Hello new subscribers & a caution for Substack writers.
Substack is not a WordPress site. There is less control for the author over their archives of posts.
Welcome new readers, glad to have you here occasionally. This post is a brief update about using Substack as an author compared to WordPress blogs. Addition: *and the second half gets into the reason I am comparing the two sites which is a topic for Mature Readers tm.
WordPress has a searchbox so you can search your site for topics or search your archives internally among drafts and posts. This is a very powerful tool.
On WordPress you can publish and unpublish posts very easily with no changes to the post. It just disappears from view and is labeled a draft or unpublic post. This is handy for posts that are just an update and would not be evergreen content useful for ever.
Substack’s guidance is unclear what happens in their “Danger Zone” except to warn that it is permanent. There is an Unpublish button and a Delete button in the settings of a post. I learned what happens with the Unpublish button - if it is a long post most of it will be lost, truncated at some webcrawler point. Fortunately, I had manually copied and pasted my article (all my articles on that Substack), but it was a bit of a shock to see the post gone the next morning. I thought I had decided to sleep on the decision, but maybe that was regarding deleting it. I had hit the Unpublish apparently and when I looked at the draft - most of it was gone - shock, dismay, then relief when I remembered I had copied it all to Word.
Some of that post I then copied to the Monkey/shingle pox post, as a more focused post on that topic alone.
The caution is to Substack writers - the Help says it is easy to download your archives - true, I did that - BUT - if you can’t import the file somewhere else, then what good is it? It was easy to import my WordPress posts from TranscendingSquare.com to here, but I couldn’t find an importer for Substack files that worked with the WordPress site. DANGER zone. I can copy/paste articles individually back to my main blog, but importing the entire file is easy - the computer does it.
Learning curves, slow down into them, speed up on the way out.
Aside - why would I want to delete my post? Touchy topic generated a lot of replies. The comments were all lost when I unpublished too - not a problem in this case, but is a Danger that would be nice to see in black and white in Help/Support guidance instead of a vague “Danger”.
In exploring Unsplash briefly where I couldn’t find that photo for more info, I found this one:
Water is life, along with sunshine and other nutrients.
Carry on Crash Test Dummies, me included, the learning curve is where we learn.
Song: Superman’s Song (Lyrics) - Crash Test Dummies (Youtube) - being a good person who carries on through difficulties and tries to help is being a superhero.
Another song about Superman and the difficulties he might feel:
“Even heroes have the right to dream. It’s all right.”
Five For Fighting - Superman [It's Not Easy] (Lyrics) (Youtube)
The “special things” inside of us include courage to try and to dream.
“It’s not easy . . . to be . . . me.” - Five for Fighting (Youtube)
True for us all. Courage is continuing anyway.
I am working on a document with copies of all my Substack posts - convenient for downloading and storing in an external hard drive in an EMP proof metal box or case. The deNutrients - News to Use isn’t done yet. My PolyGen Substack gets a little more personal and includes gender dysphoria/trans topics in some posts. The post that got shortened with the “Unpublish” button is included - Someone does need to talk to women and men about sexual health, anatomy and in some detail. So, I did and tagged it “For Mature readers” - on the internet? What was I thinking? ;-)
Mature or not, more people do need real health guidance. I added an additional Draft post from my transcendingsquare archives regarding iodine and female sexuality - it gets fairly graphic, warning, Parental Guidance needed. I also added the recent Iodine and prenatal health post and one on Alopecia from transcendingsquare which can also be related to low thyroid, or low B vitamins and trace minerals. Substack PolyGen posts plus iodine.
I am a health educator with a strong feeling that all areas of health deserve real research and information, not just bad jokes and intrigue that can make dangerous activities seem “sexy” instead of kind of dangerous and gross. Medical doctors are not talking to women about what might have caused their health problem regarding anal dysfunction or wounds. That is potentially abusive and neglectful.
The many comments that got deleted from my post on the topic, asked if I was implying that women were being promiscuous, I think based in part on the site title - PolyGen referring to polyamorous genetics. No, I was implying and will state clearly, that if US media is representing a sexual activity as probably safe, if done safely, and growing in popularity, then more females may be being coerced somewhat into allowing it. And in my experience with medical doctors, they don’t interfere with a husband. If a woman is being hurt by her spouse, she may not get any extra help from her doctor - sadly. It was a small n=2, but two out of two medical doctors that I have tried to talk to about domestic violence type issues both made it clear that men just do that, and it isn’t the doctor’s job - actually it is, at least regarding child abuse. Many health professionals and teachers are supposed to be mandatory reporters regarding any suspected harm to children.
The UK has ethical and legal guidance for health practitioners there (Domestic abuse - your legal and ethical duty.)
You might say - but, but, rough sex that isn’t really that consensual in a relationship where the woman doesn’t have a say about it, isn’t domestic violence - maybe the rough sex isn’t a punch in the eye, but if the woman has no say, then that is a domestic violence situation. She is not being allowed to protect herself, and then what if she is injured and the rough sex just continues? Domestic violence versus emotional and economic manipulation are fine lines. If you are being forced to live in bad air and feel stressed and devalued all the time, then it isn’t a good relationship, whatever label you want to apply.
In India the media was very clear in saying that it is likely to be unsafe, even though getting more common, and that it is illegal there. Why are Indian women being warned of a health risk while women in US are being told that it is likely safe (if done safely is a HUGE if) and is popular. That is peer pressure with a hint of authority from the media sources. The authors in India consulted gynecologists for their health info article. Link is in the post, in the document, fourth from the last post on Alopecia. Apparently, someone needs to talk to women about an@l sex.
Disclaimer: This information is being shared within the guidelines of Fair Use for the purpose of education or entertainment.
Full link to the PolyGen+ posts: https://www.dropbox.com/s/08vax82rdm5efg2/Substack%20Poly%20Gen%20%281%29.pdf?dl=0 Given time to reorganize it, remove a few posts that are unrelated and make chapters, there is likely a book draft in that. Someone does need to talk to people about sexual health.
Link to a Word document with my Hyperinflammation/Retinoic acid series of Substack posts on deNutrients - News to Use:
Addition: Dropbox link. I tried to add a Table of Contents with Bookmark links to the posts but I am not sure if the links work in the Word document. The other reference links work. https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/eo5y9rkr3pghn43cgd8va/DeNutrients-News-to-Use.docx?dl=0&rlkey=s2la4tszx9u71l8u1x4shm217
—https://1drv.ms/w/s!Aruv0yL6gT08hxvD46ovMxj7Rpqr?e=S7lU6s ← not working, I will have to figure out how to download a file.
Good to know. I've always kept a copy of what I write. Now I know to never trust substack to keep it for me.
Great point.