A message to Subscribers to Chloro & Hemoglobin from Jesse
what is happening vis a vis potential twitter implosion
Hey this is just a quick message letting you know that while it’s not anything even close to Twitter’s density and intimacy and exchange, and Twitter may very well stay somewhat the same, I’m glad I have this other connection to you outside of that in case that place gets cratered by advertisers leaving (I hear this is happening) and it becoming a hellscape.
I want to try to write more posts for those of you that have been enjoying my writing. I have about 68 subscribers or so (some do not open emails so I’m kind of letting go of worrying about them and what their interests are, with some sadness). I can see, not who is super enthused about the actual content of the newsletter emails (I get some proof of that through likes and comments), but at least who has opened the emails, so that is some kind of sketch in the dark from which to draw basic conclusions about how a post is doing. I can also see the number of visits per post, and those have been growing over the past month or so. I think some people are catching on or at least finding this place interesting. My subscriber list is growing. I mean, who cares about mindless growth, but it’s nice to see that the thing might be increasing a little bit.
I’m still nowhere nearer to a decision to go to paid over free. I feel like I can’t do that to all of you although if I worked it out and people were willing to stick around and pay for my writing, that might be a good direction to go in. I just recently upgraded to paid status on Christian Lorentzen’s Diary which is an excellent Substack newsletter I recommend for people. He creates good writing and good perspectives and I think he deserves the paid thing. I could only dream of being the writer he is, or Ryan Ruby, or many others.
Anyway, this is just a message to let you know I’m still here, and I appreciate any reading you’re doing of these posts. It will suck if Twitter collapses—who knows what will happen—but I at least have this small chink in the wall to do the Pyramus and Thisbe thing with you. I’d hate to lose contact with you.
hi Jesse, I'm gonna be moving around on different social networks, but in early 2023 I'll be doing the Substack thing much more regularly - thanks for caring about your readers. If anything, the twitter implosion we're all witnessing is making people reach out and reconsider how best to follow / support the artists they crossed paths with. So, thanks again!
Only just subscribed but just wanna say I don't think you can necessarily trust that an email hasn't been opened. I think it might say I don't open these emails, because it probably relies on tracking pixels, and my email (along with a lot of people's, I think) defaults to not load images.