#tldr newsletter

[sleepyheadnat]

Mate, that's the exact opposite of what we want.

This funny.

Source: TLDR Newsletter (you can subscribe to it using my referral code if you want) // Cited article: Perplexity CEO says its browser will track everything users do online to sell ‘hyper personalized’ ads

[wybienova]

DELTARUNE !!! (explodes)

[newcodesociety]

Newsletters

As you know, a lot of these links come from newsletters. I have so many coming into my inbox and we go through them to make sure they're useful and easy to understand. Here are the ones we recommend:

TLDR - Design

TLDR - WebDev

TLDR - AI

Frontend Focus

Pointer.io

ByteByteGo

Codrops

WPMail

Web Tools Weekly

Coding Challenges

Please be aware that this post does contain affiliate links.

[lefthorse]

nevermind it was a certified Hypnosis Mic Bad Writing Moment as per usual. he has the piercing because this was all they could think of to do instead of CUTTING HIS FINGER OFF .

new favorite samatoki fact is that he just randomly got a new piercing in official art. when did you get that boy.

[goomyloid]

do you think anything will happen when we get to the festival in the game? since it seems like an important thing to kris and noelle's past?

I DONT KNOW THATS SCARY... (shivering)

i think its a common theory that the festival is chapter 5 right? (thinking of the balloon gif) ohhhh... i honestly have no idea what will happen, but i really wonder how things will be changed for the weird route... main route wise, i think the festival chapter might end up being more susie centric, because they had already talked about going together... but man, weird route festival will probably have that insane indescribable tension between noelle and kris... we already kind of 'cut off' kris emotionally from susie in the weird route so far so i think the chapter would be an interesting opportunity to put lots more emphasis on their (kris's and noelle's) past...

hoping praying crossing my fingers we get a ferris wheel scene. since it didnt(?) happen(?) in the chapter 2 weird route, i think it'd be a fucked up romantic parallel how we've 1. grounded noelle to reality + her past by making her go on the real ferris wheel over the dark world one, and 2. making her go with kris, but i think they'll be too... Whatever to shake the carrier this time around... maybe they can just talk... (salivating over potential insane kriselle moment)

speaking of chapter 5, i'm really wondering when it will be released... since it's been making good progress, i wonder if it will be released standalone in the next year or two? since it was originally supposed to release with 3&4. (which is scary. i know each chapter is more or less self-contained but the fact that we were originally supposed to play chapter 5 right after finishing chapter 4, but that's no longer possible.... scary.... hope nothing bad happens in chapter 4 lol....) im unsure of what the schedule may look like tho... ive been wondering if toby will share any future plans in the upcoming newsletter or not

ANYWAY. tldr i hope we get a ferris wheel scene and i think festival chapter will kill us all

[sansbydaily]

Okay, so since we're all unhinged Grillby lovers here, take our mildly coherent love of the hidden depths of his character. The joke about Sans' tab.

The fact that Grillby allows him a tab, and doesn't appear to press him at all about it during the hangout where Frisk and Sans go to the restaurant. There's also the fact that he let's Sans take the rare shift here and there as we see in the Grillby's Rouge's Gallery part of the Spring 2023 Newsletter.

This shows that Grillby is well aware of different income levels and that not everyone can pay for the food that they need from him. It ALSO shows that he understands how that can bring embarrassment or even shame to people, hence why he doesn't press on it, especially in front of other people, and even more so in front of children (referring to Frisk in the restaurant hangout with Sans.) Also the fact he is adamant that ONLY he and Sans know about how much is on the tab, also proves that he is aware of the shame financial status can make people feel.

Then he's also accepting of other currencies trying to be used at the bar to pay.

(Screenshots from the Grillby's Rouge's Gallery part of the Spring 2023 Newsletter.)

The second one is a screenshot from Papyrus' section. This also shows that Grillby wants to learn how to exchange currencies so more types of monsters feel welcomed and accepted in his establishment, which we also see in other sections of the Newsletter.

This doesn't always work in his favor though, as we see with Red Bird.

This is very interesting as this implies that Grillby and Sans are actually a lot closer than we might even thnk, as he's comfortable around Sans enough to stop him, but not Red Bird.

