bad cattitude to add paid option

read on, it may not be what you think

as BC hits 20k, i’m going to use this milestone to announce some changes.

bad cattitude is enabling a subscription option.

yes, i know i said i was not going to do this, and no, i am NOT going to put most of this behind a paywall. all the covid data, all the political and ethical discussion is going to remain free, as it should be.

“but i thought you said you don’t need our money?’

correct. i don’t.

“so why are you doing this?”

good question. here’s why:

1. substack is a great partner. i want them to succeed. they are also a business. they don’t clutter us with ads or spam us. they only get paid if i enable subscriptions. and i want them to get paid because i want them to thrive. so i think it’s fair that we who get so much from them undertake to pay a little rent around here. nobody likes a freeloader.

2. adding paid will open up new features for emails and get us added to their directories and promotions. this ups our signal and our reach. i think we’re actually one of the bigger substacks on this platform, probably in the top 1% by reach and engagement. let’s turn up the volume.

3. i may not need your money, but others do. perhaps, if the largess is sufficient, i’ll actually go interspecies hire a data hound who is more fluent in tableau and some other fetch and automate systems that will take this enterprise out of excel and into something with more analytic reach and power. there are certainly several lawsuits for freedom i am in touch with that could use funding as well. if all else fails, i know some truly amazing folks at some animal shelters who can and always will do incredible work with this extra cash. helping eliminate “kill shelters” has been a longstanding involvement of mine. so, one way or another, we’ll find a worthy use.

so, look: nobody has to pay.

you can keep getting more or less what’s coming out now. but if you do chose to pay, maybe we can do some good and maybe we can help the platform that’s helping us thrive to thrive as well.

“so do we get anything extra for our subscription?”

yeah, i think probably you do. exactly what is still not entirely clear to me, but i suspect it will be something along the lines of extra cat memes, memepool collections of the stunning amounts of funny stuff i get sent in a week, genuine el gato malo candid shots, and other such mischief. perhaps the occasional deep thought.

that’s something of a work in progress.

(actual el gato candid shot, complete with deep thoughts)

there is also the possibility that i get motivated at some point and in service of numerous requests, generate some merch.

because that would be funny. and i do like funny.

so why $5?

i dunno. because it’s 5 bucks.

OK, you sold me. how do i sign up?

it’ll be on the bottom.

there may be some bugs here and i hope i have not done anything wonky like disabled comments for non subscribers, that is 100% NOT my intention and if that does occur, can someone please tell me so i can sort that out right away?

thanks guys.

onward.