Something Good #72: A Brief Chat
I admit that my first experience with the new Substack Chat function was not a happy one. Last week, I got an email announcing this new feature, so I turned it on and asked, “Can anyone see this?” on a whim.
I was pretty sure at the time that this would not trigger an email to all of my readers. But I was wrong, and you were all spammed by Substack. I felt tricked into growth hacking their iOS app and was grumpy about it. Later, the design team apologized to me on Twitter and I felt a little better, though still annoyed that you had all gotten junk mail with my name on it.
A week later, I’m still not sure what, if anything, I want to do with this new tool in the newsletter mailbox. It goes against, a little, what I would like to do with Something Good: which is, specifically, not to post on a whim but to let at least a couple of days go by before I hit “send” on a post. (This is of course opposed to other places on the internet when fast, outraged or trying-to-be-funny interactions are encouraged by dark patterns.)
At the same time, it is a potentially fun way to interact with my readers, who I love, and I am also an extrovert who very much enjoys communication, so what the hell, how was I ever going to resist? (Seems like a lot less work than running a Discord, anyway.)
Let’s see what happens. You can ask me questions, and I have things I want to ask you. I have already gotten a great suggestion of a place to go in Madrid from my mom.
You do need the app, though, which is kinda too bad, but I’ve actually found it a decent way to read my subscriptions as they all live there in one place instead of spread out in my inbox. (I think Substack may have accidentally just re-invented blogging and RSS feeds.)
Here’s how ya do it:
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.