This one is from the Fish's section, which also shows that Grillby is willing to listen to all his customer's problems, even if he doesn't know what he should say, or if he should even say anything in some cases.

There's honestly so much more about his character that we could say, but this is all our brain can think of right now. TLDR: Grillby is awesome and way too overlooked. - 🍀 & ⚰

I need everyone to read this now.

[wigglebox]

Obviously this place isn’t Instagram but I wanted to let y’all know I’m gonna delete my Instagram probably later today.

TLDR: Deleting Instagram, I’m on Bluesky, here and RedNote. Explore the internet more!

*~*

I don’t like META but I’m forced to have a personal account for my job. But I want to get rid of every Instagram I have.

Being an artist online is a daily struggle to share your work and be seen and feeling encouraged to create more. We want others to see our stuff. The art we make for ourselves we don’t always share.

This is a truth I’ve known for a while now but didn’t wholly process until Saturday that we need to explore more. We need to explore new methods and apps and websites and delivery systems.

When the TikTok blip happened for us Americans many of us were panicking because of the greater implication of our rights. But, in the lead up to said blip, I saw many people talking about how they were coding their own spaces and other apps. Bluesky is coming out with an Instagram rival and I’ve seen several alternatives to tiktok in development.

Every social media website and app, or really anything that encourages mass gatherings of people online, has a life cycle. Some end quick and some end over an extended period of time. People my age really understand this as we have been online since the Wild West of the internet age. I’ve seen every phase of Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. I’ve seen the rise and fall of spaces like Gaiaonline, Xanga and MySpace.

The issue with Facebook is what I call the “META Virus” and it acts like a vampiric parasite, sucking the life out of corners of the internet to keep its zombie self alive. Instagram was one of these places. Facebook should not have lasted more than 7-8 years as most. It was an early social media website and far superior ones sprung up behind it. But it’s a zombie now.

So, at the end of the day, I’m just going to delete my accounts there.

I think it’s very important we explore. Pretend these are little worlds or galaxies and explore. I know we want to keep fandoms alive and there’s no reason to suggest they won’t on other platforms. You just have to find your people.

You can find me currently on Tumblr, obviously, and BlueSky and RedNote (xiaohongshu).

I’ve deleted many of my tiktok videos to go back to 2023 mostly and don’t plan on posting there. I want to make art videos but I don’t want to post those videos where people aren’t interested.

I will be exploring pixelfed and other apps and I have followed the developers of even more apps and websites. I’ll post about any one I join to here and Bluesky but when in doubt, I’ll always be wigglebox or wiggleboxart!

I’m also exploring making a Neocities page as a sort of landing site for me and see if I can set up a newsletter or Patreon. If I set a Patreon up the tiers will be low. Probably just one for like, $2 or something. Mostly because for us Americans it’s going to be a penny pinching way going forward.

I’m not sure yet about Patreon yet I’m still brainstorming that.

Suffice it to say, after all this rambling, we need to be internet explorers (not THAT internet explorer) much like we were in the early 2000s if you remember that time.

Thank you for reading and understanding!

[narfin-frood]

I think "the eye on the skullship" would be a cool episode in this au, getting a look at Mr meteor's kingdom, the daily lives of it inhabitants and how they been faring during his absence and other plot stuff.

thank you very much, i'm so glad people are taking inspiration from my au!!! and i thought i'd go ahead and answer these both at once, since they're somewhat related

i thought about this ask for a while and i even attempted to do a little boarding for the potential eye on the skullship (skullcastle?), but it was right before hitting a slump and i never got very far. instead of it being a vlog series, i might have him do a newsletter or something in the style of an amateur newspaper, and have him go around highlighting all the boredom and directionless monotony around the castle? he'd be met with a lot of "idk if we're allowed to be like, on our phones in here, man", and a lot of his questions would be "where do you think lord lackadaisical went" in so many words.

the last bit would happen right after the letter from lord lackey granting ownership of the kingdom to the watchdogs arrives and andy gets to open a full-size newspaper business writing about the watchdogs or something nice like that :)

since i'd think the kingdom would be forked over to the watchdogs like, late season one? this episode would probably be way earlier in the series, since i think the letter confirming lord lackey's permanent absence is what i'd use as the inciting incident for lord westley. i guess in a way it'd be smashing the little guy and the eye on the skullship into one, but there'd be a separate "the little guy" type episode focused on dominator, and the entirety of season 2 would be haunted by westley instead of her.

ermmm tldr TEOTSS would be similar, but the setting would be slightly different, and it would be earlier in the series.

