#Business development on Substack

[mehmetyildizmelbourne-blog]

Section 10: How Marketing & Sales Strategies on Substack

Substack Education from Udemy Summary of my Udemy Course “From Zero to Substack Hero.” Image source from the video location Purpose of this Series for New Readers This is a new series upon request from my readers. I recently developed a course titled “From Zero to Substack Hero” and published it on Udemy and shared it on Content Marketing Strategy Insights owned by Dr Mehmet Yildiz who kindly…

[emrowene]

Webserials and Why You Should Read Them

Welcome to a short primer on webserials! The concept behind them is pretty simple: webserials, also called webnovels or webfiction, are serialized online novels. If you read long fanfics OR webcomics, you're probably already familiar with the concept. Authors release new chapters on a fixed basis, usually one chapter a week (but sometimes more, sometimes less).

You can find webserials in several places: on big platforms like tapas and royalroad, on individual authors' websites or patreons, or on newsletter platforms like substack.

So now we know what webserials are, but why should we support them?

Because webserials are fun. Because webserial authors are sharing amazing works online for free! Because the publishing industry is disproportionately hard to get into for queer and marginalized folks, and those are the people writing webserials.

To climb a little higher onto my soapbox, I believe webserials are the future of accessible and diverse publishing. There's been more and more discussion about the problems with traditional publishing: how publishers are turning it into a "fast fashion" industry, spitting out books while overall book quality decreases. Regardless of whether you believe that, it's true that the industry prioritizes "marketability" over anything else. Experimental books, passion projects, books that have a lot of heart but no pithy "tropes" -- they stand little chance in the world of traditional publishing, and self-publishing is incredibly inaccessible for most of us. It's expensive, but more than that, it takes an incredible amount of time and effort. It's a business, and at the end of the day, some of just want to share the stories we love with people we hope will love them too. And that's the beauty of webserials!

One complaint I've seen about webserials is that "you never know what the quality will be like" - and I've seen this from people who regularly read fanfiction! Like fanfiction writers, we have our beta readers, we have our editors, we pour our hearts into developing our stories. So give us a try!!

Some recs and places to get started under the cut:

My webserials:

Fractured Magic - A queer epic fantasy series about a broken hero’s hunt for redemption and an elven prince’s quest to rescue his kidnapped king. The two estranged friends are racing against time - and dead gods - to achieve their goals. Will they make up and work together before it’s too late? (This story is currently ongoing)

The Case Files of Sheridan Bell - An old-school detective mystery set in Tamarley, a fantastical city with magical murders and doors to other worlds. Basically (queer, autistic) Sherlock Holmes but with more faeries. The first mystery is complete; the second will be published soon!

Some other webserials I follow/followed from start to finish:

What Manner of Man by @stjohnstarling - a queer gothic romance novel about a priest and a vampire.

The Warthog Report by @warthogreporter- this substack contains a selection of nonfiction writing, misc. fiction writings, and Battles Beneath The Stars, a serialized story about a tournament in a fantasy world, styled like a fighting game script/walkthrough.

Kiss it Better by DogshitJay - A (definitely 18+) queer adult romance about the messy endings and messier beginnings of love.

Warrior of Hearts by Beau Van Dalen - a queer slice of life romance following an online friendship that blossoms into something more. (Beau has lots of other great webserials as well!)

More places to look:

Tapas (Community novels page)

Royalroad (mostly known for its litrpg scene, but you can find other novels and genres here as well!)

The ao3 "Original Works" tag!

[geek-fashionista]

The Origins of the Trainwrecks Universe

Just... bear with me.

In the year 2001, I created a character named The White Maiden. According to legend, she was a sickly young woman who gave her life to protect her home planet from an outside threat. In actuality, she was a star spirit, and the threat was her twin sister, who had become a black hole. The White Maiden sacrificed herself to subdue her twin, leaving her lover, a knight, behind.

The knight's name was Julian Luna. The White Maiden was Whitney.

Two years later in 2003, while I was still living in Hawaii, I created two characters named Ray Kingston and Felicia Moreau. The plotline of their story was basically Horimiya but with class differences (Horimiya did it better). They lived in Waialae-Kahala because Felicia's family had money for days, and I never actually wrote their story down.

We skip ahead another three years to 2006. My now-husband, realizing I was crazy person, created a set of characters to interact with the imaginary people I'd split my psyche into. Whitney's twin sister Desiree was seduced by one of them. Whitney was also seduced by one of them but that's not as important. And the recently created Makoto, who had been turned into a monster by the darkness inside her, was saved by James, the Prince of Darkness.

Typical teenage edgelord shit.

In June 2006, I moved to Washington State at the beginning of summer vacation. Bored and friendless, I revisited some old stories while my characters and my now-husband's characters got busy in the Sean Paul sense of the phrase. Whitney's twin sister Desiree (my literal shadow) gave birth to Jasmine. Luna was accidentally created when I tried to draw her mother with short hair. Whitney adopted Sebastian, then had two more sons before her uterus gave up. Duke came out of his mother's womb with a camera in hand... until I made him an assassin. Makoto became the victim of my attempted Hallmark Christmas movie, where she meets an annoying little boy named Dimitri with a hot single doctor dad. Then she got seduced by my husband's mind, a higher being, and Dimitri became biologically hers and a genius. And then she got back together with James and they had a daughter before Dimitri died and Makoto was so bummed that she jumped James and got preggo with triplets Leo, Victoria, and Twylight in 2009.

Over the next decade, I whittled what was probably 20-something characters down to six: Sebastian, Jasmine, Luna, Duke, Dimitri, and Victoria. While the others disappeared into their own universes or passed into The Slums (my subconscious), this group stayed together, trying out different stories until they found their home. But they have all retained elements of their pasts:

Luna, the otherworldly star spirit, born as her mother died.

Dimitri, half-human half-other, too smart for his human side to handle.

Sebastian, burning with anger against God after being stricken blind.

Jasmine, who inherited her original mother's original sins.

Duke, who hates Dimitri because he has half his heart inside of him.

And Victoria, playing the piano in an empty room on a moonlit night.

Now, if you'd like to hear about all the different lives they've lived, be sure to tune into their individual character development diaries as I write them on Substack... eventually. Bonus material for later seasons. :D

[consanguinitatum]

A peek into my research database....

Hello fellow DT fans!

