At this point, other than aggregation, I don't see what they have to offer over and above Substack... Mastodon is balky at best. I consider it read-only. I have never figured out how to post there. I read George Takei, but that is all and if he moved over here, I would be much happier. Disqus has never gotten any better and I would be just as happy if JoeMyGod moved over here as well. I have never been on Facebook or Xitter. JoeMyGod still posts a lot of potentially interesting stuff he finds on Xitter, but I refuse to click on them because I so detest Melon Musk.
Few web sites ever disappointed me more than Only Sky. Some good contributors, including our wonderful host on this site, but a terrible commenting system. The commenting community is as important as the articles for a site dealing with ideas. I wish them well, but I don't have a lot of confidence they will pull it off if the same person is in charge.
I think their hearts may be in the right place, but they didn't and still don't have an actual business plan to keep them afloat, so they're trying anything they can think of to generate an income stream, no matter how idiotic.
The head-scratcher here is that it's entirely possible to limit free accounts to reading X number of articles, or posting Y number of comments per day (or a character limit, or access to more features like formatting, links, images, etc); those would be perfectly tolerable options.
As-is, better than half the articles I see on the new site are locked behind a paywall, and even a goodly chunk of those are reposts from the previous version of OS which in some cases are two years old. That's not exactly what I'd call rolling out the red carpet to attract new readers; most passers-by are not going to create an account, much less upgrade to a paid membership, just to see what the place has to offer- and they aren't going to lure many people back who abandoned the old site, either. There's no bait on the hook.
Christian wing nuts were the reason they had to leave Patheos. They couldn't handle the criticism of Christianity. I'm not sure if other religions contributed, given that Christianity was the main one criticised. :)
Is that why Patheos wouldn't allow any more criticizing of Christianity? Because of Christian whining? (I'm a little out of the loop -- all I knew was R2D wasn't there anymore and I had to go find it.)
Now that I'm out of the cult, I am continually amazed at how touchy and thin-skinned they are. Those who supposedly have The Almighty at their backs.
From what he says in the article, it doesn't sound like Hemant is thinking of returning to OS. Praise be the FSM if that's so. I hope he decides to pass on re-upping.
I sincerely hope he stays HERE. I'm not made of money, and paying to comment rubs me the wrong way as it is, never mind having to switch platforms AGAIN.
Substack WORKS, insofar as I'm concerned. Can we just stay here? Please?
I still miss memes and videos*, and though I've gotten used to it, the threading leaves much to be desired.
*The weird thing is it works in the reply window on the Activities page, but disappears when actually posted. So Substack knows how to do it, but doesn't
OnlySky is a nice idea. But it appears to be run by writers who have no idea how to run and market a self-sustaining blog site, much less one that turns a profit for its contributors.
I’ll pass. I only pay to comment on one site. The other subscriptions I have do not require payment to comment but some I pay for because I think their writing is worth the support.
OT : 2 yogurts (a 3rd at the ready), 1 apple sauce, 4 squares of chocolate (🤮), 1 "chicken" cutlet, 2 slices of multigrain bread. All that since 12:30 pm and my fucking glycemia still struggle to go above .80. What do I have to do ? Swallow sugar directly from the box ? 🤬
Did you saw the picture in my email ? Since then my glycemia dropped to .54, again. I took the screesnshot about 30 minutes ago... I am in the red right now. I should be in the green (.80 to 1.79).
When I used to have a lot of low blood sugar episodes, I found rice-krispie treats were good at stabilizing my blood sugar. Peanut butter was also good.
Glucerna is supposed to be made for exactly this, but I don't know if they have a vegan option.
Since my last comment, I ate a banana, more yogurt, some vegan cookies stolen from DM' stash. Still the same. I am at a loss here. I am used to theses kind of bad days every few weeks but it was not as bad as today is.
Frankly, I wasn't wild for OnlySky for its overly sensitive nannies and learning to work around them, however much that was possible. Neither OnlySky nor Substack have any facility for text modification or graphics, and I wish at least one of them did, but given a choice, I think I would prefer to see the Hemant and the Friendly Atheist stick with Substack.
