First of all, I can see people commenting so as long as nobody gets kicked off the option to interact, that's Great and sounds like a good move.
Here's a bit of an issue I have sith the Substack business model: I follow quite a few substacks and with time, I will probably add more. 5 bucks a month doesn't sound like much for a dude of little means like myself. But 5 more for another writer... and 5 for another etc. Eventually I could see how, if a lot of people went with an exclusionary paid option, I would have to let some substacks go, or feel a little left out on substacks that I like, but where I can't participate in the discussion.
I know that's not the case here! You've been very clear about that and good on you.
This is just a chance for me to comment that maybe, just maybe, it could be interesting for several writers to come together and do a sort of "newspaper" or "content channel" for a price that would allow people to pay all the writers they like, participate in the discussions, and not feel too pinched.
a lot of content creators are seeking to make a living here and this is their livelihood, so i can see them wanting to be paid for their efforts, many of which are really excellent and sharing pie and arguing about who is pulling the weight and brining in the readers gets fraught.
even limiting comments is a complex issue as it limits discussion and stunts debate with those not in your tribe. but, otoh, if you have the legions of trolls that so relentlessly attack a guy like berenson, open comments make every post a food fight of jerks being jerks and you lose all signal which discourages those with useful contributions.
it's easier for me because this is not my profession. confederation is always an interesting possibility and cross commenting privileges etc may emerge. ultimately, i suspect that a lot of this moves away from silos and into a real peer to peer network dominated by micropayments and who knows what other structures.
a time of great experimentation and adaptation is approaching.
Even Reddit has a better democratic process for its censorship. Substack is far from egalitarian (e.g. writer in residence). Commenting seems to be all/nothing/pay to play/author tyranny. Not a rosy platform for someone who is pro-speech, anti-censorship, or supports neutral media; sadly, I’m unaware of better alternatives.
Not sure what censorship goes on here, but what happened to r/ivermectin is criminal, and I personally got a permanent ban in (I think) r/coronavirus for saying that natural immunity is better than vaccine immunity.
I pay for 5 Substacks, totaling $26/month. I subscribe to about a dozen more. A WSJ digital sub runs around $39/month, so I may pick 2 more to pay for, get up to around $40/month since that's roughly what ONE digital/"newspaper" subscription would cost, AND, I'd be getting 7 independent journalists' content, not just one newspaper's content.
What I may also consider is rotating my pay-subscriptions among the 15-18 I subscribe to, four months on, four months off, for 8 at a time. Something like that. I definitely want to support independent journalism (because really, that's the only journalisming that's going on anymore), but I have to do it within my budget.
I reallocated my WSJ subscription money to Substack. haha. I sent WSJ an email when I cancelled saying "the propaganda you all are pushing, along with censoring of comments, is abundantly available and free of charge if that's what I was interested in. I asked myself, why am I paying for this? I couldn't come up with a decent answer, though I do appreciate the opinon section. I imagine they will all ultimately be on Substack so I'm all done paying WSJ."
I burned myself with WSJ, that's how I know it's $39.99/month. I have consistently signed up for their $1/3 months deal, and I always set calendar reminders to cancel a few days before the deal expired and I'd be charged the full price. Well, this time the expiration date was the first couple of days of January, and I was visiting family and traveling between VA and ME when the calendar alert came in...and I missed it.
I surely didn't miss the email telling me that I'd just been charged $38.99 for the next month. Jeez. What a dunce.
You WSJ former subscribers inspired me with your business model. I currently subscribe to the NYTimes and also the Epoch Times (digital). I think I will reduce my NYTimes subscription to maybe Wed (food!) and weekends (book review!) because their news is so biased I can't stand it. That will save me enough money to support more substack journalists--guilt free.
Ha Ha I'm 79 years old and increasingly absent minded. Sometimes I think my household (I live alone) would keep running itself even if I died because my rent, utilities, insurance, etc. are all on autopay. I don't dare trust myself to cancel anything. SO I refuse to sign up for "subscribe and save." The more subscriptions, the more likely for unwanted charges. I've even stopped signing up for "free samples (only $5 postage)" I got burned because by signing up for the "free sample," I was unknowingly signing up for a monthly delivery which then cost $79 and I had to spend time canceling the credit card payment. I don't sign up for ANYTHING now. Although I do get tempted...