As most of my followers know, I research and write about a lot of David Tennant's rare and obscure work in all mediums, like audio, film/TV, short films, etc. (you can find my Substack for all of that writing here, or if you'd rather read it all on Tumblr, here's a link to my pinned post.)

But I would hope my followers also know my main research focus for the last almost-decade has been David's early Scottish theatre (c1980-c1994, before his move to London) for my glacially-bloody-slow podcast in development, A Tennantcy To Act.

In that vein, it's occurred to me my audience may not really grasp just how much theatre David's done. So I will try to highlight just how much by showing you the catalogued list of plays I have in my research database. You will see them below.

If you can't be bothered to count them, let me be of assistance: the total is 62.

Yes, you read that right. SIXTY-TWO.

Now - whilst you sit with that amazing number for a bit - I want you to contemplate another number: 25.

TWENTY-FIVE.

And what does this number mean? Well, my friends, that's how many OTHER, as-of-yet unknown plays I've discovered David was involved with during his years in Scotland. I have THEM in this database, too, but I didn't reveal them in the photos I shared with you above because, well...they're to be revealed in my podcast!

What's more, I'm sure there are more plays I haven't found!

And that's why I've been researching all of these, and why I want to share my findings with a podcast. Twenty-five more incredible things David's done in his career that people deserve to know about.

As if he hasn't been busy ENOUGH!

[blubberquark]

Are Game Blogs Uniquely Lost?

All this started with my looking for the old devlog of Storyteller. I know at some point it was linked from the blogroll on the Braid devlog. Then I tried to look at on old devlog of another game that is still available. The domain for Storyteller is still active. The devblog is gone.

I tried an old bookmark from an old PC (5 PCs ago, I think). It was a web site linked to pixel art and programming tutorials. Instead of linking to the pages directly, some links link led to a twitter threads by authors that collected their work posted on different sites. Some twitter threads are gone because the users were were suspended, or had deleted their accounts voluntarily. Others had deleted old tweets. There was no archive. I have often seen links accompanied by "Here's a thread where $AUTHOR lists all his writing on $TOPIC". I wonder if the sites are still there, and only the tweets are gone.

A lot of "games studies" around 2010 happened on blogs, not in journals. Games studies was online-first, HTML-first, with trackbacks, tags, RSS and comment sections. The work that was published in PDF form in journals and conference proceedings is still there. The blogs are gone. The comment sections are gone. Kill screen daily is gone.

I followed a link from critical-distance.com to a blog post. That blog is gone. The domain is for sale. In the Wayback Machine, I found the link. It pointed to the comment section of another blog. The other blog has removed its comment sections and excluded itself from the Wayback Machine.

I wonder if games stuff is uniquely lost. Many links to game reviews at big sites lead to "page not found", but when I search the game's name, I can find the review from back in 2004. The content is still there, the content management systems have been changed multiple times.

At least my favourite tumblr about game design has been saved in the Wayback Machine: Game Design Tips.

To make my point I could list more sites, more links, 404 but archived, or completely lost, but when I look at small sites, personal sites, blogs, or even forums, I wonder if this is just confirmation bias. There must be all this other content, all these other blogs and personal sites. I don't know about tutorials for knitting, travel blogs, stamp collecting, or recipe blogs. I usually save a print version of recipes to my Download folder.

Another big community is fan fiction. They are like modding, but for books, I think. I don't know if a lot of fan fiction is lost to bit rot and link rot either. What is on AO3 will probably endure, but a lot might have gone missing when communities fandom moved from livejournal to tumblr to twitter, or when blogs moved from Wordpress to Medium to Substack.

I have identified some risk factors:

Personal home pages made from static HTML can stay up for while if the owner meticulously catalogues and links to all their writing on other sites, and if the site covers a variety of interests and topics.

Personal blogs or content management systems are likely to lose content in a software upgrade or migration to a different host.

Writing is more likely to me lost when it's for-pay writing for a smaller for-profit outlet.

A cause for sudden "mass extinction" of content is the move between social networks, or the death of a whole platform. Links to MySpace, Google+, Diaspora, and LiveJournal give me mostly or entirely 404 pages.

In the gaming space, career changes or business closures often mean old content gets deleted. If an indie game is wildly successful, the intellectual property might ge acquired. If it flops, the domain will lapse. When development is finished, maybe the devlog is deleted. When somebody reviews games at first on Steam, then on a blog, and then for a big gaming mag, the Steam reviews might stay up, but the personal site is much more likely to get cleaned up. The same goes for blogging in general, and academia. The most stable kind of content is after hours hobbyist writing by somebody who has a stable and high-paying job outside of media, academia, or journalism.

The biggest risk factor for targeted deletion is controversy. Controversial, highly-discussed and disseminated posts are more likely to be deleted than purely informative ones, and their deletion is more likely to be noticed. If somebody starts a discussion, and then later there are hundreds of links all pointing back to the start, the deletion will hurt more and be more noticeable. The most at-risk posts are those that are supposed to be controversial within a small group, but go viral outside it, or the posts that are controversial within a small group, but then the author says something about politics that draws the attention of the Internet at large to their other writings.

The second biggest risk factor for deletion is probably usefulness combined with hosting costs. This could also be the streetlight effect at work, like in the paragraph above, but the more traffic something gets, the higher the hosting costs. Certain types of content are either hard to monetise, and cost a lot of money, or they can be monetised, so the free version is deliberately deleted.

The more tech-savvy users are, the more likely they are to link between different sites, abandon a blogging platform or social network for the next thing, try to consolidate their writings by deleting their old stuff and setting up their own site, only to let the domain lapse. The more tech-savvy users are, the more likely they are to mess with the HTML of their templates or try out different blogging software.

If content is spread between multiple sites, or if links link to social network posts that link to blog post with a comment that links to a reddit comment that links to a geocities page, any link could break. If content is consolidated in a forum, maybe Archive team could save all of it with some advance notice.

All this could mean that indie games/game design theory/pixel art resources are uniquely lost, and games studies/theory of games criticism/literary criticism applied to games are especially affected by link rot. The semi-professional, semi-hobbyist indie dev, the writer straddling the line between academic and reviewer, they seem the most affected. Artists who start out just doodling and posting their work, who then get hired to work on a game, their posts are deleted. GameFAQs stay online, Steam reviews stay online, but dev logs, forums and blog comment sections are lost.

Or maybe it's only confirmation bias. If I was into restoring old cars, or knitting, or collecting stamps, or any other thing I'd think that particular community is uniquely affected by link rot, and I'd have the bookmarks to prove it.

