Know the rules The Paceline Forum Builder's Spotlight


Go Back   The Paceline Forum > General Discussion

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 10-14-2024, 04:28 PM
Philster Philster is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 432
James Huang is Heading to Substack

According to his instagram, James is on Substack under something like Nminus1. If you don't know, Huang is a long time bike tech writer.

I like James but know nothing about Substack and really don't want to join another social media platform.

Anybody planning on signing up?
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 10-14-2024, 04:34 PM
mhespenheide mhespenheide is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Santa Rosa, CA
Posts: 6,313
Quote:
Originally Posted by Philster View Post
I like James but know nothing about Substack and really don't want to join another social media platform.
Substack is less a social media platform and more a blogging platform, with the claim (from them) that the author owns and retains rights to their work. Some substacks require a subscription to read, some do not.
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 10-14-2024, 04:35 PM
mhespenheide mhespenheide is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Santa Rosa, CA
Posts: 6,313
Link: https://substack.com/@nminus1bikes
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 10-14-2024, 04:36 PM
geordanh's Avatar
geordanh geordanh is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 2015
Location: West Coast
Posts: 1,427
Called it =D
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 10-14-2024, 04:38 PM
AngryScientist's Avatar
AngryScientist AngryScientist is offline
Administrator
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: northeast NJ
Posts: 34,046
It was there or here.

Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 10-14-2024, 04:44 PM
prototoast prototoast is online now
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2016
Location: Concord, CA
Posts: 6,519
Not sure if I'll subscribe or not, but I can understand where he's coming from. There is so much dead weight at escape collective, it would make sense if he's thinking he's driving 20% of the subscriptions and getting 4% of the salary. I hope he's successful here, so I must admit I'm not particularly fond of The branding.
__________________
Instagram - DannAdore Bicycles
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 10-14-2024, 04:52 PM
AngryScientist's Avatar
AngryScientist AngryScientist is offline
Administrator
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: northeast NJ
Posts: 34,046
Going out on his own, IMO makes things a bit tricky.

I follow some folks on youtube/insta, etc who do product reviews, particularly on running stuff.

When they start out, they are unbiased and appear to be very genuine and upfront.

As they get established companies start to send them stuff for review; then they pay for them to go on exotic trips to fun locations to test products.

Pretty soon every review is a positive one.

Who would bit the hand that feeds them? Who is going to give a brutally honest review if a company just flew you around the world, put you up in a nice influencer pad and gave you free product? You're sure not to get a repeat invite if you trash the product.

The influencer culture for products is just wierd. Even with the best intentions and slimy enough disclaimers, I dont see how most can stay true to their credo while getting more successful. That's doubly hard when you are the lone voice of your brand.

Again, IMO.
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 10-14-2024, 06:12 PM
cgolvin's Avatar
cgolvin cgolvin is offline
#RYFB
 
Join Date: Nov 2016
Location: The Boss Basin
Posts: 5,590
Quote:
Originally Posted by AngryScientist View Post
Going out on his own, IMO makes things a bit tricky. <snip>
Fair points all but there are exceptions who seem (AFAICT) to succeed because people value their objectivity. E.g., DC Rainmaker.
__________________
Gios Peg Bixxis
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old 10-14-2024, 08:10 PM
.RJ .RJ is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: NoVa
Posts: 3,818
Quote:
Originally Posted by AngryScientist View Post
As they get established companies start to send them stuff for review; then they pay for them to go on exotic trips to fun locations to test products.

Pretty soon every review is a positive one.

Who would bit the hand that feeds them? Who is going to give a brutally honest review if a company just flew you around the world, put you up in a nice influencer pad and gave you free product? You're sure not to get a repeat invite if you trash the product.
I've never met the guy but he seems pretty straightforward and has been doing this a long time and not all his reviews are super positive.
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old 10-14-2024, 09:15 PM
FriarQuade FriarQuade is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2017
Location: BendOR
Posts: 872
Quote:
Originally Posted by AngryScientist View Post
Going out on his own, IMO makes things a bit tricky.

I follow some folks on youtube/insta, etc who do product reviews, particularly on running stuff.

When they start out, they are unbiased and appear to be very genuine and upfront.

As they get established companies start to send them stuff for review; then they pay for them to go on exotic trips to fun locations to test products.

Pretty soon every review is a positive one.

Who would bit the hand that feeds them? Who is going to give a brutally honest review if a company just flew you around the world, put you up in a nice influencer pad and gave you free product? You're sure not to get a repeat invite if you trash the product.

