NEW FUN THING! Join our subscriber chat
NEW FUN THING! Join our subscriber chat
It's a group text for #AmWriting peeps only (as we abandon Twitter in droves and prepare to release FB as well...)
Today we’re announcing a brand new addition to the #AmWriting fam: the The #AmWriting Podcast subscriber chat.
This is a conversation space in the Substack app that we set up exclusively for our subscribers (all of you) — kind of like a group chat or live hangout. (Scroll past my long-winded enthusiasms for instructions on how to jump right in.)
Personally, (KJ here) I’m beyond thrilled by this. I NEED this. Because I need something where I can hop into my phone and get that lovely sense of community and action and being seen and heard that I crave from my socials, without being bombarded by ads or anger. Or video, when I want my sound off. Or news when I’m already overwhelmed by the world.
Personally, I effectively left Twitter about the same time as I left journalism, as it became a conversation (or shouting match) I didn’t feel able to be part of any more. And I finally deleted it entirely when its new owner suggested that an 80-something-year-old man was responsible for being attacked in his home by an intruder with a hammer. Listen, disagree with me on the issues if you do. But there are limits, and that was mine.
I love Instagram, but I’m terrible. I keep clicking on the ads, which is fine when I end up watching a cat get pulled down the sidewalk in a clear-sided suitcase (yes please) but less so when I end up with another face cream (I believe everything I’m told about face creams, it’s a definitive personal failing). And I honestly am more about words than images and especially than video, so in some sense I’m there for the wrong reason. I want to chat, talk, banter. I want Twitter circa 2011, when it was just people I wanted to be funny with and hear from.
I’ve considered and rejected a variety of ways to hang with you kids like this. Slack, Mighty Networks. This seems perfect. It’s EASY. It’s a useful app—I’m sure you read a bunch of Substacks by now and there they will all BE, which I love. And I trust this team. Plus—if Substack decided to, I don’t know, resurrect dinosaurs and turn the world into Jurassic Park and so I needed to leave them to express my dismay, we have your email addresses! We can find you and gather us again.
We’re still Google dependent but I think that ship has sailed.
So let’s DO THIS THING.
To join our chat, you’ll need to download the Substack app (messages are sent via the app, not email). Turn on push notifications if they float your boat, and you’ll see the convos as they happen, like texts. Or leave them off and pop in when the urge to scroll strikes. (That’s my plan).
Come on, come in, start now and let’s make this take off. I’m even (probably temporarily) turning my notifications on so I will see and hear you. I’ll answer questions, I’ll chat, I might bombard you with that fun instant connection you sometimes get in DMs when you hit people at exactly the right moment and you just go back and forth for a bit. It will be civil, it will be chatty, it will not try to sell you face creams. Unless you want face creams. We can totally talk about retinols and sunscreens if that is also your jam.
How to get started
Download the app by clicking this link or the button below. Chat is only on iOS for now, but chat is coming to the Android app soon.
Open the app and tap the Chat icon. It looks like two bubbles in the bottom bar, and you’ll see a row for my chat inside.
That’s it! Jump into my thread to say hi, and if you have any issues, check out Substack’s FAQ.
Come on in, the water’s fine.