Internet – Page 5 – HELLO, I'M SETH WERKHEISER

META WANTS MORE SPEECH

Meta (the homebase of Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and Whatsapp) is rolling back their ‘third party fact-checking program.’

As The Verge is reporting, “Meta’s policy changes allow calling gay and trans people ‘mentally ill’ while removing a ban on referring to women as ‘household objects.’”

“But it’s how I keep in touch with family!”

I know Facebook has entangled many families and groups in their walled garden, but that’s the point. And the Meta environment is just gonna get more toxic, most likely on Instagram and Threads, too.

It’s okay to have boundaries around what services you use, and establish healthy ways to stay in touch.

Give friends and family your cell # and / or email address (or don’t) and log out if you need to.

See, the thing is I like Substack Notes. I really like the people and the connections that can be built there. But as I near 5000 subscribers (!!!), the mental load required to keep up on Notes has begun to tip.

I really enjoy answering people’s questions that are posed to me in the comments, sometimes even with video. But that’s not the load. I relish that!

It’s the “17 people liked this post,” or people re-stacking things, and being notified as such. Sure, knowing 57 shared a recent post is nice and all, but I don’t need to know that in real time.

And if it’s at this level with 5,000 subscribers, what it like at 10,000?

This is why comments are turned off on this blog. I am still reachable, but there’s friction.

A wonderful human reached out to me a week or so ago, asking if I was okay in regards to a sort of somber Christmas time post I made. That was wonderful. I welcome that.

Will someday I get too many personal emails? Maybe. But that’s a problem I haven’t had in quite some time.

Most of the “too many emails” came from when I was an editor of a music blog, with very many one-sided asks from various industry people, and multiple internal emails from the mega corp I was working for.

But I like emails with people, talking about these anti-social media things. I like my weekly Zoom calls with people talking about these anti-social media things.

I guess it’s a matter of energy.

Checking the notifications of LIKES and RESTACKS on Substack benefits the people who make Substack while zapping my energy and enthusiasm.

If you’d like, send me an email. It’s easy to find.

BENCH AND BUTTONDOWN

Well, Bench is back. Bought by another company, apparently.

I didn’t want to just download my data from them, because I heard it’s not a very “transportable” format, so I’m hooked back up with Bench at least until I can get my 2024 books settled and my taxes filed, then I’m out.

Also spoke with Buttondown today about moving Social Media Escape Club. I just wanna send emails, you know? Yes, I love the ability to embed video right to the site, and the audio functions, but Substack is very much social media these days, and it doesn’t make send to have Social Media Escape Club to exist on a social media platform.

MAYBE CENTRALIZED KINGDOMS OF POWER AND INFLUENCE AREN’T THE ANSWER

I wrote this almost a year ago, about how waiting for the tech-bro overlords to deliver us a better app isn’t the answer.

Why have we become compliant little pawns in all this?

Are we so powerless to change the current situation that we sit back and hope somebody else fixes everything?

And then what? That person will sell the company to a Nabisco+Tide hedge fund subsidiary, and we’ll be back where we started.

Maybe centralized kingdoms of power and influence aren’t the answer.

I speak of this in regards of course to the creative community (artists, writers, photographers, bands) expecting something to be like early social media, so pure and good (read: let people click my links).

But everything requires jumping from platform to platform. Telling all your friends to sign up for this new thing, which is better than the other things, until the new thing turns out to be a dud, until another new thing comes along.

It’s Mastodon. No wait, Post. No, it’s Bluesky!

Going to a new restaurant in town doesn’t require that you sign up for a new account, you just go there and pay with your money.

This is how I equate email newsletters and websites.

Every smart phone ships with an email app and a web browser.

Yeah, but Seth, email is crazy, and nobody goes to websites anymore.

Okay, fine, admit defeat and bow to the rich tech megacorps – they’re surely the answer.

Or, we just go back to local scenes. Zines in the mail. Websites that we discover because our friend sends us a link, or we know the two people who run it.

Bring back directories, blogrolls, and webrings.

The allure of “everyone is on it” was a lie, made up of bots and people who didn’t care, but the platforms inflated everything to make you think they were on your side.

Buy a domain name. Set up an email list. Update your website.

It’s nearing 2025, and we’re tired of the platform game.

REMEMBER, NO ONE READS BLOGS IN 2024

If blogs are dead, explain this. I mean, someone is reading it, right? This isn’t some lead magnet, and I’m certainly not getting brand deals from it, but this is pretty cool.

Like, legit – I get maybe a few emails per year about anything I write. Nothing is moving any needle here, but… it is so delightful to be able to click back through 2020, during the pandemic, and see where the heck my head was at. And it’s been fun to mine some old photos from Flickr and put them on here, or unearth old text files I have on external harddrives and republish them here.

But remember, no one reads blogs anymore.

Have you seen what John Gruber is charging for ads on his blog?

My response to anyone who says “no one visits websites anymore,” is always “well, no one visits your website!”

BENCH GOES DARK

I used Bench to manage my books and take care of my taxes the last few years. They charged about $430/mo, too. Not cheap. And then I see they charged me $528 on December 24th, and today, three days later, they completely shut down.

Apparently I can download my data on Monday. Gee, thanks.

I swear, these online platforms are poison. Today I clicked around and talked to some people, and signed up for Wave. We’ll see how that goes.

Around the web:
Vancouver fintech company Bench Accounting announces sudden shutdown

“They still haven’t finished my books for the year. And I paid in advance.”

Long-time local tech startup, Bench, shuts down and lays off all its employees.

THE RIGHT PEOPLE

A client who has worked with some big names wanted to build their email list, and I gave them this idea:

Think of the amazing people you worked with throughout the years, and think of all those stories you shared, and the memories you’ve made. They’ve got to have dozens of those stories to write, right?

So write that post, with that one person in mind. Then email that person a link to the piece.

This gets you around sending a boring email to “all your contacts” saying, “hey, I have a newsletter now, you should subscribe.”

Write a post that will resonate with the person you’re emailing. Yes, even if it’s just that one person. Email the person the link. Maybe they subscribe, or at least reply and you two catch up, and who knows where that leads?

It’s not always about striking it rich and getting 100 new sign ups. Sometimes the right message to the right person at the right time is all you need.

GOOD LUCK

“More music is being released today (in a single day) than was released in the calendar year of 1989.”

Lowering the bar to entry into the music world has been a wonderful thing. Along with the internet, it’s made it possible for anyone in the world to hear your music.

The problem is that every musician is doing the same thing. Everyone competing for the same listens and streams and downloads.

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Category: Internet