Figuring this out is important if we want to make predictions about the future of the small web, and about the viability of different efforts to get more people to contribute. We can't figure it out now, because we can't measure the ground truth of web sites that are already gone. Right now, the small web is mostly about the small web, not about stamp collecting or knitting. If we really manage to revitalise the small web, will it be like the small web of today except bigger, the web-1.0 of old, or will certain topics and communities be lost again?

[mushycrouton]

TERFs Announce New Partnership with 4chan

By mushycrouton, Investigative Reporter for the Department of Unholy Alliances

In a development that has both baffled sociologists and sent irony spiraling into a coma, prominent trans-exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs) have announced a formal strategic partnership with notorious internet cesspool and meme factory, 4chan.

The alliance, unveiled at a press conference held on a blank Discord server and immediately doxxed by everyone in attendance, is being hailed by critics as “the ideological equivalent of a vegan marrying a chainsaw.”

“We may disagree on literally everything,” said self-described TERF spokesperson Judith Daggerstone, sporting a scarf made of J.K. Rowling tweets. “But we found common ground in our deep commitment to bullying transgender people and making the internet as uninhabitable as possible.”

Representatives from 4chan, many of whom prefer to speak in ASCII art and riddles, issued a joint statement via a photoshopped image of a frog screaming at a Starbucks cup.

A Collision of Contempt

Experts are calling the alliance a “catastrophic synergy” of two movements that, until recently, shared nothing but mutual disdain and an overuse of the word “biological.” TERFs, long associated with second-wave feminism, artisanal substack newsletters, and a near-religious obsession with chromosomes, had previously denounced 4chan as “a toxic male playground for anime-obsessed crypto-incels.”

Meanwhile, 4chan users had historically referred to TERFs as “the final boss of feminism,” “Karen Palpatines,” and “people who make Reddit look emotionally stable.

But according to insiders, years of shared hatred forged an unlikely détente.

“It was beautiful,” said one anonymous 4chan user who goes by the screen name CisH3ll_Rider. “They posted a badly cropped infographic about how ‘gender isn’t real’ and we were like, ‘Damn. Same.’”

Rebranding Hate with Retro Fonts

To commemorate the merger, the two groups unveiled a joint logo: a flaming lavender biohazard symbol wrapped in barbed wire, with the tagline “Oppression, But Make It Retrograde.”

They also launched a new website, BiologicalFacts.biz, which features:

A chatbot trained on 1990s biology textbooks and the comments section of The Times of London

A merchandise store selling tote bags that say “Gender is a construct (but only yours)”

A 12-part podcast series hosted by a former feminist scholar and a man who thinks The Matrix was a documentary

The site crashed within hours, not due to traffic, but because someone tried to code it using Excel.

Collaboration in Action

Since the partnership, TERF forums and 4chan threads have been working together seamlessly to develop cutting-edge bigotry and digital gaslighting tools.

Some highlights include:

The TERFchan™ Meme Forge, where aging boomers contribute text and 4chan teens provide pixelated rage comics.

Operation Bio-Real, an ill-conceived campaign to sneak biology textbooks into drag shows.

Project MisgenderBot, an AI trained to correct pronouns in Wikipedia articles using Morse code and passive aggression.

There are even rumors of a themed live event tentatively titled “Womyn Fest: No Pronouns, No Peace”, with guest speakers ranging from fringe academic grifters to banned Twitter accounts with anime avatars and emotionally distant fathers.

Critics React: “This is Peak Internet”

Reaction to the alliance has been swift and unrelenting. Civil rights organizations have condemned the partnership as “a hate crime with a business model.” Feminist groups across the spectrum have disavowed the TERFs involved, stating:

“Radical feminism is about dismantling patriarchy, not applying it selectively like Instagram filters.”

Meanwhile, Reddit users attempted to mount a counter-movement but got distracted by a debate over oat milk.

Dr. Beatrix Norn, a political theorist and specialist in Extremist Internet Collaborations, offered insight:

“This is a textbook example of ideological horseshoe theory: two diametrically opposed groups meeting at the far ends of logic and decency, fusing into something that somehow manages to be both self-righteous and deeply online.”

Inside the Discord Server

Journalists gained access to a leaked Discord server titled #TERFchan_StrategyLair, where users discussed topics such as “how to make bullying look like feminism,” “are facts transphobic if we shout them?”, and “can you be gender-critical and still stan BTS?”

One user named RadFemRemington posted:

“We’re finally being taken seriously. Even if it’s by teenagers who think women’s rights peaked with Lara Croft’s original polygonal boob physics.”

Another replied:

“L + misogyny + cope.”

A Union Destined to Implode?

While the alliance is currently thriving in a grotesque sort of harmony, most analysts agree that it’s unlikely to last. Tensions are already brewing over key issues like whether women can exist without baking sourdough and if anime counts as a political philosophy.

4chan operatives have reportedly started inserting anime trans girls into TERF memes just to “see what happens,” while TERF leaders have begun compiling a blocklist so long it now includes most of the planet.

“Eventually,” said Dr. Norn, “one side is going to realize the other doesn’t actually care about women at all, and the other will realize they’ve allied with someone who uses the term ‘AFAB’ like it’s a slur.”

Until then, however, the internet will continue to reel from this collision of vitriol and irony.

Stay tuned for the next press release: a potential three-way alliance with Bitcoin evangelists.

Filed under: Hate Collabs, Internet Dark Matter, Feminism But Make It Hostile

© mushycrouton 2025 – All contradictions reserved

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Silver linings in a tough week

March 8, 2025

Robert B. Hubbell

Welcome to the weekend! I will hold a Substack livestream on Saturday, March 8, at 12:00 Noon PST / 3:00 PM EST. Just open the Substack App on your phone or tablet at the appointed time to join the live discussion. The event is open to everyone. Instructions for downloading the Substack App are here.

Well, we made it through another week of resistance to Trump's agenda. We continue to win in the courts while Trump temporizes in complying with multiple court orders—conduct that should result in contempt orders and impeachment. While the former may eventually happen, the latter will not (because of the spineless GOP majority in Congress).

Meanwhile, Democratic leadership and grassroots groups strive to forge an approach to stopping Trump's rolling coup--with mixed results. In general, grassroots groups lead the way, dragging Democratic leadership along.