The influencer culture for products is just wierd. Even with the best intentions and slimy enough disclaimers, I dont see how most can stay true to their credo while getting more successful. That's doubly hard when you are the lone voice of your brand.

Again, IMO.
Of all the people you don't need to worry about being wooed by free stuff and fancy trips, it's James. He's been doing those trips for years and still called it like he saw it.
__________________
Abbey Bike Tools

Steels are Alloys too!
Reply With Quote
  #11  
Old 10-14-2024, 09:55 PM
jimoots jimoots is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Aus
Posts: 2,280
Quote:
Originally Posted by AngryScientist View Post
Going out on his own, IMO makes things a bit tricky.

I follow some folks on youtube/insta, etc who do product reviews, particularly on running stuff.

When they start out, they are unbiased and appear to be very genuine and upfront.

As they get established companies start to send them stuff for review; then they pay for them to go on exotic trips to fun locations to test products.

Pretty soon every review is a positive one.

Who would bit the hand that feeds them? Who is going to give a brutally honest review if a company just flew you around the world, put you up in a nice influencer pad and gave you free product? You're sure not to get a repeat invite if you trash the product.

The influencer culture for products is just wierd. Even with the best intentions and slimy enough disclaimers, I dont see how most can stay true to their credo while getting more successful. That's doubly hard when you are the lone voice of your brand.

Again, IMO.
This take is exactly why he has started a substack.

With substack it is a gated content platform. To get past the gate you pay and subscribe. I.e the hand that is feeding him is the reader. It's essentially the same business model as Escape Collective but on a micro level with a single writer and on a third party platform, rather than him investing in building his own website out (which he signals he may do later on).

There's no giving away of "the product" for free while scratching around with Youtube advertising revenue or trying to supplement it with merch sales or later on 'brand partnerships'.

So I mean, I take your point, but I wouldn't necessarily suggest that it will happen here.
Reply With Quote
  #12  
Old 10-14-2024, 11:02 PM
herb5998 herb5998 is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: Montreal, QC
Posts: 1,843
I've always found his writing to be very good and objective, whether at Bike Radar, CT or Escape Collective. He's also a really genuine person to deal with, my wife and I had a recent vacation in Boulder, and he sent some great routes to check out which I didn't know from my time living in the area.

When CT ended, I was hoping that Escape would have become substack, given that Wade initially created a mailing list that way. While I appreciate the website, I find a newsletter format is something a little less distracting than some home page designs.
Reply With Quote
  #13  
Old 10-14-2024, 11:44 PM
Xrslug's Avatar
Xrslug Xrslug is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2021
Location: LA-ish
Posts: 727
Somewhat to my surprise, I haven’t missed him on Geek Warning. I’m really enjoying the new mix with Brad. But I have found some gear that I really like through reading James’ reviews in the past, so I’ll give his new thing a shot.
Reply With Quote
  #14  
Old 10-15-2024, 07:59 AM
old fat man's Avatar
old fat man old fat man is offline
but not really
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 4,105
Quote:
Originally Posted by jimoots View Post
This take is exactly why he has started a substack.

With substack it is a gated content platform. To get past the gate you pay and subscribe. I.e the hand that is feeding him is the reader. It's essentially the same business model as Escape Collective but on a micro level with a single writer and on a third party platform, rather than him investing in building his own website out (which he signals he may do later on).

There's no giving away of "the product" for free while scratching around with Youtube advertising revenue or trying to supplement it with merch sales or later on 'brand partnerships'.

So I mean, I take your point, but I wouldn't necessarily suggest that it will happen here.
I recognize James has shown himself to be an impartial reviewer over the years. But your description implies making money from subscribers will keep the writer impartial? Even if the writers are getting the "gear" for free? True impartiality would include spending their own money at roughly retail cost.
Reply With Quote
  #15  
Old 10-15-2024, 08:51 AM
.RJ .RJ is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: NoVa
Posts: 3,818
Quote:
Originally Posted by old fat man View Post
I recognize James has shown himself to be an impartial reviewer over the years. But your description implies making money from subscribers will keep the writer impartial? Even if the writers are getting the "gear" for free? True impartiality would include spending their own money at roughly retail cost.
And then how does he pay for his house? Good grief nothing is good enough for some people.

If you like his stuff and find value in the writing then send him a few bucks, otherwise dont. I pay for a few things that are similar and I think its a great model to get impartial viewpoints and money that goes to the writers and not to an advertising budget.
Reply With Quote
Reply


Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 09:21 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.