[xanams]

hi mutual,

what the crab is going in the utdr fandom???

thanks,

Okay so???? Idk how much you know about the spamton sweepstakes but in 2022, a year after deltarune chapter 2 dropped and around undertale's anniversary, Toby (alongside fangamer) decided to do a charity sweepstakes event with a lot of cool utdr related merch with a big spamton focus. Every donation milestone unlocked a new item for the sweepstakes and a bunch had embedded links in their descriptions (as well as in a few places on the main page too), branching into like 26 unique pages that were filled with character lore and little previews for (mostly) chapter 3. People kept mistakenly calling it an ARG despite one of the entry pages outright saying it wasn't and there not really being a big game element to it but it was a blast. It also came w a really batshit wayneradiotv stream at the end that everyone got to donate-to-vote on the conclusion of. It was huge and we all loved it.

Deltarune is coming out on the 4th of next month and Toby confirmed the exact time of release in a newsletter yesterday, as well as saying he was finally releasing the alternate ending to the sweepstakes stream that we HADN'T voted for in the end, with a gentle nudge at people to look at the sweepstakes again if they wanted.

Turns out alongside the alt ending, they've added 14 new pages to the sweepstakes to tease the new chapters, one of which had a weird form you were meant to add an amount of time and an email to, which vanished after about 12 hours. Everyone who input their email got a response today/last night (ehh, timezones) - with the amount of time you input if you did that, or a blank email if you typed anything that wasn't an actual timeframe.

Tldr Toby decided to fuck with us all again less than a month before his game drops and we're truly in the deltarune hype season now lol

[phoenixyfriend]

I gain most of my politics/current events information right now from these shows:

ON SPOTIFY:

Up First - NPR: morning news broadcast, about 20 minutes. Moderately left.

NPR News Now: hourly updates, about 5 minutes each. Moderately left.

Al Jazeera News Updates: several minutes long, several times a day. Independent Qatari news organization.

Morning Brew Daily: morning news podcast, focused on business, comparatively lighthearted. Generically liberal.

The NPR Politics Podcast: weekdays, about 15-20 minutes. Moderately left.

Democracy Now!: Weekdays, far left.

BBC Global News Podcast: Daily, half hour. UK public news, centrist(?)

The Daily: Daily, New York Times. Moderately left.

ADDITIONALLY:

TLDR Daily, and associated channels: independent UK news org, vaguely moderate left(?). I watch them on Nebula, rather than YouTube.

GovTrack Daily Newsletter: a daily email letting me know about activity in Congress. Bills that were recently voted on AND the ones that are on the docket for this week.

I occasionally check other news sites, like Pink News or The Guardian, but the above are what I read and listen to on my commute.

[frigidfries]

it’s from the most recent newsletter, that (for me at least) just dropped!! make sure to check your inboxes and double check you’re subscribed ^^

this one has some cute sprites and fun behind the scenes stuff about chapter 2, along with a progress update!

*rejoicing noises*

[calcium-supplement]

TLDR Trump pulled U.S. out of WHO (World Health Organization) but you can still subscribe to their mailing lists to stay aware of some public health information esp worldwide big things

https://www.who.int/news-room/newsletters

[moonjunio]

This kind of parliamentary smack down is pretty much why I moved to Aotearoa New Zealand tbh

TLDR: transphobic bills are stupid, hateful, and culturally irrelevant—and btw your party helped create the self ID system, dumbass

“‘Legally incoherent’ and impossible to implement”

Writing in The Spinoff this morning, Paul Thistoll of Countering Hate Speech Aotearoa attacks the bill [seeking to define “woman” and “man”] as legally meaningless and logistically absurd. He warns that the UK Supreme Court ruling NZ First is trying to emulate “cannot be imported into our system without flattening our unique legal, cultural and human rights landscape”. Unlike the UK, where gender recognition is “medicalised” and “bureaucratic”,

New Zealand’s approach is based on self-ID, a system NZ First itself helped create.

