I’m considering doing that. The way my hosting provider works and the way WordPress works, it’s easier to send out email notifications and to tweet out my material on substack than it is on the blog. And I find it more work to maintain both the blog and the substack series.
If I do move to substack, I will stop the once-a-day posting habit and instead go with consolidated posts, probably a couple of days a week. My sense is that this would fit in more with the substack culture than small daily blog posts. Although I won’t adopt all forms of substack culture. I won’t turn into a frequent user of the exclamation point!
I will try to foster a good commenting environment on my substack pieces. I will keep the writing free and only charge for the in-person seminar (or whatever follows that in terms of in-person).
Reactions welcome.
So, what makes this blog special vs. Substack? Please answer that question.
For me, I prefer the more informal nature of the blog format. It’s casual attire vs. business formal. I enjoy the lively and interesting debate here on the blog. Some of the best commenters anywhere even if their analysis is a very very rough first draft.
So, what would Arnold prefer? What would you be losing by abandoning this blog for Substack? Anything? Nothing?
I’m the worst commenter on this blog. I probably would not comment on Substack. So, there is some upside for Arnold in terms of eliminating the worst of the worst.
why wouldn’t you comment on substack? Scott Alexander’s commenters seem happy there.
Because I’m trying my best not to be disrespectful or get in the way of more enlightened conversation with my smut.
Have a look at your average comment here vs. over on Substack. I refuse to comment on your Substack because the *cultural norms* appear different and I don’t want to interrupt or interfere with it. See your post on jerks from earlier today for more info. I don’t wanna be a jerk :).
That said, I completely understand if you’d like to head in a different direction. Is the blog concept kinda dead at this point? Probably.
Kurt, there are writers and commenters I usually agree with, but who I think I’d hate in real life. I usually disagree with what you write, but I read all of it, and I get the sense you’d be someone good to know in real life. You should keep commenting at substack.
In addition to the commentary from our host, I’m here for the comments of folks of like you. It makes it all worthwhile and fun. Thank you to you (and everyone else).
Please don’t agree with me. Kindly and politely show me where I’m wrong. I’m under zero pretensions. I’m sitting on the left side of the average IQ of the commenters on this blog and I enjoy it.
If this can continue on Substack, then I’m in. I just don’t want to intrude on what already exists over there.
If you start blogging exclusively on Substack, you should use a custom domain (arnoldkling.blog is available and cheap) — that way you can always move your content elsewhere later.
It’s probably a good choice, but it’s hard to imagine it being the best choice forever.
I support a substack move. My impression is that wordpress is getting worse from both the blogger and commenter perspective. A lot of comments I try to leave here just disappear, which is frustrating. If there’s a setting to always show all the comments instead of having to constantly click to show more, I would prefer that.
My main concern is maintaining privacy, which includes anonymity from substack. If I have to put in real-life payment information in order to subscribe / comment, then I would opt out and become a passive observer. The risks are just too great these days.
I’ve got another option I’ll email you about before you move to Substack, better functionality and better distribution of your content.
1. I hope you maintain all of your blog posts here along with the comment threads.
To quote the annoying and sometimes patently offensive John Derbyshire, “if there is hope, it lies in the comment threads.”
2. Is Substack going to be the next big thing? Medium came along and you posted some things on it, and then you were porting things from Medium back here–I believe you expressed a concern that Medium might evaporate or become markedly dysfunctional.
3. Thanks for all your work!
I am not a regular at VDARE but here is the link for the interested reader. About 8 years old. Yes, I know that Derbyshire is persona non grata–I think of him as an Asperger-ish character who sometimes says demonstrably true things that others won’t say. I also admire his prose style, which is effortlessly readable.
https://vdare.com/articles/john-derbyshire-says-if-there-is-hope-it-lies-in-the-comment-threads
“3. Thanks for all your work!”
This. Yes, thank you Arnold! You make it so enlightening and fun for me on a daily basis. I actually like it more when we disagree. Where the heck did I go wrong? Can I out logic the Othello expert? Probably not.
Clarification: whatever is next, I hope all the old posts at this blog and the comments therein are preserved.
