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Coming Soon: The World’s Most Costly Newsletter

3029 sats \ 17 comments \ @billytheked 7h the_stacker_muse

Separating the grain from the chaff requires a human

Maintaining a territory on Stacker News can be a costly endeavour for anything that doesn’t benefit from the high-turnover of the 24-hour news/hype cycle. ~The_stacker_muse is just one such example. Luckily for me, the objective here is not in profit, nor has it ever been, but in the cultivation of a community of writers.

For that reason, I’ll be stepping away from reporting on growth metrics like item count, revenue etc., and moving toward a higher emphasis on quality. This territory's new monthly newsletter, The World's Most Costly Newsletter, will signify an evolution in that direction.

The Cost of Artistic Patronage

Patronage of the arts has always been a costly affair. But I'm not particularly interested in cost, the variable in determining profit; I am more interested in cost, the metric used to measure effort, i.e. cost as proof-of-work. After all, a territory's rent is paid for in bitcoin.

History shows that individuals of great means have usually wielded the power to guide artistic tastes with their patronage. I don’t imagine I am a person of great means, historically speaking. But I do think that the average person in the Western developed world (especially if they hold and spend bitcoin), is by most measures, wealthier today than they have been at any other point in history. Just look at the resources (e.g. time, materials, access to knowledge etc.) available for the average person, or their ease of access to emergent technologies like Bitcoin and AI. This wealth potentially makes us all creators and patrons alike, which is being realized in online spaces such as SN and Nostr.

That being said, if the last few months have taught me anything about patronizing creative writing on SN through contests and other territory efforts, it can be summarized by the following conclusions:

Zaprank (in all its splendour) is a great indicator of an item’s popularity and not necessarily of its craft
It is not fair to those who spend time crafting their work to judge and award said work based on its popularity as determined by zaprank

In short, as it concerns taste, leave that to the humans.

Now the Announcement

And that brings me to this latest development in the territory, The World’s Most Costly Newsletter.

Going forward, every original item posted to this territory will be automatically entered to being considered as a feature in this newsletter. All features will be chosen by me. Any monthly profits realized by the territory will be divided and zapped¹ amongst the four featured items. If there is no profit, then we try again next month. These rules are all subject to change as the project evolves.²

The newsletter will have for sections for the following genres --

Poetry: Featuring original poems of any length. Please include [Poetry] tag somewhere in the title when posting
Non-fiction: Featuring original non-fiction compositions. E.g. memoir, essay, review, etc. Please include [Non-Fiction] tag somewhere in the title when posting
Fiction: original fiction compositions—any genre, no length requirements. Please include [Fiction] tag somewhere in the title when posting.
Monthly Feature: an original composition of any type, genre or form³, chosen by yours truly

write original content and post on SN (especially in ~the_stacker_muse)
zap and comment on items (especially in ~the_stacker_muse)
encourage your writer friends to post original content on SN (especially in ~the_stacker_muse)
write to me if you have any ideas or would like to be involved in making this project the best it can

you will therefore receive ¼ of the profits less the 30% sibyl fee. ↩
For example, in the event that profits become significant, I reserve the right to change this profit-distribution model. ↩
possibly chosen from another territory ↩

view all related items

2 replies \ @ek 3h

For that reason, I’ll be stepping away from reporting on growth metrics like item count, revenue etc., and moving toward a higher emphasis on quality.

I love this! I think it’s incredibly boring when reports on growth in some territory make it to the front page. I think a site that is concerned with itself (like nostriches talking about how great nostr is) is incredibly boring for anybody not already deeply embedded in it.

So I guess in some way, one could even say reporting on growth is not good for growth? 🤔

Zaprank (in all its splendour) is a great indicator of an item’s popularity and not necessarily of its craft

I agree! If you could disable zaprank in your territory, would you do it? If so, what would you replace it with?

Other feedback: are the tags necessary? It’s friction. Can’t you tell from the content? Just as you pick the winners, I think you’re also more than capable of determining into which category something belongs.

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @billytheked OP 1h

I appreciate the feedback. You're not the only one saying that (see #1220534) about tags so lets pin this and say that this is optional.

I do like seeing people acknowledge what genre/form they're creating in, since I think it can show self-awareness; however, I do acknowledge that a tag is not the best way of accomplishing this.

Therefore, the only requirement for being considered is posting here -- no tag necessary.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @supratic 3h

tags are much needed around here. It could also be a cross-territories thing, for example [fiction] could be a sub in both ~the_stacker_muse but also ~BooksAndArticles (ad any other territory).