Enforcing rigid biological definitions of “woman” and “man” would be impossible, Thistoll argues, without “compulsory chromosomal testing and the establishment of a sex-passport infrastructure” in this country.

“They are simply not serious options in a free society… and compulsory chromosomal testing of newborns… could give rise to another parliamentary occupation.” Lex non cogit ad impossibilia – The law does not compel the impossible.

Last week’s UK Supreme Court ruling, which found that “woman” under the Equality Act refers exclusively to biological females, was celebrated by some British politicians and campaigners – and quickly seized upon by NZ First. But the UK’s Equality Act is fundamentally different from New Zealand’s legal framework, Thistoll points out.

The main effect of the UK judgement will be to exclude people with Y chromosomes from female-only spaces. But the safety of those spaces is not derived from chromosomes. In Aotearoa, Women’s Refuge is explicitly trans-inclusive. They understand that safety comes from trust, support and shared experience — not from anatomy.

Here, trans rights are protected under existing interpretations of the Human Rights Act, and our courts have consistently acknowledged the legal significance of gender identity.

In the legal and cultural context of Aotearoa – including the recognition of gender diversity in Māori tradition – the UK ruling holds little relevance.

“We are not Britain,” Thistoll writes. “Our legal direction is different by design.”

Text all quoted from this article and the related Bulletin newsletter.

[yoshiyoshitaniart]

Heya! I’m not sure what questions’ve been asked/answered already but I’ve been keeping up with your progress on the oracle cards (can’t wait to get them btw! I already own the tarot you made and I love them) I just wanted to ask about the “theme” of each of your five suits? I have theories but nothing solid.

Also, something that caught my attention was how most of your card names in the four suits with depictions of specific myths are nouns (specifically concepts— ambition, order, purity, etc.) but the Amaterasu card is the verb ‘Ascend’? You also have two cards labeled ‘Trickster’ and ‘Dreamer’ which also break the pattern of ‘name-of-concept’ like ‘Trickery’ or ‘Dreams’ in favor of ‘person-engaged-with-concept’ and I was wondering what the significance of that distinction was to the meanings of those cards. Knowing how the meaning behind oracle cards is largely dependent on the deck’s maker, I got curious but I /have/ been known to read too far into things in the past so thought I’d just ask.

So sorry that this ask got so long! I’m too hyped about this deck I have to k n o w but I also don’t want to bother too much if this all gets explained in a guidebook like with your tarot cards.

Thank you for your question! I am extremely flattered that you're following my oracle deck so closely, and I really hope that it can live up to your expectations! tldr; the exact names are a work in progress. I have strong feelings about the energy of each card, but I'll probably be tweaking until the last minute what each TITLE should be. It's hard to encapsulate everything a whole character and theme represents, and you're right about the adjective/verb/noun jumble being confusing. It's definitely something I'm taking into consideration, and have been talking with my publisher about. If you're interested in following along, I recommend joining my monthly newsletter! I put updates there and will keep everyone apprised of publishing news

Longer answer:

My oracle deck has 12 Myths/Legends, which each myth being represented in 4 cards: Hero, Advisor, Challenge, Desire

To show you, these are the 12 cards for the 3 myths, Amaterasu's Cave, Ishtar's Decent into the Underworld, and Panji Semirang.

Hero Cards (Laurel Wreath icon): These are usually characters of action and movement. The embody change, creativity, and the symbol of fire. While these are generally speaking more positive cards, there are a few that can lean more negatively. While I absolutely love Ishtar, her Ambition does not always endear her to the rest of her pantheon Advisor Cards (Eye Icon): These are characters of stability and advice. They embody intellect, the mind, and the symbol of wind. Again there are positive and negative cards. There is Introspection but also Gossip

Challenge Cards (Skull Icon): These are cards of opposition and confrontation. They embody emotion, volatility, and the symbol of water. While they tend to be more negative with traits like Envy and Greed, they can also be necessary like Sacrifice an Reckoning

Desire Cards (Heart Icon): These are cards of aspiration and hope. They embody the heart, wishes, and the symbol of earth. These are some of the more diverse cards, with desires ranging from the stability of a father figure, to a throne of power, to good time.