We've been through enough changes. Can we be consistent for at least a little while?
OT: There has been a trend for the last couple of years for sports broadcasters to go to split screen for commercials. That way fans won't miss any of the action and the network still gets paid for the commercial. Well, NBC just did that during the gymnastics competition except the coverage is on tape delay. Who are they trying to fool?
At this point, other than aggregation, I don't see what they have to offer over and above Substack... Mastodon is balky at best. I consider it read-only. I have never figured out how to post there. I read George Takei, but that is all and if he moved over here, I would be much happier. Disqus has never gotten any better and I would be just as happy if JoeMyGod moved over here as well. I have never been on Facebook or Xitter. JoeMyGod still posts a lot of potentially interesting stuff he finds on Xitter, but I refuse to click on them because I so detest Melon Musk.
Few web sites ever disappointed me more than Only Sky. Some good contributors, including our wonderful host on this site, but a terrible commenting system. The commenting community is as important as the articles for a site dealing with ideas. I wish them well, but I don't have a lot of confidence they will pull it off if the same person is in charge.
Someone talked about the relaunch a few days ago. It seems you have to pay if you want to comment. Sans moi.
Asking for commenters to pay up front, on a site that's relaunching after a catastrophic failure by mismanagement, is... a 𝘣𝘪𝘵 audacious.
I think their hearts may be in the right place, but they didn't and still don't have an actual business plan to keep them afloat, so they're trying anything they can think of to generate an income stream, no matter how idiotic.
The head-scratcher here is that it's entirely possible to limit free accounts to reading X number of articles, or posting Y number of comments per day (or a character limit, or access to more features like formatting, links, images, etc); those would be perfectly tolerable options.
As-is, better than half the articles I see on the new site are locked behind a paywall, and even a goodly chunk of those are reposts from the previous version of OS which in some cases are two years old. That's not exactly what I'd call rolling out the red carpet to attract new readers; most passers-by are not going to create an account, much less upgrade to a paid membership, just to see what the place has to offer- and they aren't going to lure many people back who abandoned the old site, either. There's no bait on the hook.
It doesn't sound as if they learned much from their failure. I will never pay to comment.
If I were to pay, I would give the money to the author, not the hosting site.
Yep, it is pay to play.
I have nothing against it, if the content worth it.
i payed on the prev OS .. ie,
I commented, they kicked me off <sigh>
Let us not forget their extreme arrogance and condescending treatment of us.
For all its faults Substack comment system doesn't impose a time limit on editing.
Christians or OnlySky?
Obligatory: why not both?
OnlyShit.
LOOK MA!!! No nails!
https://scontent-dfw5-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/453413388_478316868154314_4587377173284702136_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_p180x540&_nc_cat=100&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=833d8c&_nc_ohc=NuDmDx9j2J4Q7kNvgG_hbGs&_nc_ht=scontent-dfw5-2.xx&oh=00_AYBUblD91b3rIdLVVd6m6c7YRcTDxoJJqzfyjbCAp4IjMQ&oe=66ACD6FA
Shall we mention that gymnasts have been doing the Iron Cross for longer than I've been alive (and that's 73 years and some!)?
Seems I just did.
Fitting, in a way, since it takes a lot of mental, um, gymnastics to believe in Christianity.
"OnlySky relaunches with a focus on the future"
Yeah, they don't want to talk about the past...
on their site it says .. 'same mission'. Beware
Why, that's not ominous at all...
Or Bruno.
Or Pluto.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=YJPHK5NNtpQ
Isn't a dwarf planet still a planet? ;)
It orbits a star instead of another planet. That’s literally what a planet is.
That’s why Endor is called a moon.
Pluto oddball orbit, both tilted and elliptical, takes it around the Sun every 248 years. :D
Well it’s obviously not caught in Venus’s gravitational field now, is it?
It's a Kuiper belt object.
