New Ways for You to Join the Conversation!

Over the last few weeks, I’ve dropped little announcements in New-Old Stock, and in a few of my recent articles, but it’s worth a formal announcement to everyone. When I started The Retro Millennial the way you could engage with me and with others here was just to comment on an article. I’m not really a social media guy and I refuse to point you toward platforms that don’t respect your privacy or mental/emotional well being. So then eventually Substack introduced Notes and Chat.

We Need to Talk about Substack Notes and Other Social Media

When Notes launched, I wanted to give it a fair shake but was trepidatious about it. It seemed pretty cool, as most social media things do at first. It was a small user community and most of us were just sharing about our plans, projects, and passions when it came to our writing. It was like old Twitter (circa 2009) when you could go out and Tweet at a celebrity or politician and actually get a response from them. Well, I am frankly amazed at just how quickly Notes transformed from being like old Twitter to being like modern Twitter — filled with people sharing political hot takes and being generally unkind to others. I still share new articles and such on Notes but I’m pretty sure I’m done with it for now. If you reply to something I post on there or tag me in a Note, I will definitely respond when I see the notification for it, but otherwise, Notes is not a great way to get ahold of me.

Ways to Reach Me or Get Involved

With that said, I want to be clear: I want to be available to this community. If you have thoughts, questions, concerns, points of contention, or whatever else you can think of, I want to be able to address them. So, here are a few ways that you cool kids can get in touch and join the conversations we’re having here at The Retro Millennial.

1. The Comments Section

As mentioned earlier, the comment section is always open. You need to be signed in and subscribed to comment, but there is a comment section at the bottom of every article and every podcast episode. Just scroll down or look for this button in every post.

2. Substack Chat

I’ve mentioned Substack’s Chat feature a few times over the last few months. When it launched it was only available through their mobile app on iOS and Android, but shortly thereafter it was implemented in the web browser as well. They have also just added a setting that allows me to choose who can start chat threads and — for now, at least — I’ve opened it up to all free and paid subscribers; so if there’s something you want to talk about related to the kind of stuff we like to talk about here, feel free to start a chat thread!

Like the comment section, you need to be signed in to use it, but it’s a pretty nice chat implementation. You can respond to the general chat topic, or you can reply to individual comments that people make and start sub-chats within them. We’ve had a few chats so far — some more popular than others — so if that is your thing, I’d encourage you to try it out.

3. The Telegram Group

If you're a lurker here — yes, I see you — and you don’t want to have to create a Substack account and sign in, you might be interested in checking out the Telegram group. For those who aren’t aware of what it is, Telegram is an encrypted messaging app similar to apps like Signal, WhatsApp, iMessage, etc. The group chat is similar to the Substack Chat but is a bit more mature in its implementation. If you want to join the group just look for this button at the bottom of my articles and podcasts.

4. Email

Now, of course, all of those methods are great, but I know there are some of you who probably just don’t want to set up an account or have to sign into a service to get ahold of me. If that’s the case you can also email me your thoughts with the button below.

I’ve also given some thought to setting up an old-school discussion forum but I’m not ready for that level of commitment to maintenance and security headaches. For now, I feel like these four avenues give us a pretty good starting point for the most people to engage. That’s all for now. I look forward to hearing from you!

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