The 12 cards for the 3 myths The White Snake, The Industrious Daughter, and The Tale of Huathacauri

So I'll go over a little bit of my thought process for the names of these cards. Specifically you mentioned Amaterasu as the Ascend card, so I'll talk about that set. Originally when I was creating these cards my intention was to have each card named the name of the character/object. So, Amaterasu was going to be named Amaterasu, Ame no Uzume was going to be Ame no Uzume, etc etc. But when I started showing the cards to friends and family, the feedback I got was that the cards were extremely hard to use unless you were already innately familiar with each of the characters and their stories. This was really helpful, because I do want to encourage people to learn these stories--but I don't want to Assign Homework just so you can enjoy this oracle deck. I want anyone to be able to use this deck instantly, and if they want to learn more, there is a rich history for them to dive in to.

So that's when I started considering Titles for each of the cards, similar to many existing Oracle decks.

In summary in Amaterasu's Cave, the Sun Goddess Amaterasu (Hero) loves her weaver handmaiden (Desire) . This handmaiden is killed by Amaterasu's brother Susanoo (Challenge), which causes the grief stricken Amaterasu to hide in a cave. She eventually lured out by the charms and humor of the goddess Ame no Uzume. To start of easy, Susanoo and the handmaiden are clearly opposites of each other. The handmaiden is a weaver in Amaterasu's comfortable life and home, and so she represents peace and ORDER. Susanoo comes in and wrecks the harmony, causing CHAOS, ANARCHY and WRATH (I'm not sure which of these names I like best). Amaterasu, when she leaves her cave, ultimately represents the end of depression, moving on, and like a sun, ASCENDING once again. Although a better name might be REJUVENATION, RECOVERY, or maybe RE IGNITE to get more of the sun imagery in there again. It's tough to find a good single word for "I-was-too-depressed-to-get-out-of-bed-but-I-am-getting-better-and-now-I'm-ready-to-go-outside-again" But if you know one please tell me! Lastly there is Ame no Uzume, who is that friend that reminds you life is still worth it by showing you all the fun and beauty in the world. I originally called her REJUVENATION, but she might be better described as CELEBRATION, or JOY as it is her party that brings Amaterasu out of hiding. She can also be seen as a representation of a healing S-xWorker, as it is specifically her hilarious and lewd striptease that calls to Amaterasu.

But lastly let me also talk about the 5th and last suit of the oracle deck, the suit of Symbols

Symbol Cards (Star icon): These 12 cards are symbols that show up repeatedly in multiple myths and fairy tales from around the world. I wouldn't go so far as to call them Universal Symbols, because not every culture has every single one of these, but they are strong and impactful Archetypes.

For example The Forbidden is every box or door that we are told Not To Open. Some famous examples are Pandora's box, Cupid's Bed Curtain, or Bluebeard's Basement. While these things are expressly off limits, these are often lines we will need to cross in order to learn or grow. We just also have to realize there will be consequences.

The naming for these ones is really easy, as they will all be "The Noun"

All told there will 60 cards (12 myths with 4 cards each, and 12 symbol cards) If you're interested in following along, I recommend joining my monthly newsletter! I put updates there and will keep everyone apprised of publishing news

[upside-down-uni]

Jedes Mal, wenn ich Leute über geschlechtsneutrales Deutsch reden höre muss ich dran denken, aber ich mach jetzt auch mal nen Post dazu:

Verein für Geschlechtsneutrales Deutsch e. V.

Den Verein gibt es seit 2021 und sein Ziel ist es geschlechtsneutrale Alternativen in der deutschen Sprache zu schaffen, die intuitiv verständlich und kollektiv angenommen sind. Dabei sagt der Verein ausdrücklich, dass er nich präskriptiv arbeitet und weiterhin jede Person mit den Formen angesprochen werden soll, die bevorzugt wird und natürlich niemand gezwungen wird die entwickelten Alternativen zu verwenden.

Ich finde, die machen eine super interessante Arbeit und habe (zu meinem eigenen Ärger) auch immer noch vor endlich die Grammatik zu lernen und was umzusetzen.

