Great overview, this - I have a few people who might need it, so I'll point them your way...
Yes, understanding sea-lioning is SO important with this working-online lark. Once you understand it and can react to it, it saves so much time.
The same is true with understanding burden of proof: if someone leaps in with some cockadoodledoo theory that flies in the face of 99% of the evidence, it's NOT up to us to disprove it by watching their 3-hour YouTube video etc - it's up to THEM to prove it, clearly and succinctly, by successfully arguing away that 99%. Otherwise they have no credibility and don't deserve to be treated seriously. This is another colossal time-saver.
Love this angle. My most valuable mental shortcut is: if this idiot can be disproved with a Google search, it's not my fucken problem to engage 🤣 I see women on the brunt of this a lot, with "mild-mannered" people asking them to prove their position. My dude, you've got the Internet, arguably the single best source of information the human race has ever had. If the Internet couldn't educate them, there's no way you can 🤣
Nice post, great value as always 🙂 I totally missed Emma Horsedick's comments on my Substack because a) Easter, and so b) I wasn't really online - I logged back in to see the email notifications, but by then the account had been scorched-Earthed 🙂
I dig your point on Substack being a safe space for all creators. I really wrestled with this then came to the same conclusion you did - they're everywhere. I took it a step forward (in the vein of your "write more") which is that cutting off communication is where the bad stuff happens; if someone's a Nazi but we still have open comms, there's an opportunity for reform. Where much active harm was caused by Meta and the like is when private groups allowed this shit to flourish like fungus in the dark; suddenly incels didn't feel alone and were empowered by their other incel friends. Being connected in an online, open community (even with division) is better than the alternative.
Speaking of scorched Earth, I have sunset my Meta accounts (don't even use WhatsApp). There are good and viable alternatives (BlueSky, Substack/Notes, TikTok, Snap, Signal, the list goes on) with thriving communities.
Great read, useful & reasonable outlook on moderation and troll-wrangling, and overall very helpful. Like some of your other lessons, I'll be saving it for when I need it. Thanks, Simon!
Digging the insight. I joined Substack about eight weeks ago, and the first post I read was your "Start reading here." The second was your advice on writing serial fiction. Now that I've posted my first two serial episodes, I'm gearing up for newsletters.
Thanks for another great rundown, Simon! It’s reassuring to see the tools available. Thankfully I haven’t had any negative attention yet, but…
One wording quibble: you talk about being a straight white male but then say people “from other backgrounds” will face more nastiness. I think you’re referring to something like “demographic”? Being, say, a woman isn’t really a “background”. 🙂
Simon, thank you for another informative article on using Substack tools. I hadn't realized these tools were available to us. I just took a look at my community settings and while I've never made any changes to them, they look OK for now.
I'm fortunate that I don't have a large following yet so haven't attracted any trolls. My limited audience is quite well behaved. I try as best I can to follow author Jacquelyn Mitchard's advice, "Life is too short to be a jerk."
I have an author page on Facebook but all but gave up my presence there. I haven't posted on Facebook in many months and the last couple of times I signed onto FB it was filled with political rants. Also, when I was posting there regularly since I wasn't paying to have them boosted, very few people actually saw what I wrote.
I'm much happier on Substack and the level of discussion is both deeper and much more civil. It's nice to know I have some control over managing ill-mannered jerks should I need to.
Keep these columns coming! They are super helpful.
Nice post thanks, there are several tips in there I’ll use.
I decided to turn off comments for my serialized chapters because (a) I didn’t want to deal with randos critiquing my work for all readers to see and (b) I thought it would interrupt the reading flow for those binging. I moved all discussions to chat and am charging 5$ a year to join it (and get other extras). Don’t know if that’ll prove to be a good idea — this is my first serial and my first fiction substack — but we will see.
Brilliant guide, Simon! Thanks for taking the time to write and share the functions with us. I'm sharing so Carer Mentor Readers can benefit from your actionable insights. I've had several text exchanges about this, so I really appreciate your clear run-through!
Great overview, this - I have a few people who might need it, so I'll point them your way...
Yes, understanding sea-lioning is SO important with this working-online lark. Once you understand it and can react to it, it saves so much time.
