Splattered vs. The Sentinel Intelligence

Explained.

Photo by Jonas Degener on Unsplash

Last week, I started moving my main publication, The Sentinel-Intelligence, back to Ghost, where I’ve been hosting it for the last two years. I made this decision after watching its growth flatten over the last several months.

This year, Substack has quietly introduced a number of changes that are clearly making life difficult for publications that focus on the issues I address. Of course, that was just a catalyst for a change I’ve been pondering for a while. My writing inhabits two very different spaces. It was becoming clear that I would need two publications for it. A lot of people just don’t want to read about collapse and human extinction every day. So back in August, I launched Splattered.

Over the last few days, many of you have made it clear that you want to keep reading my writing. You trust me to handle the back end of these platform migrations, and that’s what you want me to do. With everything else going on, you don’t have the time or the bandwidth to juggle these things.

So, here’s the deal:

My first newsletter, The Sentinel-Intelligence, lives on Ghost now. It’s a platform similar to Substack. I’ve moved almost all of you over there. If you were a paying subscriber here at Substack, you have a complimentary subscription over there now. It was the best I could do, and I had to do it manually.

At The Sentinel-Intelligence, we’re going to talk about fascism and the climate crisis. We’re going to talk about prepping and survival. We’re going to talk about bird flu, Covid, and measles. We’re going to talk about N95 masks and HOCl. We’re going to talk about billionaire bunkers and fire blankets. We’re going to talk about the psychology, sociology, and history of collapse. We’re going to talk about bugout bags. We’re going to talk about famines and dust bowls.

It’s hard content.

My other newsletter, Splattered, will stay here at Substack. Here, we’re going to talk about psychology and philosophy, with a less direct focus on politics and current events. We’re going to talk about writing, art, culture, and creativity. We’re going to talk about mental health and trauma. It’s softer content, like the kind I used to write a few years ago, back when I was on Medium. Some of you say you miss that kind of content. Well, here it’s going to live again. You can take a spin around the new place and see if you like it.

If you don’t want to read Splattered, that’s fine. You can just unsubscribe, like always. No hard feelings. You won’t be bothered again.

If you want to keep reading The Sentinel-Intelligence, you shouldn’t have to do anything. You’ll get emails from me at Ghost now. Your paid subscription won’t autorenew if I had to move you over manually. If that becomes a problem for me and I need support, I’ll let everyone know.

Here’s an FAQ:

I have a paid subscription for The Sentinel-Intelligence at Substack. What happens to that?

Right now, I’ve paused all billing for The Sentinel-Intelligence at Substack. I’m also working on canceling your autorenew. Substack doesn’t make this easy. You might get an auto-generated message or two over the next few days. Don’t worry about it. I’ll give everyone a final update when it’s over.

You have a complimentary subscription at Ghost now. Your complimentary subscription there probably isn’t going to autorenew. It’s just going to run out. When it does, you can decide whether you want to go ahead and re-up your support, or just stay free for a while. Obviously, I would really appreciate readers who decide to continue supporting my work.

Are you going to keep your paywall down?

Yes, I’m planning to keep my paywall down on both publications through the end of the year. This should keep frustrations to a minimum.

Can I transfer my Substack membership to Splattered?

I’ve already given everyone with a Substack membership a complimentary subscription to Splattered for a month (anyone who wasn’t already subscribed). Once that runs out, you can decide whether you want to keep supporting me here. Your Substack subscription to The Sentinel-Intelligence will just run out. There’s no way for me to transfer it.

Why are you doing this again???

Substack has made it clear they don’t want readers “doomscrolling” on their platform. It gets clearer every day. Their algorithms are suppressing this kind of content. They never really liked it, and their new investors like it even less. So, I’ve got to move my harder newsletter somewhere else if it’s going to survive.

And yet, Substack remains “the place to be” for most writers. Robert Reich isn’t leaving. Sarah Kendzior isn’t leaving. Taylor Lorenz isn’t leaving. Eric Topol isn’t leaving. Karen Attiah isn’t leaving. Qasim Rashid isn’t leaving. Chris Armitage isn’t leaving. Judd Legum isn’t leaving. Jeff Tiedrich isn’t leaving. Heather Cox Richardson isn’t leaving. Honestly, I get it. Writers can’t just pack up and leave every time a platform becomes hostile to us. I guess I’m not leaving either. I’m going to try a different kind of newsletter, something still honest and sincere, more along the lines of the writers I’ve mentioned here.

For me, this isn’t giving up. This is adapting.

We’ll see what happens.