Despite the torrent of worrisome developments, hopeful signs are emerging (as I wrote in my March 6 edition: A few hopeful signs emerge.) Fellow Substack author Robert Reich has compiled a list of ten items from the week suggesting the tide is turning. See Robert Reich, More reasons for modest optimism.

I recommend Reich’s piece as weekend reading. Reich and I agree that even bad news suggests a way forward to victory. Reich summarizes his viewpoint as follows:

Musk is proving to be a liability for Trump. It’s only a matter of time before Trump jettisons him. Trump has put the economy in peril, which will cause widespread pain. Yet nothing galvanizes public outrage more than a poor economy. Your continuing activism is also helping turn the tide against the Trump-Vance-Musk regime. Please keep it up.

Nothing that Reich or I write suggests that the path forward will be easy. But at least there is a path forward--created by the twin drivers of blossoming grassroots activism and a backlash to Trump's destructive and hateful agenda.

So, even as I recount the latest challenges in the news, let’s recognize that every action by Trump spreads the seeds of resistance and fuels our path to victory in 2026 and 2028.

Overview of Friday’s news

An overarching theme is that Trump is acting like a fascist autocrat using the organs of government to punish his political enemies—including the law firm of Perkins Coie, Columbia University, and DOJ attorneys who prosecuted NY Mayor Eric Adams.

The targeting of political enemies by a sitting president should be the only thing that the media addresses until the president resigns or is impeached and convicted. But the legacy media has largely ignored these never-before-in-the-history-of-the nation scandals. We must not ignore these stories. Instead, we must come to the defense of Trump's targets. If we fail to do so, we may be “Next!”

Trump targets another law firm

Earlier in the week, I wrote about Trump's efforts to punish the law firm of Covington & Burling, which represents former special counsel Jack Smith. See the article in Today’s Edition (2025/02/27); We are engaged in the serious business of saving democracy.

On Thursday, Trump issued an executive order that targets another top-tier law firm, Perkins Coie. See Addressing Risks from Perkins Coie LLP – The White House. I urge you to take five minutes to read Trump's executive order. It is a communication that could have been issued in Stalinist Russia or Kim Jong Un’s North Korea. It begins as follows:

The dishonest and dangerous activity of the law firm Perkins Coie LLP (“Perkins Coie”) has affected this country for decades. Notably, in 2016 while representing failed Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Perkins Coie hired Fusion GPS, which then manufactured a false “dossier” designed to steal an election. This egregious activity is part of a pattern. Perkins Coie has worked with activist donors including George Soros to judicially overturn popular, necessary, and democratically enacted election laws, including those requiring voter identification.

In other words, Trump is targeting Perkins Coie for representing Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election and plaintiffs in voter suppression cases.

Trump then “suspends any active security clearances held by individuals at Perkins Coie” and bans Perkins lawyers from any government buildings where entry might be deemed to be a national security threat, tactics designed to hobble the firm’s practice representing government defense contractors.

Trump's executive order goes on to criticize Perkins Coie for promoting diversity and inclusiveness in its hiring practices. The executive order then commands the EEOC and the DOJ to investigate the practices of “large, influential, or industry-leading law firms” to determine whether they

reserve certain positions, such as summer associate spots, for individuals of preferred races; promote individuals on a discriminatory basis; permit client access on a discriminatory basis; or provide access to events, trainings, or travel on a discriminatory basis.

The plain language of the executive order applies to all large law firms in the United States!!

Almost all large law firms have diversity fellowships, diversity training, and opportunities for diverse candidates to interact with clients. In short, the executive order seeks to eliminate the efforts of the entire legal profession to promote diversity in a profession that actively discriminated against such diverse students and lawyers for more than a century.

This is a five-alarm fire. The legal profession must spring to the defense of Perkins Coie and Covington & Burling and must condemn the efforts to eliminate the legal profession’s efforts to promote diversity.

As I wrote on February 27, “If the legal profession fails to take a united stand, law firms will find themselves being picked off one at a time.”

The ABA must step up once again—as must legal advocacy organizations. This is both an emergency and opportunity to push back in a unified way!

Trump administration claims it will cut $400 million in grants to Columbia University.

The Trump administration claims that it will cancel $400 million grants to Columbia University due to the university’s alleged failure to combat antisemitism on campus. See The Hill, Columbia University loses $400M in federal grants amid antisemitism probe.

It is not clear whether the cancellation of Columbia contracts is legal, but based on other “cancellations” by the DOGE team of hackers, it is likely that the cancellations violate the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 and Article I Section 9 of the Constitution.

Although Columbia has a $15 billion endowment, more than a quarter of Columbia’s operating budget comes from federal sources. In short, if Trump wanted to close Columbia, it could go a long way to doing so. The disruption to tens of thousands of students, faculty, researchers, and staff would be enormous. Perhaps that is the result Trump wants—to inflict injury on an elite NY institution as a way of exacting revenge on a city that never embraced his depraved nature.

[As an aside, Trump canceled funding for students abroad, leaving some stranded outside the U.S. See NYTimes, Study Abroad Funding Is Paused, Leaving Some Students Stranded.

This is outrageous. While antisemitism on campus is reprehensible and should be redressed [like all forms of bigotry], imperiling the existence of one the nation’s R-1 research universities is an act designed to incite terror. These are the tactics of a dictator.

DOJ fires prosecutors who worked on case prosecuting Mayor Eric Adams

Now that Eric Adams has become a client of Trump's protection racket, Trump placed two federal prosecutors on involuntary leave who were involved in the indictment of Mayor Adams. See NBC News, Federal prosecutors who worked on the Eric Adams case escorted out of workplace.

It is possible that the two prosecutors refused to sign court filings in connection with the DOJ’s request to dismiss the case against Mayor Adams. At least five other prosecutors were previously terminated (or quit) rather than file a request to dismiss the case. The actions on Friday bring the total number of prosecutors terminated over the prosecution of Eric Adams to seven.

Trump is sending a message to federal prosecutors across the land: Do not prosecute political corruption. If you do, you will be fired. In effect, Trump is seeking retribution against the entire criminal justice system for prosecuting him.

Concluding Thoughts

In the course of 48 hours, Trump threatened a leading national law firm, the entire legal profession, Columbia University, two career federal prosecutors in NY, and (by implication) all federal prosecutors. Each of those actions was unlawful and anti-democratic. Standing alone, each is a bigger scandal than Watergate.