I'm mostly an arch conservative. Yet three of the Substacks I pay for are Alex Berenson (formerly of the Leftist NY Times and an ardent anti-Trumper), Bari Weiss (formerly of the Leftist NY Times), and Glenn Greenwald (a Liberal if not Leftist).
If anything is going to save civilization from the utterly destructive effects of the corrupt, dishonest alphabet legacy media it'll be independent journalists, and OUR efforts to expand their reach to folks who don't know they exist. I was one of those folks. I didn't have a clue about the proliferation of indy journos on Substack until...[checking...] until late August 2021. I signed up with Glenn in October 2020 but my next subscription was Alex in late August 2021. Then the doors opened for me. I now have separate folders (19 so far) in Outlook for each Stack, and rules to direct the emails to the proper folders. Makes it so much easier to keep them in order. Also makes it so much more difficult to get any work done!
Anyway, I'm not looking for an echo chamber safe space. I want to read people who tell me what THEY think, not what they're TOLD to think by their paymasters.
Imma use that idea of folders for content. Currently I simply have them flagged with key words reflecting each contributor. As well, I have (as of now) only paid for the Bad Cat. Might be time to step up my game and follow your lead.
I've been slowly moving my subscriptions over from Locals to here. I too try and keep it down to a manageable level. I'm on about $20 a month so still pretty cheap for the content.
The Googles of the world conditioned us to "free" content, which is unfortunate.
I subscribed to the Epoch times and glenn Greenwald but may do 1 or 2 more. I think at $5 a pop there is only room for so much and I like your idea of a few months on and off to spread the wealth so to speak.
My first was Glenn, more than a year ago when I think he was on Patreon. Then he moved, IIRC, to Substack, and I think that's when I realized what a rich source of alternate viewpoints and indy journos Substack is. Then the floodgates opened, and I haven't gotten a full day's work done in like the past four months...
I too subscribe to Epoch, but I don't recall paying for it! I'll have to watch my bank statements!
You have a good point. I've long thought about this in regards to Patreon, podcasts add up the same way.
The way I think about it is you're not just paying $5 for $5 worth of content, you're deciding you want to support a specific person (or group) and their efforts. Getting content from 10,000 content creators for one $15 subscription, a la netflix, is amazing no doubt, but there's also something meaningful about individually and directly supporting people: "I like and appreciate the content you create."
Still, as you say, there's a lot of content I like and appreciate. $5 here and there adds up quick, but this is how I justify it to myself
I pay for like 18 right now. I think I have 1 or 2 to add back becasue I canceled some of the non-covid focused people when Substack let Topol on to punish Substack more than the writers themselves, they were big voices on here. Ultimately it was just to send a message. But I do wish Substack had more of a newspaper option. Epoch Times is like $159/ year and that gives full access to articles, EpochTV, a ton of magazine articles. I'd pay more for all the Epoch times content. I would think Substack could figure something a little better out rather than purely individual subscriptions that still allows the content creators that depend on the income to have a say in it and isn't so much nickel and diming to death.
I have thought on this idea too. I can afford to put $10 a month at most towards Substack- I wish I could divvy it up so all that I value gets an increment, but I am forced to choose in $5 units. Still a great platform.
This problem is on substack as a platform. I'm in the same boat and it seems like the simple solution would be to let people donate a custom $X/month to a channel but only have the extra subscription features kick in at the threshold the author sets. I'm subscribed to ~20 and I'd kick in $1-$2/month minimum to all. But I'm currently only paying for 4 of them with the higher minimum subscription level at a total of ~$25/month.
"so as long as nobody gets kicked off the option to interact" Good to see this. I have been screaming about this for months. Your points about "a bit of an issue" are timidly moving in the correct direction. (See my note above, too.)
There have been so many days in the past months when you provided the only grounded, rational discussion about the pandemic. You can't imagine how much I looked forward to your postings - some days obsessively checking to see if there was a new one. The irrationality of our times was magnified for me when I'd share hard data with someone only to have them dismiss or ignore it. Keep up the good work - we need you!
That's exactly how I feel too! I've been checking obsessively and get giddy when I see something new. Between these writings and the RFK book, I've managed to red pill my mother on all things covid.
Subscribed. Your writing has been the a ray of hope and rationality. I appreciate the blend of rigor, humor, and self sovereignty. Truly adds so much to my day.
