PATCH NOTES #3: TWEAKS AND CHANGES
Improving the experience at TYPEDBYTOM.
It’s been a year and a half since I began TYPEDBYTOM, and in the last 6 months or so I've dialled back the frequency of my posts, keeping it to once a fortnight (for the most part). This has been more manageable than weekly, as I have a tenancy to use a lot of words, and lots of words usually means more time and effort. That being said, I want to broaden my horizons a little here and allow for writing that might not slot into the pre-existing categories, and maybe allow me to post more frequently without the pressure of wringing dry my current series - so, with that in mind, I've decided to start another one…
These posts will serve as a sort of show and tell, and will cover a range of things, such as my other hobbies, my recommendations, interesting things I’ve found, various projects I’m working on, as well as other bits and pieces worth sharing. Basically anything I even mildly obsess over. These will be varied and probably infrequent, but serve to fill the gaps between some of the entries. Having said that, they will most likely gravitate towards videogames and photography from time to time. The first entry into this series started as a THOUGHTS ON, but as I began writing up other posts, it seemed to fit in better with this new category - if you missed it you can catch up by clicking the link below. You’ll also notice that the titling of posts across the blog have been altered somewhat, with the category in the subtitle, and a more descriptive or unique text for the main title.
And as a taste of what’s to come, you might be seeing something to do with skeletons, spaceships, and a resurrected game… no points for guessing what the latter is about.
Another update to the blog is the implementation of sections. Currently they consist of VIDEOGAMES, PHOTOGRAPHY, and ADVENTURES (which houses the formerly named POST-TRAVEL posts), and will link to all posts related to these areas. If you so wish, you can subscribe to one or more of these depending on your interests. Some posts might not fit into one of these sections however, such as these updates, or posts that venture into other subjects - some of the new OBJECTS OF OBSESSION posts being a prime example. Regardless of these, you will still see all posts on the homepage.
Monetising this blog hasn’t been my goal (although hit would be nice!), but I have now enabled paid subscriptions, and I am considering starting a series of posts that would be accessible to paid subscribers only. These aren’t coming out any time soon (I don’t think), and if they do eventually see the light of day, they will take the form of narrative fiction and other experiments in creative writing. When/if I do decide to share these, the rest of the blog will remain available to free subscribers still. I’ve also done this in part because I want people to remain on site when visiting, you can still support on Patreon, but things are made a little easier for SubStack users this way.
One thing I will be offering for paid subscribers are TALKBYTOM audio posts. I experimented with this a little last year, but I’m back on it now. The first of these will be published within the next week or two - these are based on already written posts, so you’re not missing out on much if you don’t subscribe - it’s just an added benefit. If you do subscribe, you’ll be able to find these on the podcast tab at the top of the home page, and they’ll also be available for patrons over on Patreon.
While on the subject of right here, I decided a few months back to abandon my experiment with WordPress. Despite it being very customisable, the benefits of that didn’t outweigh the effort of simultaneously running the blog on both platforms, and although I gathered a couple of subscribers from there, it just wasn’t worth it, so no more audience splitting. We’re here on Substack, and unless things change dramatically, that’s where we’re staying! This might be the case for my social media accounts too - the only website that brings people in is Facebook, surprisingly. Since starting the blog, Twitter(X) has only sent 53 people here, whereas Facebook has sent 798, which is more than any other source combined (other than direct visitors).
There we go, another update done - if you made it this far, you’ve clearly got too much time on your hands, but if you did - thank you for your continued support, it really means a lot, and encourages me to keep on writing.
As for what’s coming up on the blog, we have more QUEST-LOGS, CAMERA-FINDS, ADVENTURES, and OBJECTS OF OBSESSION on the way. As well as this, after a little break, I’m resuming my chronicling of my A JOURNEY INTO THE VIRTUAL WORLD projects too, which should appear on the blog next, unless something changes. There will be more TALES OF IMAGERY posts, as well as THOUGHTS ON too, but I’ve not finished them yet!