To my friends with newsletters: do you open comments to everyone or just paid subscribers? My reasoning for only having paid subscribers' comment is to offer a perk for their support, and also try to create a more focused, positive community.
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Right now my Substack is free, but if I ever had a paid option I think keeping the comments section for paid subscribers makes since. Seems like those would be the people most invested (literally) and post more thoughtful comments as a result. Hopefully at least!
Hopefully! My reasoning is that the topics I write about can attract a lot of trolls/unproductive comments so it may help the comment quality. Also, I wanted to offer some extra perk to people who support me and give them a direct line to ask questions
When I first started my blog in 2020 I allowed comments from everyone, and moderation quickly became a full-time job when people would start attacking each other (didn’t really care if they attacked me, but not OK to tell other people to go kill themselves, for example.)
At the time, my platform didn’t allow for a paid only option so I just disabled comments all together. Now that I’m on a platform that allows for the paid only option, that is what I do and would recommend. I also have my email address if people want to ask questions, I don’t want to limit that.
That's a great point! Thank you for sharing! I definitely don't have the time or motivation try to moderate a comment section so that is mostly why I'm leaning towards leaving it paid only.
I allow everyone to comment, but the amount of comments I get is very manageable (and welcome!). I can understand why larger accounts might get overwhelmed with moderating comments, however, and having a small paywall there would cut down on a ton of trolling.
Maybe try it opening it up and see?
I also get tons of feedback/questions from everyone else on Threads/Bluesky/Instagram/Facebook/LinkedIn so it's not like I avoid discussion with people on social media. But I've received a few comments already complaining about my paid subscriber policy and I wonder if it's worth making a post about
Only paid subscribers —but all my content is free. My reasoning is that I’ve been a woman on the internet for a long time now and want to limit harassment.
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Maybe try it opening it up and see?