Donate it to an animal sanctuary or keep it, I am happy either way.
Edit to add: part of the reason I am happy to pay is because you did not add paywalls. You have provided tons of inspiring and much needed content and asked nothing in return. Even now you ask nothing in return. For that continued display of integrity I am happy to donate.
When my personal situation changes at the "end of this" (if there's an end) I may subscribe because I totally agree with everything you said for sure. In the meantime, I do know a few people who have the option of "buying a cup of coffee" where you can do a one time "tip". I don't think Substack benefits from that though. But I do contribute in that way from time to time when I have the extra. Thanks for keeping your content free for us old poor folks on "fixed" incomes. . :) It's much appreciated.
100%. As someone else here said, you are far cheaper than an hour of counseling that I could have used several times a week for the past two years.
You are a bargain. I look forward to the t-shirts.
The first place I will wear one: to the academic medical center where I work that mandated these god forsaken injections and fed the Covid hysteria that threatened so many of us.
This substack is definitely worth paying for, so good move. I appreciate Gato's hard work and skills. If many of us subscribe, do you think he might be able to afford capital letters?
It's about time. Of all the substack authors I follow you are the one I most wanted to support. You are doing the Lord's work and should be compensated
First of all, I can see people commenting so as long as nobody gets kicked off the option to interact, that's Great and sounds like a good move.
Here's a bit of an issue I have sith the Substack business model: I follow quite a few substacks and with time, I will probably add more. 5 bucks a month doesn't sound like much for a dude of little means like myself. But 5 more for another writer... and 5 for another etc. Eventually I could see how, if a lot of people went with an exclusionary paid option, I would have to let some substacks go, or feel a little left out on substacks that I like, but where I can't participate in the discussion.
I know that's not the case here! You've been very clear about that and good on you.
This is just a chance for me to comment that maybe, just maybe, it could be interesting for several writers to come together and do a sort of "newspaper" or "content channel" for a price that would allow people to pay all the writers they like, participate in the discussions, and not feel too pinched.
Just an idea for folks to chew on.
i can see both sides.
a lot of content creators are seeking to make a living here and this is their livelihood, so i can see them wanting to be paid for their efforts, many of which are really excellent and sharing pie and arguing about who is pulling the weight and brining in the readers gets fraught.
even limiting comments is a complex issue as it limits discussion and stunts debate with those not in your tribe. but, otoh, if you have the legions of trolls that so relentlessly attack a guy like berenson, open comments make every post a food fight of jerks being jerks and you lose all signal which discourages those with useful contributions.
it's easier for me because this is not my profession. confederation is always an interesting possibility and cross commenting privileges etc may emerge. ultimately, i suspect that a lot of this moves away from silos and into a real peer to peer network dominated by micropayments and who knows what other structures.
a time of great experimentation and adaptation is approaching.
the best is yet to come.
Even Reddit has a better democratic process for its censorship. Substack is far from egalitarian (e.g. writer in residence). Commenting seems to be all/nothing/pay to play/author tyranny. Not a rosy platform for someone who is pro-speech, anti-censorship, or supports neutral media; sadly, I’m unaware of better alternatives.
Not sure what censorship goes on here, but what happened to r/ivermectin is criminal, and I personally got a permanent ban in (I think) r/coronavirus for saying that natural immunity is better than vaccine immunity.
I pay for 5 Substacks, totaling $26/month. I subscribe to about a dozen more. A WSJ digital sub runs around $39/month, so I may pick 2 more to pay for, get up to around $40/month since that's roughly what ONE digital/"newspaper" subscription would cost, AND, I'd be getting 7 independent journalists' content, not just one newspaper's content.
What I may also consider is rotating my pay-subscriptions among the 15-18 I subscribe to, four months on, four months off, for 8 at a time. Something like that. I definitely want to support independent journalism (because really, that's the only journalisming that's going on anymore), but I have to do it within my budget.
I reallocated my WSJ subscription money to Substack. haha. I sent WSJ an email when I cancelled saying "the propaganda you all are pushing, along with censoring of comments, is abundantly available and free of charge if that's what I was interested in. I asked myself, why am I paying for this? I couldn't come up with a decent answer, though I do appreciate the opinon section. I imagine they will all ultimately be on Substack so I'm all done paying WSJ."
