency to sign people up to authors' recommended Substacks at the same time, so if someone isn't on the ball they might not realise they'd subscribed until the first newsletter came through. But the effect was definitely bigger than normal, so I don't think it was just that.
It is always a bit galling that writing something typically prompts an unsubscribe or two, as the email nudges someone who was thinking of doing so anyway (especially as they usually come in before any new subscribes from the post!). I'm sorry that this one had more than normal though, especially as it was a great post (as is this one, though I may be a sucker for anything that talks about probabilities of rolling different types of dice).
I've noticed the phenomenon you describe, which is why I keep my list of recommendations short. I don't want to be responsible for other people getting what they consider spam emails.
On people unsubscribing in response to nuance (not faux both-sides-ism), tho—that's just unfortunate.
For me the chief value of Twitter has been discovering people like you. The only way that it has become "shittier" in my experience is that some writers whose work I found enlightening no longer post here.
Thanks! I think some things are better (Community Notes for example), but I think the promoting blue ticks and deboosting links does make for a less pleasant and useful experience
"no longer post there" of course.
Your piece definitely didn't annoy me and I'm sorry it came across that way!
I quoted it because I thought it was one of the best cases against trying Bluesky I'd read, and effectively vocalised many of the qualms I had before joining (and still have, even though ultimately decided to give it a go anyway.
I wasn't including you in the annoyed category. But for example, someone sent me a link to a Stephen Bush thread on BS about the piece, where various people were lining up to have a pop (which is fine of course, but I didn't get the impression that all of them had even read it before getting stuck in TBH)