And yet, the press treats the stories as if they are little more than unrelated political dustups. But Joyce Vance captured the essence of what is happening in her March 7, 2025 post in Civil Discourse (Substack), Courts to Trump: No.

Vance writes,

This case is important in and of itself, but it’s also emblematic of a larger concern, the “soft coup” that Trump continues to advance. It’s not a military coup; there are no soldiers with guns on our streets. It’s subtle. You could miss it, at least for a while, if you’re not paying attention. [¶] Whether it’s shutting down the Department of Education, revoking support for Ukraine, or firing thousands of mission-critical government employees who keep us safe from epidemics, extreme weather, and foreign threats, Trump is setting himself up as dictator . . . .

Joyce Vance “gets it.” You “get it.” But somehow, our Democratic leaders don’t. Hakeem Jeffries “gave a talking to” Democratic representatives who loudly protested Trump during his speech to Congress. Jeffries is wrong. We need more of the passion and energy demonstrated by the members of the Democratic caucus who showed that they understand the urgency of the situation.

Trump's actions are illegal and unconstitutional. No president has ever claimed the power to override Congress in the way that Trump is doing on a daily basis. That fact deserves more of a response than a “strong, determined and dignified Democratic presence in the chamber,” as called for by Hakeem Jeffries in a “Dear Colleagues” letter.

Many of Trump’s actions will indeed be reversed by court orders. Whether Trump will obey those orders is open to question, but early returns suggest the answer is “No.” Trump has seized for himself the powers of a dictator. We should calibrate our response accordingly. Whatever that response is, it is not a “strong, determined, and dignified silence” in the face of lies and threats of future unlawful and unconstitutional actions.

Despite my frustration with our Democratic leaders, I continue to be heartened by the grassroots movement's response. Members of the movement are acting with the urgency and perseverance necessary to defeat Trump’s enablers in 2026 and 2028. Keep up the good work, everyone!

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jessica Testa at NY Times:

Should Jim Acosta wear a tie? For the last two months, since the former anchor quit his job at CNN, Mr. Acosta has been broadcasting online several times per week, usually from his dining room, using his iPhone. Often, he is troubleshooting in real time, far from the high-gloss desk and sophisticated cameras of his CNN set. One question he faces is how many “frills” to add to his interviews with the likes of Pete Buttigieg, the former transportation secretary, or Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the top House Democrat. “The magic here is not killing or messing with this organic nature of the show,” said Matt Hoye, Mr. Acosta’s newly hired executive producer and a 30-year veteran of CNN, who is leaning “no” on adding neckties but “yes” on graphics. “The Jim Acosta Show” streams live on Substack, a platform that has recently cemented itself as a harbor for stranded television anchors. In January, the start-up best known for email newsletters gave all users the ability to publish live video. Now it is home to a handful of cable stars marooned from their mainstream media jobs amid reshuffled lineups, salary cuts and other controversies. On Substack, where politics is the most popular and lucrative category, anti-Trump publishers have been performing particularly well.

Joy Reid began regularly posting to Substack in March, after her MSNBC show was canceled. On Friday, the former CNN anchor Don Lemon joined Substack after a year of livestreaming on YouTube. They join established chart-toppers, like Mehdi Hasan (the former MSNBC host) and Dan Rather (the onetime face of CBS News), along with various CNN expatriates: Norm Eisen, Jessica Yellin, Chris Cillizza, Elise Labott and Alisyn Camerota. This new TV diaspora has one central proposition: The future of news is casual. Sometimes very casual. Anchors can lose their seats and still hold on to their star power, so long as they give modern audiences what they want. “What’s most important in my business now is authenticity,” as the Fox News host turned YouTube star Megyn Kelly recently told The New York Times. [...] Katie Couric, who started an independent media company in 2017, has found the accelerated decline of linear television “at times upsetting,” she said: “I used to anchor the ‘CBS Evening News’ and the ‘Today’ show, and I’m doing Instagram Lives now.” Today, however, with a few dozen employees and a newsletter nearing one million subscribers, she more often feels legacy media is “late to the party.” Broadcasting on social media is “authenticity on steroids,” said Ms. Couric, who recently paused shopping for an Oscars party dress to livestream a breaking-news discussion on Ukraine, parking herself on the couch of a fashion brand’s showroom, wearing no makeup, she pointed out. [...] Some networks have tried to incorporate more of the internet’s casual and chaotic offerings into their sleek lineups, as when ESPN acquired the freewheeling “Pat McAfee Show” or Fox News developed a show with “a signature podcast style” around Will Cain.

Journalists such as Jim Acosta, Joy Reid, and Don Lemon have traded on-air roles at major cable outlets that have fancy studio setups for more modest digs and post on Substack with more editorial freedom.

[pratanumindpowerdevelopment]

25 innovative ways to earn money without investment as a web content writer

Here are 25 innovative ways to earn money without investment as a web content writer — all designed for minimal to zero upfront costs but leveraging your writing skills, internet access, and creativity:

 1. Start a Niche Blog with Free Platforms

Use Blogger or Medium.

Monetize later via AdSense, affiliate links, or paid guest posts.

 2. Offer Content Writing Services on LinkedIn

Use LinkedIn to offer your services directly to small business owners, coaches, and startups.

Share writing samples as posts.

 3. Write on Medium Partner Program

Earn money based on read time and engagement.

Focus on trending topics like AI, productivity, or self-help.

 4. Create and Sell Email Templates

Design copy for eCommerce, marketing, or re-engagement campaigns.

Sell them on Gumroad or directly to startups.

 5. Offer WhatsApp Marketing Content

Provide short sales messages, product descriptions, and stories for WhatsApp campaigns.

Great for local businesses.

 6. Approach NGOs and Small Businesses

Offer to write their web content, brochures, or social posts for free.

Ask for testimonials and referrals.

 7. Guest Post for Payment

Many websites pay for high-quality guest posts (e.g., Listverse, A List Apart).

Focus on niche topics like tech, travel, wellness, or finance.

 8. Write and Sell Micro-eBooks

Use Google Docs to create eBooks (5–10 pages) on topics like freelancing, budgeting, etc.

Sell via Payhip or Gumroad.

 9. Start a Newsletter on Substack

Offer free tips on writing, freelancing, or digital marketing.

Monetize later with paid subscriptions.

 10. Edit and Reformat Resumes or LinkedIn Profiles

Offer services to job seekers, especially freshers or mid-career professionals.

