Well, hello there my curious friend!
Okay, so by now you’ve seen the new format for Further. Or perhaps you were so excited to read this that you clicked the link over here without looking first, which is going to make this awkward.
Anyway, one of the great things about publishing Further over the years is the feedback I get. Using my real email address to send the weekly newsletter leads to lots of reply messages.
One piece of recurring feedback was that ten items per week was too much to choose from. I had originally thought that was a reasonable amount (obviously), but I can see the point.
Plus, while I sift through a ton of unacceptable or simply uninteresting content to get to those ten selections, there are usually 3-4 of them that I think stand above the rest. Combine that fact with my desire to add a bit more original commentary to the things I curate, and there you have it.
So, from now on each issue of Further will have 3-5 entries that are definitely worth your time. And I’ll do my best to offer meaningful context even if you don’t click through.
Another change is adding the source of the content next to the link. Some subscription publications like New York Times, Washington Post, and Medium only allow a certain number of free articles per week/month if you’re not a subscriber. Knowing where you’re headed before you click lets you decide whether to use up that view or not.
Something you might not notice is that individual items within an issue now have their own page that is shareable. I haven’t figured out how I’m going to handle that within the issue, if at all. Just some inside baseball.
Finally, I’ve added the Further Flashback. I’m a music guy, so this gives me an opportunity to share some songs and videos that may bring back some cool memories. Make sure to scroll to the end of each issue to see the current selection.
That’s it! Hope this helps, and ultimately makes Further more useful to you. Feedback welcome here (or just hit reply from the issue in your inbox).
Keep going-