So they expect to be successful now you have to pay to comment? When they couldn't be successful with free commenting. Well fingers crossed I guess.
They should try selling ad space to christian wingnuts. /s
Christian wing nuts were the reason they had to leave Patheos. They couldn't handle the criticism of Christianity. I'm not sure if other religions contributed, given that Christianity was the main one criticised. :)
There was some Pagan blogs, not sure if they are still there.
Is that why Patheos wouldn't allow any more criticizing of Christianity? Because of Christian whining? (I'm a little out of the loop -- all I knew was R2D wasn't there anymore and I had to go find it.)
Now that I'm out of the cult, I am continually amazed at how touchy and thin-skinned they are. Those who supposedly have The Almighty at their backs.
I wish them luck as well. The more atheist sites there are, the better. Zeus knows how flooded the internet is with christer crap.
What a god!!! Waits 24 hours, inconveniences 10s of thousands of innocent people while the miscreants go free.
https://scontent-dfw5-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/453223447_10160313852100186_4229484827102895550_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_s640x640&_nc_cat=107&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=aa7b47&_nc_ohc=ln_mpGzClzcQ7kNvgHvX_r5&_nc_ht=scontent-dfw5-2.xx&oh=00_AYD9Lt9K1vh-5zHSif-_XMIZahzaJjurR-BCTfkMocgQXA&oe=66ACC78F
Whenever there's a Pride parade in NYC, there's a tornado in Tuscaloosa. God is not mocked.
From what he says in the article, it doesn't sound like Hemant is thinking of returning to OS. Praise be the FSM if that's so. I hope he decides to pass on re-upping.
I sincerely hope he stays HERE. I'm not made of money, and paying to comment rubs me the wrong way as it is, never mind having to switch platforms AGAIN.
Substack WORKS, insofar as I'm concerned. Can we just stay here? Please?
Big "Hell, yes!" on all of that. You don't fix what ain't broke.
I still miss memes and videos*, and though I've gotten used to it, the threading leaves much to be desired.
*The weird thing is it works in the reply window on the Activities page, but disappears when actually posted. So Substack knows how to do it, but doesn't
I miss bold/italic/underscore/strikethrough/spoiler tags etc. Not to mention special characters and the like.
Those work too on the Activity page, but not when posted.
It really says a lot about OnlySky when we PREFER SubStack to OS…
OnlySky is a nice idea. But it appears to be run by writers who have no idea how to run and market a self-sustaining blog site, much less one that turns a profit for its contributors.
From where I sit, they need Hemant more than Hemant needs them. That isn't exactly a reason to switch, now is it?
Lettuce 🙏
he is not listed under Authors, so there is hope he will pass
En un mot comme en cent 🖕
If Hemant change his mind and go there, like I said to Oraxx, ça sera sans moi.
I’ll pass. I only pay to comment on one site. The other subscriptions I have do not require payment to comment but some I pay for because I think their writing is worth the support.
Trust the comments from those who knew the first os, you definitely don't want to go there, unless they made a 180° but they are more prone to a 360.
Exactly. That’s why I’m passing.
I was glad to subscribe to FA @ Substack. Value for money.
OS? With all their screw-ups (Viafoura, anyone?) and cavalier attitude towards the commenters? Sorry. Fool me once...
I called it "va t'faire foutre*".
* Go fuck yourself.
gonna write that down :-)
I preferred "ViaShit."
That works too.
N'est-ce pas ? 😁
Speaking of subscriptions:
Why am I being asked to subscribe when I already have? I used to have a little checkmark with the word "Subscribed." Not anymore.
Just saw this comment. Feel free to email me if this is more than some temporary glitch and I'll check it out.
Will do.
(I noticed it a week ago as of this date)
No sé.
Can't you switch to his Patreon ?
It just seems to be a computer glitch of some sort. Even my little "Subscibed" icon disappeared.
Me too.
Can't be expired. Hemant would send me an email to tell me so, like he did before. I subscribed fairly recently.
