Belt and Braces; Fashion Faux Pas, She Said. No Way I Said.

With Facebook apps down globally, perhaps we've become too reliant. So what's your backup plan?

25 years ago as a young man running a mock in Philadelphia, some chick castigated me one night for wearing a belt and braces in the same rig-out. She was probably right, but what did I know? Fashion was never my strong point. But tech is, and today as far as this turkey is concerned, it serves to wear both…digitally speaking.

I stopped being active on Facebook over 18 months ago. Instagram I’ve browsed and shared stuff occasionally. But like millions of others, Whatsapp I have come to rely on. With 10.6m individual reports of service interruption worldwide today, it serves to show how reliant we have become on what is essentially a single provider. If and when their shit hits the fan, we’re banjaxed.

So belt and braces it is.

There are other alternatives such as the one this newsletter is built—Substack. There is Discord too. Discord is a forum type platform that allows you to build a private community around what you do. Sunday Letters has a Discord server that you can join here.

The best solution is and always has been, to build your own thing. Buy some hosting, build a WordPress website (aff.), and add plugins to help you customise. WordPress is what my personal site is built on, and along with other third-party apps, my tech stack allows me to stay in touch with my readers. Despite the fact I’m not making much from this particular platform (Substack), I like it…for now. However, it could go down at any time, and if it does, I have an alternative.

I think out of all the tech I have used and tested over the years, the platform closest to FB but without the annoying adverts and interference, is Discord. If I were a FB business user, I’d be whipping my readers over to Discord ASAP.

OK, long story short, leave Facebook will ya. Get your community to a platform you can control.

Reply to this mail if you want to know how to set one up.