I also wish the indexing were better,, but indexing of blog entries must be hard
I don’t have much experience with substack, but I don’t immediately see why you should change a posting format (or frequency) that works for you to “conform” to the culture there. I thought the whole point of substack was that you get to publish things your way.
In short, I wouldn’t be opposed to commenting over there, but I unless you actually want to write less frequently, don’t feel compelled to.
No preference here, althought I would miss the quick daily posts. I think you should continue the daily posts even on substack but it looks like nagivating past posts would become harder. Maybe maintain like an “Index” post that links to your longer pieces?
As a fanboy, I of course believe that everyone in the world should be reading you daily. Questions I might ask: Has substack increased your audience? Do the search engines bring the same amount of eyes to your substack as they do the blog? Will your work just get buried in the morass the way it did on Medium? How does reader interaction compare? Do you get the same amount of shares, referrals, cross posts, comments, etc? What privacy does substack afford potential commenters?
One of the reasons I am a fanboy is that the blog has the best moderated comments section on the web that brings together a wonderfully wide diversity of people who interact in interesting and unexpected ways that add to the impact of your blog posts. That would be a shame if it were lost, nevertheless you ought put your personal convenience first. The parable of the talents comes to mind: do whatever will enable you to promote yourself without wearing your self out. Less headaches, better output and greater personal satisfaction? Go for it.
Long time lurker. I follow you on an RSS reader. Will I still be able to read your full post from my reader if you are on substack?
yes — I already do.
I find the substack user experience to be a little confusing and I like having the digest format available — in truth I am less interested in the FITS watch posts than I am in your typical blog posts — but it seems that substack is gaining momentum and has a nice editor experience, and I will switch over if you switch over.
Zvi Moshowitz is going through a similar inflection point: https://thezvi.wordpress.com/2021/11/06/substack-ho/
I’ll mention here exactly what I mentioned to Zvi yesterday:
ADS (via Nintil) has considered the long view on Substack:
https://nintil.com/substack-milquetoast
Please give that a good read before making the jump completely.
The incentive structures are not all as they seem at first glance and the inexorable pull of them will be mostly invisible.
I don’t know what is in the water lately, but did we not all learn our lesson from Medium?
Regarding substack: for the long view, keep copies of what you write off substack.
Regarding seminar notes 2, I think there is some hope for strong new universities. Consider that each assistant professor position has hundreds of applicants. It should be possible to build strong terms by choosing from the hundreds of losers, particularly if you select using different criteria from those of the usual suspects. Likewise for students.
I enjoy the daily dose of Arnold, but I suppose I would live if it were only a couple of times a week. And I very much agree with others here about the comments. This is one of the very few places where I bother to look at comments, and they are often very worthwhile.
Oh, by the way, I don’t usually see the comments on Substack, so that is a downside of it. If you read the “newsletter” in your email, it doesn’t include the comments and it doesn’t even include a link to the web version where the comments are, so it requires some extra effort to see the comments.
When I see a newsletter, if I click on the title I get to the web version
Interesting. It doesn’t look like a link in my email program, but it is. Thanks!
FYI, an annoyance of looking at comments on Substack is that it insists on always starting out in “Top First” mode. I prefer “Chronological” mode, and have to tell it so every time.
Displaying my own ignorance:
Substack has much long form content. Is it required to always post longform or is that just a cultural norm there? If just a norm, breaking shouldn’t be a big deal.
How do comments experience differ? Privacy only or must be a subscriber to comment?
I guess real question ,- what are your goals and how does substack vs blog support or interfere?
Arnold Kling: the rationalist’s rationalist of that dangerous nexus of political economy. Good luck on substacks.
I think of substack as articles, and blogs as blogs.
Blogs invite commentary, and are often derivative.
I vote stay blogging.
Very good idea. Although there is an ease of entry/exit with blogs. Just jump on and drive.
Substack is more of a hassle, like going in the garage, opening the g. door, getting in the car, etc., etc. I don’t know if you will be able to use quips-quote-dash technique, which is a fan favorite I’m sure.
You could use Twitter for the quick quip/quote and dash remarks.
I read you at TechCentralStation, at Econlog, and now here. I’ll read you at Substack. I do like the email notification for new substack posts/articles/podcasts. I haven’t had things set up that way previously and it seems to be automatic with the newsletter subscription format.