OT : 2 yogurts (a 3rd at the ready), 1 apple sauce, 4 squares of chocolate (🤮), 1 "chicken" cutlet, 2 slices of multigrain bread. All that since 12:30 pm and my fucking glycemia still struggle to go above .80. What do I have to do ? Swallow sugar directly from the box ? 🤬
Eat a jelly donut! 😁
🤮
Have you tried: https://youtu.be/KjXAKYvV_aU?si=91iFSP8HJp3PQu7E
It would be difficult, I wasn't born yet.
The Cracker Jack, still, abides.
Can you send me some ? At worst, DM can have them.
BHm, somewhere near Paris, France.
Merci d'avance.
There is always divinity.
I keep the pecans, you can have the rest. Starting with the eggs white 😝
You say that if it is a problem.
Did you saw the picture in my email ? Since then my glycemia dropped to .54, again. I took the screesnshot about 30 minutes ago... I am in the red right now. I should be in the green (.80 to 1.79).
When I used to have a lot of low blood sugar episodes, I found rice-krispie treats were good at stabilizing my blood sugar. Peanut butter was also good.
Glucerna is supposed to be made for exactly this, but I don't know if they have a vegan option.
Since my last comment, I ate a banana, more yogurt, some vegan cookies stolen from DM' stash. Still the same. I am at a loss here. I am used to theses kind of bad days every few weeks but it was not as bad as today is.
I would definitely call my doctor in the morning and I might consider going to the ER where they can monitor it and maybe figure out what is going on.
It's going up again. Probably the combination of a broth with a high sugar content and the furikake.
I can't. DM's chemo day tomorrow.
I am trying a tteokbokki with some furikake in the hopes it works.
Oh, and they have members only "articles."
Sounds awfully nose-stuck-in-the-air to me. I'd as soon PASS, thankuverymuch.
*coughs*bullshit*coughs*
I’ll believe it when I see it. Especially if their mod teams are just as big assholes as they were in the past.
And I don’t mean the AI moderator.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, you can't get fooled again.
Don't beat around the Bush, WHO said that. ; )
𝘉𝘢𝘣𝘢 𝘖'𝘙𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘺
I thought they were deaf, dumb and blind.
Never the less, he 𝘚𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘢 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘣𝘢𝘭𝘭.
I am speechless.
https://scontent-dfw5-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/453380648_1723789588407396_5609225544112481846_n.jpg?_nc_cat=102&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=127cfc&_nc_ohc=MxFdpdtvPr4Q7kNvgHomMpV&_nc_ht=scontent-dfw5-2.xx&oh=00_AYCbdhIBhKkuLw-VSdE6HkwNor1uwzy2shgomIFrYCHDhg&oe=66ACD656
Not sure I'd want McDonalds for my last supper.
Frankly, I wasn't wild for OnlySky for its overly sensitive nannies and learning to work around them, however much that was possible. Neither OnlySky nor Substack have any facility for text modification or graphics, and I wish at least one of them did, but given a choice, I think I would prefer to see the Hemant and the Friendly Atheist stick with Substack.
We've been through enough changes. Can we be consistent for at least a little while?
Remember what happened to maddog7 when trolls where allowed to stay because "opinions".
yes, I remember what happened to -me- him LoL
Hope Hemant stays away from OS. I like the gang here and the ability to be snarky and irreverant.
Vaguely. As it comes to alternative opinions, I don't mind them ... IF they're thought through and have some solid ground to stand on.
Sadly, there hasn't been a whole lot of credible alternative opinions out there lately.
OT: There has been a trend for the last couple of years for sports broadcasters to go to split screen for commercials. That way fans won't miss any of the action and the network still gets paid for the commercial. Well, NBC just did that during the gymnastics competition except the coverage is on tape delay. Who are they trying to fool?
It's 𝘢𝘭𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 as if somebody realized that people hate having their entertainment interrupted by advertising! Who'da thunk it?!
https://www.magicalquote.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Whos-the-more-foolish-the-fool-or-the-fool-who-follows-him.jpg