Now and Then Premium Subscribers ask which I prefer, credit cards or Paypal, with the intention of using whatever costs me less. I’ve always appreciated the thought, and always said to use whichever works best for you, since by some weird coincidence, Paypal charged the same fees that card processors do — 2.9 percent of the total charged plus a 30-cent processing fee.
True Business
We Just Need a Little More
What do you need to break out of your rut? You might have a business idea, or something you want to do with your life.
Shades of Gray
A Recent Story brought several questions from readers wanting to know why it referred to a Black guy and a white guy — with those specific capitalizations:
The First True Member of the Creator Economy?
Probably the Most Thorough Interview I’ve been subjected to happened in mid-June. It took journalist Simon Owens (who writes with great insight about the “Creator Economy”) until today to distill his notes down …to only 4,000 words! He was boggled that True was able to start, let alone survive, in the ancient days of the Internet, when there were no tools to do what I’ve been doing since 1994.
“Please Stop Pushing the Vaccine”
“Please stop pushing the vaccine,” wrote a 16-year Premium reader (and who knows how long on the free distribution before that). That was in response to last week’s issue. I just reviewed it: I’m not sure the link in “Other Good Reading” to an article titled Treating the Unvaccinated constitutes “pushing” the vaccine. But perhaps … Continue Reading
The Pulitzer Prize & This is True
When muckraking New York newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer died in 1911, he left a $2 million endowment to Columbia University. To this day, Pulitzer’s name is best known for the resulting Pulitzer Prizes, given each year in multiple categories by the university.
This year, This is True was under consideration for the Prize in three categories.
Florida Man: Not a Recent Phenomenon
An academic’s “history” of “Florida Man” makes some startling — and completely wrong! — claims about how the “Florida Man meme” got started online. No, it wasn’t in 2012, or even the “mid-2000s”!
What It’s Like to…
I’ve Always Liked the “Inside” Stories — What It’s Like to… Save a Life. Be a Surgeon. Pave a Road.
072: Not Perfect
In This Episode: Sure, it’s cool to hear stories of famous (and completely obscure) people who exhibit Uncommon Sense. But there’s one other thing you need to know about every one of them: they’re definitely not perfect, and that’s important to know because neither are you.
Kup-pa Ko-fi
True has had a presence on Patreon for a few years now. Patreon is one of several sites that helps “creators” get support from patrons. In late 2017, Patreon made a bone-headed decision that resulted in well over half of True’s patrons bailing, mostly for my own home-rolled alternative. The downside of both: having to create yet another “account” on yet another site. At least using my shopping cart there’s no 5 percent fee scraped off the top for Patreon.
Top 3 (x4) of 2019
Looking at the stats for 2019 is showing what you all found the most interesting or entertaining to read (and listen to!) of my offerings this year.
The Book of Kevin
Announcing a New True Book Series — and the first of the new titles is just coming off the press.
Why Are You Here?
Why Are You Here? Reading This is True, I mean. I’m going to take a stab at answering that question.
This is True’s Very Beginning
True recently hit its 25th anniversary. But can a weird news story that I posted at NASA before This is True was “invented” be traced? This weekend I decided to find out, since it’s a pretty “famous” story considering it never ran in the newsletter.
25 Years
Last week, This is True wrapped up its 25th year of weekly issues. What a great ride it’s been — it went by in a flash.
Colorado Screws Over Small Businesses like This is True
UPDATE to the Update!
I Did Have to Stop Selling physical products to Colorado customers only because This is True is actually in Colorado. Jump to the Update or read on.
Online News: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
Sometimes I Smile, Sometimes I Roll My Eyes: About the news business, that is. As a news commentary column, news is, of course, the road this publication drives on. Here’s what I mean.
Can’t Help But Laugh
When readers unsubscribe from the free newsletter, the service I use allows them to send feedback — and while not everyone provides that, I always read it when they do.
Happily, the most-common feedback is along the lines of “I’ve upgraded to Premium” so they don’t want the subset of stories in the free edition that they’ve already read.
I Can No Longer Recommend Patreon
See Update Below
Patreon broke trust with every Patron registered with them, including This is True’s supporters, by suddenly announcing they would soon charge them more than their pledged amount.
Mailchimp Makes a Monkey of Us All
In my recent post about watching the Internet “grow up,” I noted True was a driving force in setting the “best practices” around email publishing — I pushed the first true Email Service Provider to add features I wanted, and one of those features was “double opt-in.”