 11. Offer Product Description Writing for Online Sellers

Reach out to sellers on Meesho, Amazon, Flipkart, or Etsy.

Offer 5 free samples, then convert them into paying clients.

 12. Write SOPs and Admission Essays

Cater to students applying to foreign universities.

Join education-related Facebook groups to find leads.

 13. Use Canva to Create Content + Visual Packs

Bundle social media captions with images (like 30 captions + 30 designs).

Sell as digital products.

 14. Create Content Writing Courses (Text-Based)

Use Google Docs or Google Sites.

Sell via Telegram, WhatsApp, or Facebook groups.

 15. Become a Quora Partner

Start answering questions strategically.

Some users still receive bonuses for high-performing answers (depends on the invite program).

 16. Review Apps or Websites

Send cold emails to app developers offering reviews or user guides.

Ask for a small fee in exchange.

 17. Use Affiliate Links in Blog Posts

Join programs like Amazon Associates, Hostinger, Canva, or Grammarly.

Write SEO-optimized content and embed links.

 18. Offer Language Translation + Content

Combine writing with translation if you know regional languages.

Create bilingual website content.

 19. Write Sample Lessons for EdTech Platforms

Contact online tuition or learning platforms.

Offer demo lessons, notes, or practice tests in English.

 20. Partner with Local Shops for Google Reviews

Write polished business descriptions or Google Map listings.

Charge ₹200–₹500 per listing.

 21. Join Facebook or Telegram Freelance Groups

Post your skills daily, share samples, and network directly.

 22. Offer Tagline and Slogan Writing Services

Brands always need punchy copy for ads or banners.

Create a portfolio on Behance or Google Drive.

 23. Write Scripts for YouTubers and Reels Creators

Many small creators need writing help for intros, narration, or subtitles.

 24. Write Press Releases

Offer low-cost PR services to startups and artists.

Submit to free PR sites or offer syndication.

 25. Conduct Writing Challenges or Classes

Run 5-day writing challenges on WhatsApp or Instagram.

Offer a certificate + upsell a full writing course later.

[puckpocketed]

There are times — most times, to be honest — where you’re watching Benák play and it seems as though the game is happening in slow-motion for him. He’s constantly one or two steps ahead of everyone on the ice, identifying developing plays at a higher level than almost any prospect I’ve ever seen. When you’re operating at such a high level from a hockey IQ perspective, the game just comes easily to you, and that’s truer for Benák than 99% of players in the 2025 Draft. The most impressive bit of business for Benák is his innate ability to get passes through in high-danger areas of the ice, particularly cross-crease passes from at or below the goal line. Even with coverage doubled up or tightly bound in front of the net, Benák’s passes make it through to their intended recipient. It’s incredible to watch, and it is the most game-breaking part of his play.

Excerpt from New Jersey Devils' Draft Target Profile: Adam Benák (archived) by JP Gambatese, published May 6th, 2025 on Devils Advocates via Substack

[cindylouwho-2]

RECENT SEO & MARKETING NEWS FOR ECOMMERCE, AUGUST 2024

Hello, and welcome to my very last Marketing News update here on Tumblr.

After today, these reports will now be found at least twice a week on my Patreon, available to all paid members. See more about this change here on my website blog: https://www.cindylouwho2.com/blog/2024/8/12/a-new-way-to-get-ecommerce-news-and-help-welcome-to-my-patreon-page

Don't worry! I will still be posting some short pieces here on Tumblr (as well as some free pieces on my Patreon, plus longer posts on my website blog). However, the news updates and some other posts will be moving to Patreon permanently.

Please follow me there! https://www.patreon.com/CindyLouWho2

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES 

A US court ruled that Google is a monopoly, and has broken antitrust laws. This decision will be appealed, but in the meantime, could affect similar cases against large tech giants. 

Did you violate a Facebook policy? Meta is now offering a “training course” in lieu of having the page’s reach limited for Professional Mode users. 

Google Ads shown in Canada will have a 2.5% surcharge applied as of October 1, due to new Canadian tax laws.

SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES 

Search Engine Roundtable’s Google report for July is out; we’re still waiting for the next core update. 

SOCIAL MEDIA - All Aspects, By Site

Facebook (includes relevant general news from Meta)

Meta’s latest legal development: a $1.4 billion settlement with Texas over facial recognition and privacy.  

Instagram

Instagram is highlighting “Views” in its metrics in an attempt to get creators to focus on reach instead of follower numbers. 

Pinterest

Pinterest is testing outside ads on the site. The ad auction system would include revenue sharing. 

Reddit

Reddit confirmed that anyone who wants to use Reddit posts for AI training and other data collection will need to pay for them, just as Google and OpenAI did. 

Second quarter 2024 was great for Reddit, with revenue growth of 54%. Like almost every other platform, they are planning on using AI in their search results, perhaps to summarize content. 

Threads

Threads now claims over 200 million active users.

TikTok

TikTok is now adding group chats, which can include up to 32 people.

TikTok is being sued by the US Federal Trade Commission, for allowing children under 13 to sign up and have their data harvested. 

Twitter

Twitter seems to be working on the payments option Musk promised last year. Tweets by users in the EU will at least temporarily be pulled from the AI-training for “Grok”, in line with EU law.

CONTENT MARKETING (includes blogging, emails, and strategies) 

Email software Mad Mimi is shutting down as of August 30. Owner GoDaddy is hoping to move users to its GoDaddy Digital Marketing setup. 

Content ideas for September include National Dog Week. 

You can now post on Substack without having an actual newsletter, as the platform tries to become more like a social media site. 

As of November, Patreon memberships started in the iOS app will be subject to a 30% surcharge from Apple. Patreon is giving creators the ability to add that charge to the member's bill, or pay it themselves.

ONLINE ADVERTISING (EXCEPT INDIVIDUAL SOCIAL MEDIA AND ECOMMERCE SITES) 

Google worked with Meta to break the search engine’s rules on advertising to children through a loophole that showed ads for Instagram to YouTube viewers in the 13-17 year old demographic. Google says they have stopped the campaign, and that “We prohibit ads being personalized to people under-18, period”.

Google’s Performance Max ads now have new tools, including some with AI. 

Microsoft’s search and news advertising revenue was up 19% in the second quarter, a very good result for them. 

One of the interesting tidbits from the recent Google antitrust decision is that Amazon sells more advertising than either Google or Meta’s slice of retail ads. 