Der Rest aller Vorschläge und Formen des Inklusivums ist auf der Website des Vereins zu finden.

Es gibt immer wieder online Workshops zum Kennenlernen und Erlernen des sogenannten Inklusivums, der nächste ist zum Beispiel 15.06 um 16:00 Uhr. Mehr Infos gibt es hier: https://geschlechtsneutral.net/workshop/

Auch Umfragen zu neuen Formen gehen regelmäßig raus, dabei geht es vor allem darum wie "akzeptabel", also intuitiv passend die Vorschläge auf einen wirken. Die aktuelle Umfrage beschäftigt sich mit Kosenamen in der Familie, also Alternativen zu Mama/-i, Opa/-i usw. Wer Lust hat kann seinen Senf hier dazugeben: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScH8JCm1KYoesG94JaZ6tfMQct97DIwuS_khiyoIkW99QdPGw/viewform

Zu jeder Umfrage gibt es auch immer eine lange Liste an Pro und Kontra Überlegungen zu allen Vorschlägen, die ich immer hilfreich finde: https://geschlechtsneutral.net/pro-contra-liste-koseformen-fuer-eltern/

Und es gibt auch ab und zu einen Newsletter, wenn man nicht Mitglied werden kann oder will und aber trotzdem Neuigkeiten mitbekommen möchte.

Der Verein ist bei Weitem nicht die einzige Ressource zum Thema "organisierte Herangehensweise an geschlechtsneutrales Deutsch", sollte jemande also das Inklusivum nicht gefallen gibt es diese Zusammenfassung von Grammatiken auf der Nichtbinär-Wiki Website: https://nibi.space/geschlechtsneutrale_sprache

TLDR: Nicht nur über den Mangel an Geschlechtsneutralität in der deutschen Sprache meckern, auch mal in der Community nachschauen, was es schon gibt und anpacken. Geschlechtsneutrale Formen selbst verwenden, eine komplett neue Form entwickeln oder eine bereits konzipierte Form weiterentwickeln. Wir sind hier, wir sind queer und wir sollten uns den Sprachraum nehmen, den wir brauchen.

[hyba]

Heya! I'm trying to join the newsletter and I'm kind of confused by the thing with the google group and joining the group and how I want to get emails... ( I fear this will turn other people off too). Have you thought about maybe doing a newsletter over mailerlite or even substack?

Hola! Thank you so much for reaching out <3 I realize that I never talked fully about why I chose to go the GG route, so I'm taking this as an opportunity to do that, and I hope you don't mind.

For the first part of your Q:

The way that the Google Group thing works is just that you join it and then you're good to go! You don't ever need to go back to that page again if you don't want to. You'll receive the emails (newsletters) just by being a member of the group. It's basically the same functionality as a normal newsletter. (With the caveat that it requires a google account, I believe.)

Screenshots under the cut of what it looks like to get a newsletter from the Google Group.

For the second part of your Q:

My answer got a little long and probably way outside the scope of your Q, so here's a TLDR in case you don't want to hear the Origin Story lol:

I'm trying this out partly as an experiment, but I'm giving it a genuine run, especially since it works exactly the same from the reader's POV. Unless it proves to be disastrous (and it very well may be if most people let me know they aren't joining specifically because it's GG), I may keep this newsletter for a year or more. Ideally when my subscriber count gets big enough, I'll move to a "better" newsletter app which has more features for analytics and such, or give Substack a go because I've also had my eye on that (thanks for reminding me of it!). I did at some point have a TinyLetter but I didn't feel very satisfied with it, and maybe that was just because I also just wasn't using it how it was meant to be used (my fault for sure).

But my number of newsletter subscribers is low (ilyasm <3) and I feel that if there will ever be a time I can try something like this out, it's now. It might be an absolutely terrible idea, but I won't know for sure until I give it a go, right? ^^'

Now onto the aforementioned Origin Story. There are 4 main reasons I chose to work with a GG as a newsletter. (If you're interested at all by the idea of a GG as a newsletter, this might also be of interest to you.)

1: It looks the same from the subscriber side of things.

