There’s been odd comments on Micro.Blog asking if @dave really is on MicroBlog.
This post comparing Substack to Micro.blog definitely records that ‘yes it is him’, ‘yes he set up the feed’ and ‘no he hasn’t been active in here’.
But there's more.
"On the other hand, wouldn't it be nice if micro.blog added a newsletter feature" ....
and
"Not sure if you can subscribe to external RSS feeds (which would make it a feed reader too)."
To which we know the answer is emphatically yes ... so clearly the message is getting through.
@frostedechoes yes - but in all honesty, I don’t think the newsletter functionality is ready for prime time. I gave it a whirl for a while when it first appeared - but gave up.
I do use Substack - and I get the position of 'closed' that @dave made ... but despite email having been around for a loooong time - creating a nice-looking email that works across all clients, environments, platforms and os ... that can then be reliably sent AND received by your subscribers/followers remains a non-trivial exercise.
@JohnPhilpin -- interesting. i wrote my own email system, and it runs itself. as far as i know everyone gets the email, every night -- and i don't have to do anything other than write my blog. i'd be happy to share my code. i think we have to offer something that does what substack does without the lock-in. maybe most people would stay with substack (probably would) but it's important to have a choice.
@dave thank you for weighing in.
I have played around with apps like Buttondown, Revue and of course the newsletter built into Micro.Blog. I certainly know and have used complete solutions like Constant Contact, Mailchimp et al. Hell- my last real gig was running the ESP Lyris ....
That said, on your spectrum of 'people that use software', I am definitely at the 'poet' end - and not a developer, so not even going to explore installing my own email system :-)
I wholly agree that using my editor of choice to publish my newsletters would be a massive improvement over the Substack interface. I mean, if they just supported Markdown it would make it a lot easier - but clearly, they (and I think it is primarily 'Hamish') are very rigid about what is allowed ... try centering a headline, or running copy along side of text in a substack newsletter to see what I mean.
Maybe @manton would be interested in exploring more ... or maybe even a solution could be provided as a plugin ... // @sod @moondeer @AndySylvester
@frostedechoes Aaah - thankyou - good to know. I recently cut back my subscription to 'standard', because none of the extras being offered seemed to do what I was really doing elsewhere. So - no revisit at the moment.