Join me on Substack's app to try out 'threads'

The Kākā has joined the 'threads' pilot on Substack's iOs app. It's a chattier & more immediate way for me to chew over the news & test ideas for new interviews & articles with paying subscribers

TLDR: The Kākā joined the 'threads' pilot on Substack's iOs app this morning. It's a chattier and more immediate way for me to chew over the latest news and test ideas with paying subscribers for new interviews, question lines, podcasts and articles.

Anyone with an iPhone or iPad has been able to get the app and read and listen to The Kākā’s posts and podcasts for a while. Substack has now launched a ‘threads’ pilot on the app and I’ve joined today.

It allows The Kākā’s community of paying subscribers (nearly 3,000) to have the sorts of discussions you might have on other social media, but without the ugliness, anonymity or ads. The full 9,700 or so paying and non-paying subscribers will be able to read the threads if they have the iOs app.

Think of it as a juicier and friendlier combination of Discord, Twitter, Facebook and the rest, but only for The Kākā community and on Substack’s own app. That means no ads and no algorithms second-guessing your hot buttons to funnel you into rabbit holes. It’s just us learning about our world and putting it to right.¹ It’s only available to iOs users at the moment, but I’m assured Android is coming.

A place to share news, links, ideas and give me a heads up

I’m going to try it out as a place to show you what I’ve learned through the day and ask for your suggestions, insights and checks. I’ll start every day from tomorrow with an open thread on the news that broke overnight and how it’s shaping my day. It’ll be titled ‘I’m up. Here’s what’s news to me. What did I miss this morning?’ and I’ll update it as I go through the morning.

If there’s a big breaking news item or an idea I have for a new article or podcast I’ll put it up in a new thread and welcome suggestions for lines of inquiry and any challenges you have to my direction. It’ll go something like: ‘Breaking: Blah, blah xxx…’

I’ll also put up a daily thread titled ‘Profundities, spookies, curiosities and feel-goods’. And depending on the topic and the quality, I may put up a thread called ‘The Craic on …’ with the various jokes around about a topical issue.

Threads can only be seen by subscribers to The Kākā and only paying subscribers can participate by responding or commenting on threads. The threads won’t be sent out as emails. That gives me the flexibility to do stuff and say stuff without overwhelming your email inboxes. It’s also a safe and friendly place to build a community.

Fill yer boots and let’s have a crack.

Mā te wā

Bernard

PS: Here’s an FAQ to help if it doesn’t make sense.

PPS: If you’re already an app user and you can’t see the threads tab, which has a thought bubble logo second from left (see logo highlighted above), then just quit the app and relaunch.

1. Easy, peasy.