I burned myself with WSJ, that's how I know it's $39.99/month. I have consistently signed up for their $1/3 months deal, and I always set calendar reminders to cancel a few days before the deal expired and I'd be charged the full price. Well, this time the expiration date was the first couple of days of January, and I was visiting family and traveling between VA and ME when the calendar alert came in...and I missed it.
I surely didn't miss the email telling me that I'd just been charged $38.99 for the next month. Jeez. What a dunce.
You WSJ former subscribers inspired me with your business model. I currently subscribe to the NYTimes and also the Epoch Times (digital). I think I will reduce my NYTimes subscription to maybe Wed (food!) and weekends (book review!) because their news is so biased I can't stand it. That will save me enough money to support more substack journalists--guilt free.
My WSJ subscription was *literally* only for the Best of the Web Today column. At $1/3 months or whatever it was, it was a no-brainer.
Failing to cancel in time was a different no brainer.
Ha Ha I'm 79 years old and increasingly absent minded. Sometimes I think my household (I live alone) would keep running itself even if I died because my rent, utilities, insurance, etc. are all on autopay. I don't dare trust myself to cancel anything. SO I refuse to sign up for "subscribe and save." The more subscriptions, the more likely for unwanted charges. I've even stopped signing up for "free samples (only $5 postage)" I got burned because by signing up for the "free sample," I was unknowingly signing up for a monthly delivery which then cost $79 and I had to spend time canceling the credit card payment. I don't sign up for ANYTHING now. Although I do get tempted...
Same! I'm so happy to support legitimate human beings with an interest in telling the truth. It's liberating.
I'm mostly an arch conservative. Yet three of the Substacks I pay for are Alex Berenson (formerly of the Leftist NY Times and an ardent anti-Trumper), Bari Weiss (formerly of the Leftist NY Times), and Glenn Greenwald (a Liberal if not Leftist).
If anything is going to save civilization from the utterly destructive effects of the corrupt, dishonest alphabet legacy media it'll be independent journalists, and OUR efforts to expand their reach to folks who don't know they exist. I was one of those folks. I didn't have a clue about the proliferation of indy journos on Substack until...[checking...] until late August 2021. I signed up with Glenn in October 2020 but my next subscription was Alex in late August 2021. Then the doors opened for me. I now have separate folders (19 so far) in Outlook for each Stack, and rules to direct the emails to the proper folders. Makes it so much easier to keep them in order. Also makes it so much more difficult to get any work done!
Anyway, I'm not looking for an echo chamber safe space. I want to read people who tell me what THEY think, not what they're TOLD to think by their paymasters.
Imma use that idea of folders for content. Currently I simply have them flagged with key words reflecting each contributor. As well, I have (as of now) only paid for the Bad Cat. Might be time to step up my game and follow your lead.
I've been slowly moving my subscriptions over from Locals to here. I too try and keep it down to a manageable level. I'm on about $20 a month so still pretty cheap for the content.
The Googles of the world conditioned us to "free" content, which is unfortunate.
Its the independent journalists that are so important. If we can all make them viable businesses they can more easily pursue the truth for us.
I subscribed to the Epoch times and glenn Greenwald but may do 1 or 2 more. I think at $5 a pop there is only room for so much and I like your idea of a few months on and off to spread the wealth so to speak.
My first was Glenn, more than a year ago when I think he was on Patreon. Then he moved, IIRC, to Substack, and I think that's when I realized what a rich source of alternate viewpoints and indy journos Substack is. Then the floodgates opened, and I haven't gotten a full day's work done in like the past four months...
I too subscribe to Epoch, but I don't recall paying for it! I'll have to watch my bank statements!
You have a good point. I've long thought about this in regards to Patreon, podcasts add up the same way.
The way I think about it is you're not just paying $5 for $5 worth of content, you're deciding you want to support a specific person (or group) and their efforts. Getting content from 10,000 content creators for one $15 subscription, a la netflix, is amazing no doubt, but there's also something meaningful about individually and directly supporting people: "I like and appreciate the content you create."