The same is true with understanding burden of proof: if someone leaps in with some cockadoodledoo theory that flies in the face of 99% of the evidence, it's NOT up to us to disprove it by watching their 3-hour YouTube video etc - it's up to THEM to prove it, clearly and succinctly, by successfully arguing away that 99%. Otherwise they have no credibility and don't deserve to be treated seriously. This is another colossal time-saver.
Love this angle. My most valuable mental shortcut is: if this idiot can be disproved with a Google search, it's not my fucken problem to engage 🤣 I see women on the brunt of this a lot, with "mild-mannered" people asking them to prove their position. My dude, you've got the Internet, arguably the single best source of information the human race has ever had. If the Internet couldn't educate them, there's no way you can 🤣
Yeah. It's the mild-mannered a-holes that are the most dangerous. They're the ones that then enable the more overtly unpleasant.
"I'm just asking questions" is such a red flag these days that I try to avoid saying it, even when I *am* just asking questions.
Nice post, great value as always 🙂 I totally missed Emma Horsedick's comments on my Substack because a) Easter, and so b) I wasn't really online - I logged back in to see the email notifications, but by then the account had been scorched-Earthed 🙂
I dig your point on Substack being a safe space for all creators. I really wrestled with this then came to the same conclusion you did - they're everywhere. I took it a step forward (in the vein of your "write more") which is that cutting off communication is where the bad stuff happens; if someone's a Nazi but we still have open comms, there's an opportunity for reform. Where much active harm was caused by Meta and the like is when private groups allowed this shit to flourish like fungus in the dark; suddenly incels didn't feel alone and were empowered by their other incel friends. Being connected in an online, open community (even with division) is better than the alternative.
Speaking of scorched Earth, I have sunset my Meta accounts (don't even use WhatsApp). There are good and viable alternatives (BlueSky, Substack/Notes, TikTok, Snap, Signal, the list goes on) with thriving communities.
It was weird. I got all the emails, too.
And I thought Emma Horsedick just liked my B5 counter-analyses.
Wow ... Sea-lioning ... there's a lot of that in the AI world, especially from academics. I'm going to remember that term.
Great read, useful & reasonable outlook on moderation and troll-wrangling, and overall very helpful. Like some of your other lessons, I'll be saving it for when I need it. Thanks, Simon!
Thanks, Eric! Let’s hope you don’t need it. :)
Digging the insight. I joined Substack about eight weeks ago, and the first post I read was your "Start reading here." The second was your advice on writing serial fiction. Now that I've posted my first two serial episodes, I'm gearing up for newsletters.
Thanks for another great rundown, Simon! It’s reassuring to see the tools available. Thankfully I haven’t had any negative attention yet, but…
One wording quibble: you talk about being a straight white male but then say people “from other backgrounds” will face more nastiness. I think you’re referring to something like “demographic”? Being, say, a woman isn’t really a “background”. 🙂
Simon, thank you for another informative article on using Substack tools. I hadn't realized these tools were available to us. I just took a look at my community settings and while I've never made any changes to them, they look OK for now.
I'm fortunate that I don't have a large following yet so haven't attracted any trolls. My limited audience is quite well behaved. I try as best I can to follow author Jacquelyn Mitchard's advice, "Life is too short to be a jerk."
I have an author page on Facebook but all but gave up my presence there. I haven't posted on Facebook in many months and the last couple of times I signed onto FB it was filled with political rants. Also, when I was posting there regularly since I wasn't paying to have them boosted, very few people actually saw what I wrote.
I'm much happier on Substack and the level of discussion is both deeper and much more civil. It's nice to know I have some control over managing ill-mannered jerks should I need to.
Keep these columns coming! They are super helpful.
Nice post thanks, there are several tips in there I’ll use.
I decided to turn off comments for my serialized chapters because (a) I didn’t want to deal with randos critiquing my work for all readers to see and (b) I thought it would interrupt the reading flow for those binging. I moved all discussions to chat and am charging 5$ a year to join it (and get other extras). Don’t know if that’ll prove to be a good idea — this is my first serial and my first fiction substack — but we will see.
Helpful advice and good to finally understand the Emma Horsedick references. Reads like AI was involved.
Brilliant guide, Simon! Thanks for taking the time to write and share the functions with us. I'm sharing so Carer Mentor Readers can benefit from your actionable insights. I've had several text exchanges about this, so I really appreciate your clear run-through!
Did you see the iOS in-app payment function?
Good insight 😌 Can i translate part of this article into Spanish with links to you and a description of your newsletter?