I feel it will also help a lot with SEO, especially if each tag get its own OG metas

110 sats \ 1 reply \ @Kontext 1h

Awesome stuff! Although I'm also not a big fan of using tags in headings, purely for aesthetic reasons.

I'll have to think about how to promote / get involved with the project in a larger scope. I'm sure that there's synergy that can be created between the stuff you're doing, the SN Zine by @plebpoet and Zap Zine by @hybridbits ... I have also been thinking that perhaps some of all this could be incorporated into the Open Source Culture initiative... (read the Manifesto: #883698). But that would require explicit agreement from everybody involved in every step of the creative process that their works will be available, free to use by anyone, for any purpose.

There's another idea I've been floating around for a bit in terms of trying to bridge the gap between fully digital Open Source Culture and physical items / publications. But I need to flesh it out a little bit before getting into the details, and that idea is generally more geared towards visual arts and perhaps not that much towards literary arts. Nevertheless, if it can be done with visual arts, I'm sure the concept can be transferred over into slightly different mediums...

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @billytheked OP 1h

Ack the point about tags, see above.

I appreciate your commentary as usual. Any and all efforts appreciated.

110 sats \ 0 replies \ @Scoresby 2h

I really like the title of the newsletters. There are so many levels at which it works.

Do you have any plans for advertising the newsletter beyond SN? If so, I'd love to help.

110 sats \ 1 reply \ @siggy47 4h

Sounds like a worthy project. I will definitely post another bizarre memoir chunk or two.

36 sats \ 0 replies \ @billytheked OP 3h

Thanks!

bizarre memoir chunk or two.

looking forward to it!

110 sats \ 3 replies \ @jbschirtzinger 5h

A lit mag with no rejections--only features.

10 sats \ 2 replies \ @billytheked OP 5h

that aspect hadnt occurred to me but I guess that sorta sums it up!

80 sats \ 1 reply \ @billytheked OP 4h

to be more precise -- it is more like one with a rather lax submission process where you simply pay 2 post and you are published.

As we all know, the pay to post model helps in mitigating spam but doesn't necessarily enforce a high publication standard for content. This new approach is my way of encouraging more of the content I am interested in seeing.

I'm not saying I've been at all disappointed by the content being shared here, but quite the contrary indeed ...

11 sats \ 0 replies \ @jbschirtzinger 3h

A curated content filter.

11 sats \ 2 replies \ @supratic 2h

Your territory is one of the most expensive, especially for comments. And you saying you are not doing this for profit? So the cost of the territory should not be an issue itself and there would be no need to ask for support either. What you write does not look it's reflected in the current facts. Number speaks the truth to me.

11 sats \ 0 replies \ @ek 1h

Your territory is one of the most expensive, especially for comments. […] Number speaks the truth to me.

It is not. Show me the numbers.

And you saying you are not doing this for profit? So the cost of the territory should not be an issue itself and there would be no need to ask for support either.

One can prefer to not go broke and not want to profit at the same time

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @billytheked OP 1h

I set reply fees at 10 sats to discourage spam/trolling/hateful comments since sharing literary and artistic content takes making oneself vulnerable online. I'm hoping this contributes to making a space where people feel encouraged to share.

Many similar onine spaces simply disable comments. Obviously we dont need to do that here.

110 sats \ 1 reply \ @plebpoet 6h

very interesting, my mind is sort of lighting up. Should i think of this as a literary magazine?

I appreciate that you have been open to discuss your intentions and the things you're learning through this. I agree with a lot of your assessment. So yeah, sounds like you are landing in a well-considered place, I'm excited

Can you talk more about The World's Most Costly Newsletter as a title? It makes me chuckle, that's intended, right?

308 sats \ 0 replies \ @billytheked OP 5h

Can you talk more about The World's Most Costly Newsletter as a title? It makes me chuckle, that's intended, right?

Yes! I'm anticipating the territory to continue to cost me precious sats, since i intend to share monthly profits with contributors, as stated. seeing as ill be using the territory as the main "discovery mechanism," the project will require a fair deal of PoW.

plus, imagine saying, "i was featured in the world's most costly newsletter." It should turn some heads.

im hoping Saylor is right and we get 14M per bitcoin and then we can look back san say "wow! that was one costly newsletter!" 😁

Separating the grain from the chaff requires a human

The Cost of Artistic Patronage

Now the Announcement

How Can You Support the Worlds Most Costly Newsletter?

Footnotes