Surprise! I’ve moved Pinch of Dirt to WordPress.
Since I began to feel the itch to write again, I found myself contemplating a return to Substack with deep reluctance tinged with disgust. Aside from the platform’s Nazi problem, I don’t like that writers have let the Substack brand subsume their own (using the phrase “my substack” instead of “my newsletter” gives me the ick), or the overbearing, cluttered, and distracting social elements.
It took me this long to move because moving is hard, which is also why I don’t blame people (especially small creators without a lot of resources) who stay. Substack is easy, and changing platforms introduces a lot of uncertainty.
I know I didn’t want to learn a scary new newsletter platform, which is why I landed on WordPress. I’ve used WordPress since 2011 (!) when I kept a blog about teaching English in France, and I’ve used it to host my personal website nearly as long. I’m sure there will be a few bumps as I figure out how the newsletter thing works here, but I’m excited to try something new.
When I imported subscribers, I lost maybe ~200 emails for reasons unclear, so I will eventually send out a notice via Substack to let current subscribers know that I’ve moved and to make sure they’re receiving my emails. Thanks for bearing with me during this transition!
Assorted links!
Something rotten in the state of Oregon: The Bureau of Land Management wants to gut Oregon’s forest management plans, including protections for wildlife and old-growth forests, and increase logging capacity to the max: harvesting one billion board feet per year, or four times current levels. But there’s still time to try to stop it. Learn how (and what to say) here.
Hiking after war. The monumental effort to rebuild the Appalachian Trail after Hurricane Helene. The geological origins of the American Revolution. The war on pedestrians and bike lanes. RIP, Jeff Galloway, hero of the everyman runner. And finally, a Shorewalkers romance.
Jessica S. McKenzie 