BUSINESS & CONSUMER TRENDS, STATS & REPORTS; SOCIOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY, CUSTOMER SERVICE 

More than half of Gen Z claim to have bought items while spending time on social media in the past half year, higher than other generations. 

Shopify’s president claimed that Christmas shopping started in July on their millions of sites, with holiday decor and ornament sales doubling, and advent calendar sales going up a whopping 4,463%.

[mehmetyildizmelbourne-blog]

Section 12: Practical Guide to Substack Discounts & Founding Memberships

Summary of my Udemy Course “From Zero to Substack Hero.” Image source from the video location Purpose of this Series for New Readers This is a new series upon request from my readers. I recently developed a course titled “From Zero to Substack Hero” and published it on Udemy and shared it on Content Marketing Strategy Insights owned by Dr Mehmet Yildiz who kindly allowed me to use his Substack…

[thewatchlistpolitics]

The Silent Coup 🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️

While the media is busy hyper-focusing on Trump’s every tantrum, the real shift in power is happening right under our noses. Forget the tweets and lawsuits. It’s not Trump we should be worried about. It’s the billionaires pulling the strings behind the scenes, using tech to quietly replace the very foundations of democracy.

AI is taking over government functions in ways you can’t even imagine. We're talking about algorithms replacing human decision-making in Social Security, healthcare, law enforcement, and more. These decisions aren’t made by elected officials anymore—they’re being made by tech corporations with zero accountability. 🏛️💼

Enter the "AI coup".

Eryk Salvaggio, a hacker and media artist, warns we’re in the middle of a silent takeover. No tanks, no martial law—just cubicle by cubicle, as tech moguls embed themselves in government to run the show with AI. And the scariest part? We’re letting it happen, quietly accepting it as innovation.

Remember how Trump enabled Musk, Thiel, and others to gain control? Now, Musk’s DOGE team is developing AI-powered systems to govern federal agencies. AI isn’t just optimizing. It’s replacing governance.

What does this mean for you? Fewer human interactions with government services. No accountability for the decisions made by soulless algorithms. Healthcare, benefits, and even your tax returns—decided by machines that don’t care about fairness or transparency.

We’re living in a new political world order, where populist figures like Trump give cover for corporate oligarchs to seize control. This isn't about cutting red tape. This is about replacing democracy with technocratic rule, all while we argue over meaningless distractions. 🏴‍☠️

Why does it matter? Because we’re on the verge of a post-democratic world. Sure, elections will still happen, but the real decisions will be made by tech billionaires running AI systems behind the scenes. 💀

We’re heading towards a corporate-run state, where AI and Big Tech control the narrative. You won’t just be living in their world. You’ll be living by their rules. If we don’t stop this now, it’ll be too late.

⚡ What can we do? ⚡

Fight back. Demand oversight and transparency in AI-driven governance.

Talk to people—make them understand what’s happening before it’s too late.

Demand action. Let’s ensure AI doesn’t replace democracy but serves it instead.

Click the link to my Substack. There's a letter/template and instructions on where to send it to demand stronger AI legislation.

This isn’t a political issue. This is a fight for the future of our democracy. If we don’t act, we’re handing over the keys to a new world order—one run by a few tech oligarchs who don’t care about you, me, or anyone else.

[geek-fashionista]

A Business Proposal

A little while ago, I posted an interest poll for a series I'm planning. Since many of you responded that you were at least curious, I come today with... limited information. Limited, because the novel version of this series is currently being read by a literary agent.

But I've always felt that this story was too big to be contained in book format. Under a traditional publisher, I would lose the rights to my own property, so if they didn't want to see more of it, that's that for myself and the characters and the readers who fall in love with the characters. Self-publishing is harder. It needs to be a collaborative effort between writer and readers if it's going to succeed. Thus, I turn to the only audience I have with my "business proposal."

(Note: If you've been around long enough, you might recognize some of these characters from posts that have since been deleted.)

~*~

Working Title: Trainwrecks Length of Series: 8 seasons Length of Seasons: 24 episodes, 12 main and 12 bonus, posted biweekly. (Each season will last three months.) Episode Length: 1000-2000 words Setting: Seattle, Washington and its surrounding towns, between the years 2004-2015 Genre: Contemporary, YA to New Adult

Trainwrecks follows a diverse group of six best friends from high school to their mid-twenties, with all the romance, heartache, college and career decisions, and confusion that entails. Our main cast:

A bubbly, fat Puerto Rican girl with a passion for art and matchmaking (Ages: 14-25)

Her adopted, Argentinian brother, who is adept at music and pretty much nothing else (Ages: 16-27)

Their childhood best friend, an Asian/British/American guy who hides years of trauma behind a flamboyant and overbearing personality (Ages: 19-30)

His ill-tempered younger sister, who has just moved back to the United States from London after their parents divorced fifteen years ago (Ages: 14-25)

An equally bad-tempered Hawaiian/French guy with a love of photography and a hatred of bullies (Ages: 14-25)

The coolest, most beautiful Chinese girl you'll ever meet, who is fighting a sex addiction after a history of abuse (Ages: 16-27)

Main episodes will be written in story format. Bonus episodes will be in epistolary format: MSN chats, text messages, letters, blog posts, and eventually Twitter posts. Y'know, cuz Twitter didn't exist in 2004.

The main series (8 seasons, 24 episodes each) will be completely free to read and delivered directly to your email inbox. There will be character artwork, a bio page to keep track of everyone, a tie-in Tumblr account for memes, Spotify playlists for each character, and helpful things like family trees and relationship charts as well. Each season will have its own key artwork---cover art, if you will.

In addition to the completely free story, there will be extra content for paid subscribers and Patreon patrons, including but not limited to:

Sneak previews/early updates

Side stories

Back stories

Character and universe development notes

Entire AUs with different relationships or different genres

Money raised will either go towards paying artists or towards my student loans. And if the series gets really popular, I intend to launch a Kickstarter for physical copies that will include all the artwork and maybe some bonus items as well.

That's my business proposal. If you like it or have questions, comment on this post, scream in my inbox, chat me---do whatever but do it vocally because I need to know you're out there. And then, feel free to follow my Substack for updates.

