Chump Lady Blog versus Tracy Schorn Substack
Since I updated the look of the Chump Lady blog here there’s been some confusion over what lives here versus on Substack.
I decided to end the ambiguity.
All fresh content now lives at Substack. But! I will be rerunning columns here 5 days a week, so you can still get a hit of snark and Chump Nation wisdom in your inbox. (And you can still comment and interact.) There are nearly 3K posts here, and 500 left to update — so just refreshing those is about a two-year project.
This was a very hard decision to make.
First, because this is my baby. It’s 14 years of writing, collective wisdom and badassery. It still has immense value as a resource. And it will remain without a paywall. Because people going through divorces and single parenting often don’t have the extra cash for subscriptions. And because chumps in crisis often don’t want to commit. Maybe you’re on the fence about leaving a cheater. Read a few hundred archived posts (free!), you might change your mind.
I could not fight the censorship.
What you probably don’t realize is that I’ve been having to remove posts off my site for the last two years. Best case, just take the ads off (how I pay for all this). Worst case, kill them all together. I outlined some of these pressures here.
Google doesn’t do context. It doesn’t care that this is a support site. It cares that I use naughty words and say Jesus Cheetah.
I’m sick of writing in euphemisms. It’s not me. I can say what I want how I want at Substack.
And I need to stop living under the threat of being economically canceled by my ad network for running afoul of Google. If I rerun a column now it objects to, fine, I remove it. It can live at Substack or here without ads.
I need more bandwidth for new projects.
Instead of trying to revive a dying model, I can pivot. This year I’m going to master videos (God help me, and my weird hair.) AND finish the second book.
I’ll still be working hard, but just in new places.
What do you get with Substack?
This is FREE
- A weekly columnย answering a letter or dealing with some FW of the week story.
- The Friday Challenge, our long-running weekly tradition. Every Friday I post a question and Chump Nation answers in the comments. Come for the stories and stay for the solidarity.
What paid subscribers get
- A weekly column about a topical cheater story of the week. (Like Jesus Cheetahs or politicians or celebrities.)
- The Chump Nation Chat,ย an ongoing community space where you can vent, ask questions, celebrate wins, and talk with people who get it.
- A monthly live Q&Aย where you can ask me anything. Can’t make it live? Watch the replay.
- To come: early access to videos, events, and other content.
Where do I sign up?
Here! Follow Tracy Schorn aka Chump Lady “Dangerous and Derogatory.”
To everyone who has signed up so far THANK YOU! I cannot begin to tell you how much it means to me. Those subscriptions have given me the courage to raise the middle finger to Google for once and for all, and go off in search of bold new ways to make content.
And for those of you who hate change, hate Substack, I feel ya. Hang out in the comments as before here on the reruns. We also have an amazing closed Facebook community.
And a huge thank you to my Patreon patrons! This was the first non-blog model and it’s where the ad-free podcast and merch live.
This is all the sales and marketing I can tolerate this morning. I’ll see you at Substack (new column tomorrow there and old column tomorrow here.)
I’m off to record a podcast. Wherever I am, in whatever format, Chump Nation is still about the same thing: Leaving cheaters and gaining lives.
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Substack is not perfect but if you can write your ideas without interference from the overlords I’m all for it. I suspect the censorship goes beyond not being able to type out “seggs” and “online corn” and “Jesus Cheetah”. Perhaps, CL, you can confirm or deny that it is in fact the idea that is censored instead of the actual words. That kind of censorship is a deal breaker for me.
And speaking of our advertising based economy, I have had two or three instances of having an ad pop up here, obscuring the screen and with no way to X it out, having to reload the page. It happened just a few minutes ago and I lost the post I was in the middle of typing. So I will happily pay (I think it was $50/year) to not be constantly assaulted with ads.
Additionally, if this helps anybody, there are alternatives to the megacorps of social media, including email providers. Just saying.
I checked on the cost of the Substack subscription: $50 per year, or 96 cents per week. I spent over $10 on a fast food lunch last week which is actively doing me harm, so it’s money well spent.
