My Decision on Mountain Tui After The Poll

Why I've Decided To Hold Off On The Bright Ideas - with your forgiveness

This is a post about the Mountain Tui substack, and small tweaks - further to the poll and request post the other day.

Please don’t read if you aren’t interested in my personal matters.

Thank you all.

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After oohing-and-aahing about how to structure the Substack model since November, including obtaining reader feedback, I was going to go with the popular poll option of partial paywalls with likes to open - plus - periodic free articles.

It is the smart option.

It encourages more engagement, and also helps me build my paid subscriber base for the work.

I want more interactions and encouraging readers to help could be a win-win.

However, as I was about to join the party - my heart said …..no …. and so I’ve decided that I put the question to rest for now.

The majority of my articles will remain free and open - with some partially paywalled.

I’ve also opened up all old articles after feedback from readers.

If something changes in future, I’ll let readers know.

I hope subscribers will stay and interactivity will continue.

I do this primarily to support awareness and transparency - and while I definitely love paid subscribers (thank you for the recognition and support and helping me) - it’s not only the reason I do what I do.

Substack is an interesting place - it’s great because it’s got all the infrastructure set up and it makes it easier for people to “start writing” - plus, writers’ independence and a network is great.

The company invests in the architecture and platform and has staff.

It’s also a fundamentally commercial model, and we as writers all have to come to terms with this whole framework, commission rates etc. - and how we choose our relationship to it.

Sometimes I will say to myself: “OK I really do want to be paid because I am spending too much time - so I don’t feel so crazy. And I think there is value.”

And that’s why I needed YOUR help to help me think it through…

But after sitting on the decision for a few days and leaning towards likes to open…I realised - for ME:

The time I have chosen to invest here is my choice and therefore my own responsibility.

If I want to do it, I should stop expecting anything else other than my choices. If it doesn’t work out, I’ve tried and that’s all that matters.

No-one owes me anything - not least of all, those who are kind and honest.

The readers here - and the subscribers I have - are kind, thoughtful, intelligent, and giving - and the fact is reading YOUR comments, YOUR support, YOUR offers, and feeling YOUR kindness and companionship/community is already a great return.

And often priceless in my heart.

Together we all stand taller.

So what I will do instead is put a paragraph on each article begging for suggesting or soliciting subscriptions and such as part of ‘BAU’ so it’s all good.

Thanks for being here!

Below are some of the tweaks I will make and the response from the other day’s post:

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Paywall

As requested, the paywall on all old articles have been lifted.

Everyone can read about juicy Kainga Ora money deals, the “End Game”, Lester Levy’s self-pity parties: “Please pray for me, Oh New Zealand”! and “First they came for the Māori”

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Tiered Rates

For anyone on a fixed income please contact me for a 40% off lifetime rate - that’s $5 a month - which nets about $4 after fees.

For everyone else, 20% off lifetime rate is on - that’s $6.67 a month / $1.67 a week. After Substack fees, it nets me about $1.35 a week.

It’s the first time I’ve done an offer thingy.

I’m not astute at the marketing/commercial side but I’ll open this offer for a month.

If you’ve been considering a subscription here, I encourage you to take it up :-)

Existing subscribers - if you’d like to take this up on renewal, please message me.

Also - for existing readers who can’t comfortably afford a subscription, but would like one, please write me and I will be happy to comp one.

That enables you to join the community and the more the merrier!

Obviously, if you’re happy to keep existing rates, that’s fine with me too.

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Offers of Help

I’m going to be writing to those who volunteered to assist with different ideas - please expect an email in the coming weeks, thank you.

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Solutions Based Ideation

There are many policy based ideas that can work - and be further explored.

Folks have asked me to create podcasts and the like, and it’s a balance for me but I have taken on board the idea of a solutions framework - and had pondered/raised it last year independently too.

But one of my core focuses is on root causes for many of our existant issues.

To me - a clarity and awareness can help galvanize society towards an impetus of change - and as Susie said the other day, it could be organic as much as structured/planned - owing to the large number of moving parts, as well as the stark dichotomy between perceptions right now.

There’s a macro view I take at the moment to our socio-political state, and which I would like to continue to focus on.

That doesn’t preclude the solutions approach - after all, our world is full of vibrant ideas.

Please allow me to filter the balance over time.

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Other changes

I’m going to experiment with pace and frequency. Perhaps that can remediate my personal inefficiency issues.

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What can you do to help (if you wanna!)

• Continue sharing my articles

• Consider financial support here as a paid subscriber or on Ko-Fi - but only if you can afford to

• Give me feedback anytime!

• Join the community. The more the merrier - really! Please do - I really like engagement sincerely.

• If you see an article or excerpt you like, share it on the ubiqitious social media - the more eyes on the information I want to share the better in terms of my job satisfaction

• My primary job satisfaction metric is eyeballs and awareness that hopefully helps our country and communities. Getting paid is a personal want - so I prioritise service above it but am really grateful when I see your messages and subscriptions.

• Offer to help me where I fall short e.g. awkward public brainstorming sessions. As a thinker, I digest all your thoughts and some of them will ruminate / influence me for much longer than you realise.

Also - I’m relieved no-one in the feedback section told me to shut up!

Sincerely - thank you.

And for being patient while I brainstorm your help.

Have a good weekend, folks!

Tui