I signed up to it with a personal email and this is what it looks like to get a newsletter from it:

This is what it looks like inside (I did zero formatting for this trial email haha):

And at the bottom you do have a link to unsubscribe (you also have that up above, if you noticed). For newsletter subscribers that only want to engage via email, that's all there is to it.

But for anyone who wants to engage on the GG, at the bottom there's also a link to see the Conversation (newsletter post) on the GG, which takes you to a page like this:

Normally, it should be set up so that everyone can reply to a newsletter post. Right now, none of the members have posting permissions, simply because there are some issues with that (see below), so the Conversation part of things is limited.

Anyway, the fact that it works the same for subscribers as any other newsletter was the most important thing to me, because whatever happens in the background, I didn't want the experience to be so alien to subscribers that they just Nope away from it. Granted, the first step of signing up is different enough that, as you pointed out, some people will still be turned off by it, but that can't be helped as I can't change the mechanics of the sign-up.

...That I know of. Will keep digging.

2: I was intrigued by the Conversation features in GG.

I thought it meant readers would be able to reply both privately to me (we've tested this and they can) - a functionality most newsletters provide - and publicly to each other in a forum-type way (turns out, this is problematic for many reasons, the biggest of which is that it could be a nuisance to get an email every time someone replies to someone, but there are a variety of other issues there, like the fact that anyone can post anything and it would send - like a newsletter - to all subscribers, so that's not a feature I'm using).

3: I wanted to know why more writers aren't using it in this way.

GG is a free app connected to your Google account. Lots of writers work with Google Docs, share their stuff through Google Drive, organize their writing using Google Sheets, collect beta reader feedback via Google Forms, and so on.

So I thought, why isn't anyone using GG as a newsletter, especially when starting out? It felt almost like a logical step to me, despite the obvious lack of analytics and other features (CTR, automated emails sent out to new subscribers, etc.). It could still function as a newsletter, so why was nobody even considering it?

Again, it'll probably end up being not the best idea, but I think I'll at least try it out before I make up my own mind about it.

4: It keeps your inbox clean & acts as an archive.

So, once you've read a newsletter, you might delete it. A few months later, you might realise, Oh, I could actually really use that resource Hyba linked in that one newsletter email... which I deleted! No worries; head on over to the GG and all the newsletters are listed there, like an archive. I found that to be a nifty feature, so I just thought I'd throw that in there. ^^

Although, I'm not sure how retroactive it is. As in - if you join now, can you see all the past posts I ever made on the GG? In other words, do you have access to all the past newsletters from before you subscribed? Hopefully someone will let me know, haha.

I also tried deleting conversations to see if that notifies people (it doesn't) and if people can still reply to the email that was sent with that post (the post was too old and nobody had it on email lol, so jury's still out on that one).

Major Cons so Far

No analytics other than how many reads a conversation/post (newsletter) has gotten. That's alright, but I have no idea how many people are clicking through on the links and such, so that's not the best thing for someone trying to grow as an author.

No automated email that is sent out to new subscribers. It would be cool to be able to create a Welcome to the Newsletter post and set it so that it can send as an email to every new subscriber, but that's not an option. Unfortunately, if you're a new subscriber, you've got radio silence until the end of the month, when the next newsletter comes out ^^' I'm not too sure if new subscribers can see older posts directly on the GG (any new subscribers out there willing to chip in?), but that might be a potential workaround.

Confusing and limited 'conversation' feature. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find a lot of info about how to fiddle around with the settings and only allow members to reply to posts instead of giving them the permission to also make posts. I also would prefer that if there is a reply to a post, it doesn't then send out an email notification to everyone that a reply has been made. This is purely for the 'community' side of things on the GG, not something that alters the way the newsletter as a newsletter works. But it was one of the selling points for me to give GG a go, so I'm still fiddling around with it in hopes that I can make it work.

Anyway, lots of troubleshooting, lots of interesting things to check out, still giving it a go, some mistakes might be made, and definitely it will turn some people off for sure, since it's markedly different in many ways. However, I hope that beyond that, people will realize that it's the same thing as any other newsletter at heart.

If it definitely bothers a potential subscriber and it's a total deal-breaker, then that's definitely a bummer for me, too, but as I said before, I'm not thinking of it as a permanent newsletter solution.