An Update for Techuisite

Some may have noticed, but Techuisite.com has been moved from my Medium Publication to a new website hosted by Ghost. Having my own website where my Techuisite Domain lives has been something I have been thinking about, and talking about, for a while now and decided to finally make the jump.

The reasons why I finally made this decision were Medium's changes last year and Substack's recent announcement of supporting problematic voices on their platform. I am not here to have a debate on who should or shouldn't have a voice, but I do feel it is up to us to choose who we want to support with our wallets and time.

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The Medium BlogTony Stubblebine

I will continue to post on Medium. I have over 11,000 followers and will continue to provide content for those who choose to read my posts there, and will also have my Techuisite publication available–my domain of Techuisite.com will just point to here instead of there going forward. I like to also continue to contribute to the Mac O'Clock publication on Medium as well.

Medium has made some changes in the last year that have been very disappointing, to say the least. My income from what I used to make on Medium has been cut by around 2/3rds of what it used to be, but I think the biggest letdown is I don't get as many people seeing my work as I used to before.

I never expected Medium to make me a ton of money, it was nice to get a little extra cash, but I think having so many people be able to read and engage in my writing was most exciting about the platform. Since Medium changed the way posts are presented (assuming algorithm changes), along with a new Boost system that seems to favor only some writers, has caused my views and reads to drop dramatically.

With 11,000+ followers I only get a couple hundred of views on my posts since the changes Medium made at the beginning of 2023, which is too bad. Again, I like it over at Medium and feel some of the best tech-based writing and blogging can be found there so I want to continue to be a part of it–even if I feel like my domain isn't worth being on Medium any longer.

One thing that I did start doing this year was create a Substack for me to send my technology posts and have a bi-monthly newsletter called the Techuisite Digest. I like the idea of being able to have my mailing list outside of Medium for me to send stuff that is not exclusively on Medium. The problem is that Substack is no longer somewhere I want to be.

For the same reason I decided to no longer use Twitter (or X), I don't want to support Substack where I feel a certain kind of moderation is necessary for a better online world. There are places for all kinds of problematic and horrible ideas and I am not on those platforms either.

As I stated earlier, I feel like it is our job as consumers and individuals of this world to support and not support certain companies that we don't agree with not only with our time but our wallets too. I don't want to provide income to Substack, even if my contribution was very small, and would rather take my business elsewhere.

Note by Hamish McKenzie on Substack

Hi everyone. Chris, Jairaj, and I wanted to let you know that we’ve heard and have been listening to all the views being expressed about how Substack should think about the presence of fringe voices on the platform (and particularly, in this case, Nazi views). I just want to make it clear that we don’t like Nazis either—we wish no-one held those views. But some people do hold those and other extreme views. Given that, we don’t think that censorship (including through demonetizing publications) makes the problem go away—in fact, it makes it worse. We believe that supporting individual rights and civil liberties while subjecting ideas to open discourse is the best way to strip bad ideas of their power. We are committed to upholding and protecting freedom of expression, even when it hurts. As @Ted Gioia has noted, history shows that censorship is most potently used by the powerful to silence the powerless. (Ted’s note: https://substack.com/profile/4937458-ted-gioia/note/c-45421012) Our content guidelines do have narrowly defined proscriptions, including a clause that prohibits incitements to violence. We will continue to actively enforce those rules while offering tools that let readers curate their own experiences and opt in to their preferred communities. Beyond that, we will stick to our decentralized approach to content moderation, which gives power to readers and writers. While not everyone agrees with this approach, many people do, as indicated by @Elle Griffin’s post in defense of decentralized moderation on Substack, which was signed and endorsed by hundreds of writers on the platform, including some of the leading names in journalism, literature, and academia (see Elle’s post below). Even if we were in a minority of one, however, we would still believe in these principles. There also remains a criticism that Substack is promoting these fringe voices. This criticism appears to stem from my decision to host Richard Hanania, who was later outed as having once published extreme and racist views, on my podcast, The Active Voice. I didn’t know of those past writings at the time, and Hanania went on to disavow those views. While it has been uncomfortable and I probably would have done things differently with all the information in front of me, I ultimately don’t regret having him on the podcast. I think it’s important to engage with and understand a range of views even if—especially if—you disagree with them. Hanania is an influential voice for some in U.S. politics—his recent book, for instance, was published by HarperCollins—and there is value in knowing his arguments. The same applies to all other guests I have hosted on The Active Voice, including Hanania’s political opposites. We don’t expect everyone to agree with our approach and policies, and we believe it’s helpful for there to be continued robust debate of these issues. Six years into Substack, however, we have been encouraged by the quality of discourse on the platform. As Elle said in her letter: “We are still trying to figure out the best way to handle extremism on the internet. But of all the ways we’ve tried so far, Substack is working the best.” Thanks for listening, and for caring, and thanks to everyone who publishes on Substack. We are here to serve you and will continue to do our very best in that mission.

SubstackSubstack

I don't want to ramble on this topic too much, but I will say that I am no arbiter of what is right and wrong. I own products and shop at stores that have made decisions that I don't agree with. I have to constantly weigh my options in choosing to support a company that does things a certain way that I don't agree with. When new information is available, I make changes to my behavior and that is what I am doing by moving away from Substack.

In saying all that, there is a lot of good that I hope comes out of this change to Techuisite. Not only have I been eager to use Ghost as a blogging and newsletter platform, but having a true place to call home on the internet feels good. I have had the Techuisite domain for over 10 years now and it has moved around a lot. Being on Ghost feels like the best place so far to have it.

A couple of reasons why I am looking forward to being on Ghost are my ownership of my posts and mailing list on a platform that I support and feel excited about. Plus I have better control of what I put behind a paywall, or what I want to email to my audience. I like Ghosts admin tools so far, and it just feels like an innovative and futuristic platform to be on.

You might still see changes as I work on tweaking my website and how my emails look but for now I am happy to have a new home for Techuisite. If you have any thoughts or suggestions for using Ghost, I would love to hear them.

I plan to start moving things behind a paywall eventually but if you want to support my work regardless I am offering a 50% off deal ($2.50 a month) for the first 3-months if you want to sign up for a $5 monthly membership:

Techuisite

A blog and newsletter about technology and more.

Techuisite