Could Substack BE any more confusing??

I’m an educator at heart, which is why I’ve wanted my newsletter to remain free to subscribers. I recently discovered (via a Substack-generated email notification) that a fan who’s benefitted from my YouTube videos for years, felt moved to make a generous yearly pledge to me. I was surprised by this, but delighted.

In one section of Substack’s “settings” page, they suggest that you must enable “payments” in order to facilitate pledges. In another section, it’s conveyed that pledges cannot be made and received, if paid subscriptions are enabled.

Don’t worry, those of you who have free subscriptions to my newsletter. Nothing will change for you (at least, I hope to God it won’t!). So, I’ve tried to accept “pledges” through the system, but can’t seem to do it without enabling paid subscriptions (in addition to my free ones)!

To say I’ve gotten mixed messages from Substack in terms of allowing pledges, is an understatement (and I’m hoping somebody in the tech dept. READS this, and gets back to me on it~ but I’m not holding my breath, ‘cause blue isn’t my most flattering color)!

Frankly, after spending 2 hours this morning trying to get this right, I have no idea where I stand right now on this issue! Hopefully, some defaults are in place, and my lofty intentions to bring you free wisdom and useful information will prevail, and anybody who wants to initiate a paid subscription, make a pledge or just keep reading my offerings for FREE, will be able to continue getting and enjoying them!

That’s MY intention, so if you encounter ANY difficulties in the future with getting contributions of mine in your inbox, please let me know immediately, so I can try and fix it! I wish Substack would let me ask a human service rep about this issue, but they don’t. This is the world we live in today, I guess… but it’s sure feeling frustrating at the moment!

May God bless you ALL for being ongoing fans of my work. I greatly appreciate you!