Changing some things as we approach the 1½-year mark

About eighteen months have passed since I first set up the MobHistory Substack. I’ve been very happy with some parts of the experience and less than happy with other parts. So, I’ve decided to make some changes, and I thought it appropriate to let you know about them.

The first (and quite possibly the least interesting) change involves a more careful use of post tags. Substack isn’t great in its handling of tags, and many of you probably aren’t even aware that they are used at all. But each tag assigned to a posted article functions as a web address. If you go to your web browser search bar and enter

https://mobhistory.substack.com

followed by a /t/ (that’s short for “tag,” I guess, though “tag” certainly seems short enough as it is) and then the name of the tag, you get a page of results related to that tag.

It’s a neat feature, if you know that it’s there and you know how to use it.

The challenges for me will be to use tags consistently, to apply tags that are recognizable and to regularly share with you the listing of accessible tags. (If you search for “jack-diamond,” for example, and all of the relevant posts are tagged “legs-diamond,” your search will be unproductive.) I’ll be going through existing posts in an effort to improve their tagging. And I’ll figure out some way to present you with a list of active tags. Hopefully, at some point, Substack will improve its handling of tags, and this will become an easier to use feature for you and for me.

The idea of charging readers for access has always rubbed me the wrong way. I’m going to stop doing that. And I apologize for doing it at all.

I do appreciate very much the generous support that paid subscribers have shown for my work. And I will continue to welcome voluntary contributions through the Buy Me A Coffee links (for the record, I don’t actually drink coffee). But I don’t want to restrict information to only those willing and able to acquire paid subscriptions.

I have indefinitely suspended paid subscriptions to the MobHistory Substack. In official Substack terms, I have paused subscription billing. According to the site, when this is done, “new subscribers cannot pay and existing subscribers are not being charged.”

This does create a problem. There are some articles on the MobHistory Substack that can only be fully accessed with a paid subscription. If new subscribers cannot pay, they are closed out of those articles without any possible remedy. Except one.

I am removing the existing paywalls from articles on the site, starting with the earliest ones and moving forward. Unfortunately, there seems to be no current mechanism for selecting all articles and removing their paywalls all at once. So, this will take a little time. At this point, all articles from January, February and March of 2025 should be freely accessible to all visitors. And all visitors should also be able to comment on those articles if they wish.

I intend to remove the paywalls from articles as I work to improve their tags (discussed above). It shouldn’t take too long to get through all the articles.