Breaking up with your X

I've had an Idea. Tell me what you think?

I used to really enjoy Twitter

It was fun and fast, there were interesting people posting engaging thoughts and links all the time. You could actually follow breaking news on it. I miss it. I used it a lot, and I tried to add some value to other users’ Twitter experience. More of that in a moment.

X is not Twitter. Let’s face it, it’s a hellscape.

Also, engagement on X/Twitter seems to have plummeted. Unless you have a blue tick - which, basically, just says “I’m an idiot with $8” - posting on there feels like throwing a paper aeroplane into a volcano.

Adding value

I was regularly coming across a bundle of stuff I thought my Twitter followers would enjoy, so it seemed like a good thing to do to share it with them. I got a positive response, and I felt like I was extending the reach of content that might not have spread so far otherwise. I was using Twitter with a purpose. In return, people would tweet me things that would be useful for my work, or which I could boomerang into my own posts.

Eventually, I was spending hours curating my Twitter feed, and using the excellent Buffer to schedule it. I’d been feeling somewhat overwhelmed by this task - setting up to fifteen tweets and links every day - for a while when the takeover happened. I just didn’t want to play anymore, after that.

Hard habits to break

But I’m still on X, more out of habit than anything else. There are one or two people who I’m in touch with only via DM, and some accounts I enjoy reading, but it all feels rather empty.

However, since joining Substack and subscribing to a wider range of newsletters, I’ve started once again coming across content that I want to share with you. I’ve been posting it on X, but that now feels like a waste of time.

My Not Very Big Idea

I’ve been trying to find a way of using Substack that’s positive, engaging and gives more than it takes. A few of the newsletters and Substacks I follow are curated lists of interesting stuff. That seems to me like a model to follow, giving it my own twist. Hence, it’s what I’m going to do … but I need your help to make it work.

What would suit you?

Here’s the deal. Sign up to my Substack - thanks to those who’ve already done so - and I’ll send you links to things I find interesting, and I think you will too. Plus we can discuss them, you can send me stuff to share, we might even change people’s minds or the world a little bit.

Here’s a non-exclusive list. If any of these rocks land in your pond, we’ll have plenty to talk about:

• music

• media

• journalism

• art

• photography

• radio

• ideas

• faith and belief

• making a positive difference

• Shropshire

• vintage and retro

• vinyl, and also analogue tech, hi-fi, cassettes, tape

• weird shit from the seventies and eighties

Dig these? Click here:

How much, how often?

You can have too much of a good thing. I don’t want to overload your inbox, so let me suggest this:

I’ll send you a newsletter three times a week.

Each newsletter will contain around a dozen links for you to explore.

Because I’m trying to rebuild my confidence and rep as a photographer, I’ll include one of my images, and maybe one or two ‘mood’ jpgs for fun.

I’ll tell you how I’m doing, I’ll ask how you are, we can be there for each other.

Real good, for free

And I won’t charge you. At some point, if you feel like supporting me, then that would be lovely, but I’m not going to require it.

Now - your thoughts?

Tell me what you think about this idea. Would you rather have fewer links, daily? Or a bigger helping, less often? What would make you look forward to my Substack arriving?

Comment the hell out of me, send me a message, whatever you want to do.

And let’s enjoy being online again!

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