In the very height of the Pandemic the Grand Lodge of Washington held a virtual Annual Communication, and I was at that time elected Deputy Grand Master. Later that evening, or perhaps the next day, we elected Grand Lodge officers sat down with our new Grand Master, MW Chris Coffman.
The point of that meeting was to decide how we could provide good communication with the Craft while our Lodges were precluded from meeting.
If memory serves, and I think it does, my colleagues were all in favor of really new forms of communication. Videos, podcasts, and Zoom. All of those tools were used as men were able.
But, I was sort of the odd man out. I’ve never been particularly good when it comes to videos, I didn’t have a great set up for Zoom, and I’d never actually listened to a podcast.
But, I knew what I was very experienced at doing, what I enjoyed doing, and what I was good at. The written word. So, I declared at that meeting that I’d be publishing the written word on a very frequent basis.
Then I ran out and jumped on the most elegantly simple blogging platform I could find. https://write.as/cmbailey/
I started writing, and publishing there. MW Coffman supported my efforts every step of the way, and didn’t even flinch when I wrote really controversial things. It wasn’t the best solution, but it was a quick solution. And quick solutions were exactly what was called for at the time.
But, I kept looking for the best solution. Eventually I stumbled upon Substack, and Emeth was created. Since then, this is where my writings have been published, almost exclusively.
You all know the end of the story.
What started out as a project to keep the lines of communication open while Masonry suffered under pandemic restrictions has grown wildly, and continued all this time.
But of course, writing a bunch, even if it is good stuff (I hope you find my writings to be good stuff) is only a positive thing to do if there is someone to read it.
My strategy for getting my writings out of my computer, and into the hands of Masons was simple.
I’d write an essay, and then post a link into it on Facebook. I’d do this on my personal timeline, and I’d also post links in Masonic Facebook Groups, using care to not overdo it and end up spamming those groups. Eventually I added Reddit and Twitter to this process.
And it worked, it worked really well, because some Masons who saw my linked posts on Social Media enjoyed them, and when they did, they read more posts.
Following the move to Substack, it worked even better, because with Substack Masons could subscribe and get everything to their email account or in the app. This was wonderful because the more people who read Emeth, the greater its positive impact on our Craft can be.
But more recently, for quite a while now actually, this has stopped working.
It has stopped working because of changes made to the social network platforms.
They (in this case Facebook and Twitter) have radically reduced the reach of posts containing links that lead outside of their closed systems. Very, very few people now see the posts I make on those social networks.
They have done this for a couple of reasons, both of which are understandable. First of all, these sites make money by serving up advertisements. When someone follows a link to a space outside of the network, that is a lost opportunity for advertising. They limit reach to keep people scrolling.
Secondly, they get the crap beat out of themselves by government for ‘misinformation.’ One way they can keep that from happening so much is by tweaking their systems so that it becomes harder or impossible for posts to go ‘viral’ as they were able to more easily do in years past. By limiting post reach overall, they contain what they see as negative content much more easily because doing so requires no direct intervention.
Finally, in the case of Twitter, the new owner became angry at Substack, so intentionally removed the ability of those who write on Substack from placing quality links to Substack content on Twitter. We can still post links, but they look bad, and they receive very little reach.
So, that’s the problem.
And the problem has grown large enough that Emeth is now badly suffering. Fewer and fewer people are able to find the posts, as fewer are exposed to them. This problem is large enough that it is threatening Emeth’s sustainability at this point.
That’s where you come in, and here are my asks of you. I thank you for reading them, and I hope that you will look upon them favorably.
If you read Emeth through links on a social media platform, I ask that you subscribe. I know from the site statistics that there are a lot of you out there who read here following those links, but I also know that you aren’t seeing everything, and that you are missing posts. This problem will grow worse over time, but if you subscribe, you’ll never miss a thing.
My larger ask, of everyone, is that if you read a post here on Emeth that you enjoy, I ask you to post it to your own social media feed or into a relevant online Masonic group. On whatever social media site you prefer. My own personal reach might be quite limited now, but it, combined with some or all of yours will be much, much more impactful. You can do this by cutting and pasting the URL of any post, or easier yet, but just hitting the little blue ‘share’ button. Your shares of these posts will make a tremendous difference.
Another thing that is truly helpful, if you are willing to do it, is if you forward posts you enjoy along to your Masonic friends and fellow Lodge Brothers. This is a great way for posts to get out to those who will find them of interest.
Those are my asks, thank you for taking the time to read all of this, and as always, thank you for your support of Emeth!
I firmly believe that we are making a positive difference for Freemasonry here, and I know that the more who participate here and read here, the greater our positive impact will be! Working together, and learning from each other, we can create truly legendary Masonic experiences, Legendary Freemasonry.
So, hit that little blue ‘share’ button whenever you see something you like!
And again, Thank You!
Great stuff. Your doing a great job.