The Next Time You See Me (This), I'll Look Different

Things are changing around here

One thing about me is that I've been in the blogosphere for a very long time. I started my first blog on Geocities in fifth grade (2001) and, since then, I've migrated wherever the bloggers and blog readers were at the time. I've had blogs on LiveJournal, Xanga, Tumblr, and others that I can no longer remember since a whopping 20 years have passed.

When I started this blog, Shannon Sometimes, during college in 2011, it was on Blogger/Blogspot. I eventually moved it to self-hosted WordPress, where it remained for many years before I moved it again to Ghost in early 2023.

Despite the rising popularity of Substack in 2023, I chose Ghost because it is open source and more customizable. I had also learned that Substack was getting heat for allowing Nazi content on the platform. I didn't love that, and didn't want to publish my writing (albeit non-monetized writing) on a platform that allowed blatant hate speech.

Substack ended up backtracking on their original, controversial perspective on the matter and removing pro-Nazi newsletters. The blogosphere moved on, and the Substack platform continued to grow.

And now, I've decided to do what I've done many times over the past two decades: go where the people are. Sure, there are plenty of people on Ghost, and it's a wonderful platform, but I've decided to move this blog to Substack for the following reasons:

1. I want more people to be able to find my work.

In other words, the Substack algorithm is currently unbeatable. Substack has become an incredible social media-like platform for creative people, and this social aspect helps people discover new publications to read.

Although this blog is a personal passion project, I put a lot of heart and soul into it, and creating these posts can be a significant amount of work. And while I love you all and the readership I've built here organically, I'd love to reach even more people who want to read words like the ones I write.

2. I already use and enjoy Substack as a reader.

I know that Substack's algorithm is effective for getting publications in front of new eyes because it has helped me discover many writers I subscribe to (some of whom I pay to access their work) and read regularly.

It'll be nice to join in and write in the same space where I already read, comment, and share all the time.

3. I'm not naive about the convenience factor.

I don't want any barriers between this blog and the people who want to read it. Again, I use the Substack app myself, and it's convenient to have almost all of the publications I subscribe to in one place. I want my readers who are already Substack users to enjoy the same convenience.

So, what exactly is changing?

Not much except the platform. The 100+ previous Shannon Sometimes posts will still be available. Soon, the shannonsometimes.com domain will direct to a Substack site instead of the one you're used to seeing.

I've already spoken with the kind folks at Ghost about this transition, and I'll be able to use the space I've already paid for to host my professional portfolio (with a different URL) once this blog is moved to Substack. I'm excited to move my portolio site from Wix, which sucks.

What do you need to do?

Nothing! This is just a heads up because I'm not sure whether Substack will email you about the switch. I didn't want you to be confused. Don't mark me as spam, please!

If you've enjoyed reading Shannon Sometimes, I hope you'll stick around and enjoy it just as much (or even more) in its new online space. I have a long list of essays, book recommendation lists, and other content I want to publish in the near future once this site migration project is done.

Thanks for your support thus far. Many of you have been around since at least the WordPress days. See you on the other side!