How can I make the newsletter helpful?
# forum
j
From the newsletter: https://tfos.co/p/tiktok-for-reading/ > How can I make this newsletter helpful for you? Although I have so far mainly written about stuff I'm working on, I want this newsletter to become more generally a valuable community resource for people interested in tools for online speech. I want to include both developers and early adopters—we don't all have to be nerds here 🙂. > > So, what would you like to get out of reading this newsletter? > > - Advice for contributing, like this (https://tfos.co/p/you-can-unbundle-social-media/) and this (https://tfos.co/p/rebuild-social-media/ )? I could spend more time writing essays. > - Curated links to blog posts and projects from other people in the tools-for-online-speech space? I could do in-depth reviews of projects other people have built. Maybe do some interviews or guest posts. I could put more work into the recommended links section (e.g. start adding commentary again). > - Opportunities to meet, discuss, and collaborate with others in the community, e.g. via the Discord server? I could post on Discord more myself and encourage others to share their work and ideas there. > - Something else?
> I dedicate Mondays to this newsletter/community (even if much of the time I get sucked into just tweaking the theme on my website), so I have some time to work with. Right now I'm thinking of doing something like this going forward: > > - My Tuesday posts (like this one) will be off-the-cuff "lab notes," i.e. whatever I happen to be thinking about at the moment. > - For each lab note, I'll make a separate post on the Discord forum, so if you want to discuss it, there's a nice place already set up to do so. I'll end each lab note with a link to its associated post (as I've done here). > - After I finish writing the newsletter for Tuesday, I'll use any remaining writing time to work on an essay, or a product review, or interview, or something. Whenever I have one of these more finished posts ready to go, I'll send it out separately on Thursday. (So I'll always send something on Tuesday, and sometimes I'll send something on Thursday as well.) > - I'll continue sharing recommended links at the end of the newsletter. If there's a link I want to give extra attention to, I'll write a lab note about it and put it higher in the newsletter. That will replace the "highlights" section I've included a couple times previously. Also, instead of my "send me a link" form, I think I'll just throw in a prompt that says "If you have something you'd like to share, post it on Discord." And of course, I'll see anything that gets posted on Discord, and thus it'll have a chance at getting into the newsletter.
j
I personally enjoy reading the backstory on your thoughts going into your work, but would also enjoy more advice for contributing.
j
good to know!
works well cause I like writing the back story/behind the scenes thinking stuff 🙂