Ugh. I’m so sorry about the ads. They are as annoying AF. But everyone experiences them differently and all I can do is report it to the network with a screenshot. So, please let me know if that happens! It should NOT on the new site redesign.
I don’t know if the censorship is words or ideas. But I find it curious that I cannot talk about seggs addiction (the ENTIRE category of posts and the words). Or religious hypocrisy. Or Jesus Cheetahs. Or paid for girlfriends in a negative, this is exploitative way. It’s not “brand safe.”
Whose brand? It’s Orwellian, and I can’t stand it.
I did pay for the year subscription. However is it still possible to use my screen name here instead of my real name to reply on Substack? If so how do I do that?
I asked Claude (AI). It replied:
Your Substack name doesn’t have to be your real name. To change it:
There are a few other privacy points worth sharing, because some of your readers may not want a cheater, or a cheater’s lawyer, finding them:
Is it true that only paid subscribers can comment on the Substack posts? I absolutely understand the need to monetize, but I guess this may still lead to a somewhat less lively debate. However, on YouTube, anyone can usually leave a comment. It would be great if posts like the ones on this blog could become YouTube podcasts in the future (to my understanding, large numbers of comments would help with the algorithm, too).
No. If it’s a free subscriber post, you can comment. I can choose on each post who can and who cannot. On free posts, everyone can comment. On closed posts, just paid subscribers. And I can do a hybrid, all can read, only subscribers can comment. I will be adjusting at Substack accordingly.
Thank you, this is great to know!
I’ve tried with Substack but it keeps declining a perfectly good credit card. I guess I can only get the free version so I’m not going to be able to comment and will only get occasional posts. It sucks. I have been here so many years and reading the blog has been one of my favorite parts of every day. ๐
I realize there are no perfect solutions, and you’ve been turning yourself inside out trying to keep the blog going. Once Google got involved, things changed. (Google doesn’t seem to actually improve anything they touch, do they? Tell me if I’m wrong.) So Substack may be an improvement in many ways.
I found Substack just after the 2024 election, and stayed because of some of the fabulous writers. The thing about Substack, though, is so many of the writers survive on subscriptions. $50/year doesn’t seem like much until you realize that if you pay that much (and some are much more) for every writer you like and want to follow, you could easily pay a few hundred dollars a year. Or more. I left the Cheating Abusive Douche (the CAD) with what I could carry and the dog and had to start over in my best friend’s basement. (It was a finished basement.) I’m retired now — bad back injury after 40+ years of working as an RN at the bedside — and living on Social Security. I will never get back all the money the CAD disappeared. It is just not possible or affordable to subscribe to everyone I want to read/comment to.
I found Chumplady after I fled the CAD and before I filed for divorce, and you, Tracy are the reason I found the wherewithal to put down the hopium pipe and file. You literally saved my life. If I had gone back, he probably would have killed me — the signs were all there, and I missed them. I am grateful for all of the wisdom and the snark I have taken in over the years of reading the blog daily. I won’t be paying for a subscription on Substack, but I wish you well and hope that new Chumps continue to find you and to quite the hopium and live in reality like so many Chumps have in the past.
I agree. Substack is too expensive. Even a single subscription is not affordable for a lot of people.
I was able to sign up for substack because I want to support CL, and hope there will be a BIG pinned big message here to direct new chumps there!
Is there a way to send a private message on this site?
And once again, no mention of the Reddit private community that has for years provided support for chumps to tell their stories and get support.
I’m confused by that. Can you clarify?
I replied to your query via email, but unfortunately I cannot moderate the Reddit group. I don’t have the bandwidth. And last I checked in, the group didn’t have an active moderator and was very slow to let in new members. But by all means, keep it going if you want to. I just can’t vouch for it. The Facebook group (closed) is much larger and more active, and has 5 active volunteer moderators, so in the new blog, I recommended it because I know those who ask to join will get a prompt response.
This is NO shade to the great group in the subReddit. It’s a lot of work to moderate and keep a community going.
I signed up for a free subscription, but I’m going to have to consider whether I can afford a paid plan to post comments. Probably not. Sorry, Tracy!