[sunfromleo]

deleted that clock app, pretty sure for good! i appreciate it because i used it to start where i was in terms of putting myself out there. i had dipped so deep into a bubble that i stopped writing.

i deleted one blog years ago (wordpress and used elementor to develop/ design so cute)

made another on a smaller scale (wordpress again but no outside designers. very plain and not very custom) — set it as an archive sunfromleos.wordpress.com so myself and others can revisit a pregnant and postpartum me

just handed in tiktok for substack! going to update my website too and expand it from the business to a more creative, intrinsic, nurturing approach because i’m too busy as a mom and student to sustain what i have though i loved the work.

[joemuggs]

Who ARE They?

[motivational thinking klaxon sounds again]

I’ve been really enjoying doing a bit of teaching lately. Last week I did some guest lectures for BIMM Bristol, it was an absolute vibe being part of a Q&A about journalism for the music business students (see my last post), and even more so speaking to the ones doing a more social studies oriented course about subculture. But before I did these sessions, I thought I’d better get my own subjects clear in my head. 

For context: I’m in a major moment of reassessment right now. When I finished the major part of the writing of the fabric book at the end of 2023, I thought I was going to have some space to take stock and look forward to some fun passion projects, but the way 2024 panned out I did NOT get space but I definitely did a lot of stock-taking. 

Everything got very real for me this year – turning 50 would have been stark enough, but my birthday came in a month of three bereavements; add to that plenty more inescapable reminders of mortality and realities of neurodivergence – my own and others’ – and there were very, very few soft edges to anything, anywhere. This means it’s felt more important than ever to be clear about what I’m doing and define my terms as I cue up “fun” projects.

That especially goes for the topic of subculture. Everything I do comes back to subculture, and when I was asked to do the BIMM lectures, as with the nature of journalism practice, I thought I’d better jot down some notes on what I actually mean by that. And in fact, after two hours of back and forth with the students, the ideas became clearer still.

Funnily enough I had put quite a bit of thought over the years into depicting subcultures, without actually defining what subculture meant. As the 'If the Walls of Nightclubs Could Talk' article linked below explains, going back to the 00s, I’d consciously studied how it’s possible for writing to depict collectivity, mass movements of people, hypersocial happenings, events that unfold over long durations and myriad interactions. 

It wasn’t until I started prepping what would become Bass, Mids, Tops, in the late 10s, though, that I hit on convincing ways to do this: in short, overlaying lots and lots of individuals’ stories told in a conversational fashion full of everyday detail, and allowing the contours of the broader social movements and occurrences to emerge from the intersecting lives. (That's something we've continued to be conscious of through developing the Bass, Mids, Tops and the Rest Substack.)

And it wasn’t until after that that I started to really think about what those movements were. I started joining groups where actual sociologists of subculture congregated, and investigating more of The Literature of the discipline. In this it struck me that a lot of thinking about subcultures is still stuck in a Boomer / Gen X model that thinks of them as “tribes”.

It’s understandable: these are the generations of the mods, rockers, hippies, punks, skinheads and so on. These were times that – and it’s staggering how little people factor this in, or even register it – were significantly more violent than now in the developed world, and it’s natural that youth did band together in localised, easily identifiable groups: for protection as much as anything.

But of course subculture always was, and is now more than ever, a lot more fluid than just joining a group and having that become your identity. As I talked to the students I asked them to name some subcultures: of course “punk” was the first one shouted out, but as we went on, we got into much more detailed discussion about modern identities like “gym bros”, “huns”, “resist moms”, protestors, petrolheads, fandoms and also subsets of things like work-related or sexual identity and how these things overlap and… yes we ended up at intersectionality.

We talked too about who gets to define what a subculture is. Of course there isn’t one line drawn around what a hip hop fan is, what a punk is, what a metaller is, what a Swiftie is, let alone around what it is to be, say, a queer punk. So given that who defines what these things are? Sociologists or anthropologists looking from outside? Specialist journalists? The generalist media? The people within these scenes themselves – many of whom will strongly disagree about what “the thing” actually is? 

Well… the answer is: all of those. The nature of scenes, subcultures, identities – as well as always intersecting in different ways in different people – is to have dynamic boundaries, constantly evolving, and constantly accumulating different and contradictory stories about what they are. Which means that we don’t define them, we negotiate their nature: every time someone talks about or reports on them, they’re adding to the mutating collective definition, shifting assumptions a little bit. The urge to impose thick black lines around areas of this flux is always the Victorian imperial cartographer's urge: it's an act of claiming ownership.

And subcultures and fandoms affect their individual participants. They affect what they know, what they read, how they interact, how they walk and move! I thought about how coming to becoming a hardcore Joni Mitchell fan quite late in life, listening intently to her and reading about her, altered the way I veiwed the history of her era: from my perspective, it actually altered the past. The information available to me about the music I loved and the person who made it altered me. I have written about THIS at some length.

All of which then gives us a choice when we come to talk about something as if we know how it is defined: are we going to be honest that that’s what we’re doing and intentional about the way we do it? Are we going to ask “Who am I to define this?” and accept that the way we in turn are percieved will affect how our attempts to define land and affect current, past and future particpants in the thing we’re talking about? 

None of which is to say don’t define things. We all need working definitions if we’re ever to talk about or interact with anything – but is it possible for we who study culture to accept them as just that: working definitions, contingent, constantly in negotiation? That can be a tough pill to swallow for people who grew up, as I did, on the classic model of pop culture journalism where the guy – it was always a guy when I was growing up – tells you how it was, and you’re expected to build your stories on that solid ground. But maybe, just maybe, have a little humility about it and you might even find your work remains just as valid and “important” as if you’d scrawled your lines around the territory you wanted to mark out…. 

Obviously this applies to all kinds of groupings of people, not just what we think of as subcultures. Clans, cliques, gangs, teams at work (in the BIMM lecture we talked about how particular flavours of humour are often a subcultural identifier, and this led to thinking about specifically health worker cultures for example, who are bonded by gallows humour, in different ways in different departments or specialism) and all the rest.

That might not sound quite like the clarity I hinted at, but trust me – as I plan future projects and go about my day-to-day work – it really is. In the face of never-ending data overwhelm, it's not just blind relativism to look at the mechanisms by which these identifiers evolve: quite the opposite, it's engagement with material realities. And it makes you realise the potential significance of your words and acts. In this never ending negotiation, whether you assume or assess makes a huge difference to where and whether you then choose to add your voice to the negotiation. And what you choose to reinforce or redefine alters things - infinitesimally, yes, but in complex systems who knows which is going to be the grain of sand that changes everything? As I've always said, it's not naive to think you can't change the world: it's naive to think you're NOT changing it.