A PSA On Community Curation
In which Scoot suggests an analogy to help you think about your fans.
Hey everyone! This is a PSA about Community Curation.
Why is community curation important? Why am I writing about it now? Because we are on the cusp of a new year, 2024! You know what else this is? An election year1. And American electoral politics SUCKS2. So in the interests of getting out ahead of this, I want to share some tips, tools, and tricks to help all of us get through the year, keep the peace, and above all--help make Substack the only place on the internet that is Different.
So, how do we begin to think about community curation?
Let me suggest an analogy. You own a house. Your followers are visitors that come into your house. Your subscribers are visitors who sit down and eat at your table.
With me so far?
Everything you say on Notes is visible to people who visit your house--it's the things people like to see from you3. The way people like to talk to you, the way people engage with you. It's a fun conversation that happens inside your house.
Everything you post to your newsletter is what you serve to people who sit down at your table. They keep coming back because you keep serving up delicious morsels4 that they love to consume.
Some precious few people both follow you on notes and subscribe to your newsletter. They spend a lot of time in your house, and they love to see what you have to say, and they love to eat what you serve up.
Now, let me ask a clarifying question. What do you normally serve? What do you normally talk about? What are the things that have, up to this point, delighted and thrilled the people who come into your house? It's the things you write your newsletter about.
Me, I have a couple newsletters but they are all in the same zones. One is about Catholicism and Christianity; one is about Fiction. The way I think about it is that I have one house with two tables. I serve different things at each table--one religious, one fiction. And I talk about a wide range of things but I stay pretty close to talking about religion and fiction on Notes.
Here's something that's difficult, though.
As the owner of the house, you are always looking out. You see into other peoples houses. You see the things other people serve at their tables. You see a lot, because you're observant. You aren’t here just to keep a house, but to join other peoples houses. You’re attuned to the pulse of the community.
The moral of this story? Keep serving what you normally serve, even if all your neighbors are serving garbage5.
If I served the people who sat down at my Religious table a big serving of Tax Policy, it would be a surprise to them, and some people might not like it6. The thing that keeps them coming back to my religious table is what I'm serving up as regards religion.
If I served the people who sat down at my fiction table a big serving of International Relations, it would be a surprise to them7, and some people might not like it. The thing that keeps them coming back to my fiction table is my fiction.
So you might see a lot of garbage being served at other tables, but the important thing is that you do not serve garbage at your own.
Because here's the thing about garbage: There's three flavors, always. "I like garbage and this is what I want to serve." is one flavor. Substitute "garbage" for anything you see online that you find distasteful.
The second flavor is "I don't like garbage and no one should serve it." Substitute "garbage" for anything you see online that you find distasteful.
These are BOTH flavors of garbage though, because you are serving to the people at your table and in your house the things that you find distasteful, either for or against it but nevertheless distasteful8.
So the third flavor of garbage is to ignore it. Don't let it into your house. Block it out of your vision so you don't see it. If other people let it into their house, you can react as someone in their house or at their table. But this way you won't let anyone at your house or at your table see or experience garbage--just the good old faithful classics that your readers and followers have come to know and love.
Are these perfect tools? Not by a long shot. Are these the best way to use these tools? You have to decide for yourself. But can you use these tools the way I've described to help make your corner of Substack a pleasanter place to be in an election year?
You tell me.
Good luck out there!
Put your torches and pitchforks away!
SUUUUUUUCKS.
m o r s e l s
Don’t let your readers know that Substack has garbage! Ignorance is bliss!
Why they wouldn’t like to talk about tax policy, I can’t imagine.
A surprise to be sure, but an UNWELCOME one.
It’s the “Don’t think about an elephant” problem but with garbage. Telling people not to think about garbage, and telling people TO think about garbage, only keeps everyone thinking about garbage.