One of the characteristics of the internet in recent years is a kind of ungenerous, restrictive quality that stops people going somewhere else, or if it allows access does so only after we have handed something over.
I realise that this has infected me too: I’ve hidden away much that previously I would have shared.
I’ve long ago become accustomed to the idea that Instagram will tell me exactly who saw my stories, which is pretty creepy, no?
And newsletter platforms (there aren’t many of them) do something similar.
It’s been the most enormous drain, over the last however many years, to open a browser and type the address for Kit, my newsletter provider, which immediately confronts me with the percentages of readers who “haven’t engaged with my content for the last 90 days”, or whatever.
I want the same relationship with readers as I had with magazine and newspaper readers when I was a full-time journalist. I have no desire to watch you read.
If you are reading this on RSS: thank you, and you’re welcome.