We’re Moving... Actually, We Have Moved

I’d like to see the look on my wife’s face when she reads that headline. She’s out of town looking after grandchildren and the idea might come as a bit of a shock. Fortunately, it means my website, Pundificator.com, rather than us.

Twelve years ago this month I began posting stories online. At first, they were just on Facebook but, in time, I launched a website called LibertyPell.com.

It seemed a great idea at the time, but the subject was politics, which proved to be entirely immune to change. It was also incredibly contentious. Though I imagine myself as gently center right, whenever I deviated from one orthodoxy or another, I’d get a shower of complaints for failing to be on the team or for violating some largely fictional narrative. It wasn't much fun.

Not too much later, a friend and I took a brief run at a website called WellPlayed.us. It was an effort to remind sports enthusiasts that there was a values component to their pursuits.

Finally, Pundificator.com replaced both, and it was pretty much aimed at whatever crossed my mind. It did enable me to write and serialize a book about court tennis but, despite some perfunctory efforts, it never had a business plan.

There's a good reason for that. For most writers, storytellers, "sharers of ideas," provocateurs, askers of hard questions, critical thinkers or whatever I am, there is no business plan because there is no business.

To my chagrin, Quicken tells me that I have spent about $10,000 a year on these endeavors and that there has been revenue of $1.18. That's total revenue not annual. I did not quite make 10 cents a year.

Enter technology. There is no reason to host a website, keep it functioning, subscribe to plug-ins or pay MailChimp to get in touch with readers. There is also no reason to spend hours jamming a story through tech obstacles to get it out.

Substack will do all of that for me plus give me access to its other subscribers and allow me to post short notes, videos, podcasts, longer stories and have a dialogue with readers. It also seems to interact with most social media platforms so, if you were finding me there, you still will.

If you'd like to be in touch, you can do so at havenpell@substack.com. On Substack, I am using Haven Pell and Pundificator somewhat interchangeably. That might sort itself out in due course, but it is more likely to evolve than to be planned.

You'll continue to receive emails when I post stories, but they will come from a new address. Might be useful to put that email -- havenpell@substack.com -- in your address book lest I be forever sentenced to your spam file.

What to expect?

Hypocrisy is always a nice easy target. As is stupidity.

Things in need of fixing loom large.

Wrecking good things (and important ones) for personal gain often gets my attention.

Thinking of better questions that reporters might ask when they write their own stories is another easy target.

As is exploring concealed motivations or incentives that might be out of whack.

Just don’t expect a business plan or the one line “elevator pitch” about what Pundificator is.

I don’t always know either.  

Surprise yourself. Join me on Substack.