Still, as you say, there's a lot of content I like and appreciate. $5 here and there adds up quick, but this is how I justify it to myself
I pay for like 18 right now. I think I have 1 or 2 to add back becasue I canceled some of the non-covid focused people when Substack let Topol on to punish Substack more than the writers themselves, they were big voices on here. Ultimately it was just to send a message. But I do wish Substack had more of a newspaper option. Epoch Times is like $159/ year and that gives full access to articles, EpochTV, a ton of magazine articles. I'd pay more for all the Epoch times content. I would think Substack could figure something a little better out rather than purely individual subscriptions that still allows the content creators that depend on the income to have a say in it and isn't so much nickel and diming to death.
I agreee, I have the same issue and woukd love to see a bundle option.
I have thought on this idea too. I can afford to put $10 a month at most towards Substack- I wish I could divvy it up so all that I value gets an increment, but I am forced to choose in $5 units. Still a great platform.
This problem is on substack as a platform. I'm in the same boat and it seems like the simple solution would be to let people donate a custom $X/month to a channel but only have the extra subscription features kick in at the threshold the author sets. I'm subscribed to ~20 and I'd kick in $1-$2/month minimum to all. But I'm currently only paying for 4 of them with the higher minimum subscription level at a total of ~$25/month.
"so as long as nobody gets kicked off the option to interact" Good to see this. I have been screaming about this for months. Your points about "a bit of an issue" are timidly moving in the correct direction. (See my note above, too.)
I'm in. I appreciate what you've one for my mental health through these many months! The cheapest therapist on the planet!
More cheap (free) therapy:
https://markoshinskie8de.substack.com/p/denying-medical-treatment-to-the
There have been so many days in the past months when you provided the only grounded, rational discussion about the pandemic. You can't imagine how much I looked forward to your postings - some days obsessively checking to see if there was a new one. The irrationality of our times was magnified for me when I'd share hard data with someone only to have them dismiss or ignore it. Keep up the good work - we need you!
That's exactly how I feel too! I've been checking obsessively and get giddy when I see something new. Between these writings and the RFK book, I've managed to red pill my mother on all things covid.
I've been asking for this! I would like a "subscribe to margarita night with el gato" option.
now there's an idea...
Tango night with El Gato! Now that would be a night to remember
I seem to recall something about ya boi estupido...
I would also...and I don't drink!
OMG me too even though I can only dream as still trapped in the UK (hopefully not for much longer)!
Subscribed. Your writing has been the a ray of hope and rationality. I appreciate the blend of rigor, humor, and self sovereignty. Truly adds so much to my day.
Test comment before subscribing. If you can see this, comments still work.
Without hesitation. Thanks for all that you do.
Donate it to an animal sanctuary or keep it, I am happy either way.
Edit to add: part of the reason I am happy to pay is because you did not add paywalls. You have provided tons of inspiring and much needed content and asked nothing in return. Even now you ask nothing in return. For that continued display of integrity I am happy to donate.
When my personal situation changes at the "end of this" (if there's an end) I may subscribe because I totally agree with everything you said for sure. In the meantime, I do know a few people who have the option of "buying a cup of coffee" where you can do a one time "tip". I don't think Substack benefits from that though. But I do contribute in that way from time to time when I have the extra. Thanks for keeping your content free for us old poor folks on "fixed" incomes. . :) It's much appreciated.
100%. As someone else here said, you are far cheaper than an hour of counseling that I could have used several times a week for the past two years.
You are a bargain. I look forward to the t-shirts.
The first place I will wear one: to the academic medical center where I work that mandated these god forsaken injections and fed the Covid hysteria that threatened so many of us.
This substack is definitely worth paying for, so good move. I appreciate Gato's hard work and skills. If many of us subscribe, do you think he might be able to afford capital letters?
😂😂
It's about time. Of all the substack authors I follow you are the one I most wanted to support. You are doing the Lord's work and should be compensated
Done!
I don't do paid substack subscriptions...
You're the only cat worthy of that now.
Use it well, my friend.
Do paid subscribers get catipal letters? 😉
I'm ok without the catipal letters, but I also wouldn't mind some canine content occasionally. Just never been a cat person. Got 2 Satos instead.
Nooooo ... capital letters would ruin the tone! 😸😻
LoL
I could comment without going for the paid subscription (for now, at least; as a test), so it's working.
You are well worth it. Thank you for keeping comments open to all.
I thought i was already paying for your stuff. Best bang for $5 bucks on the internet guaranteed. Keep up the great work.