The mrgirl backlog is now on Substack, and I'm quitting streaming.

Dear audience,

I’m making some changes around here.

I’m done with streaming

The plan to stream regularly while also making various art projects has not worked out, for a few reasons:

• I have developed a defensive posture. While this is necessary to protect myself from a live audience, and to protect the audience from me, shielding myself from you is antithetical to my goals.

• Streaming is mentally exhausting, like taking an oral exam where saying the wrong thing can fuck your life up.

• If I have rambled about a topic for hours already, it is less engaging to then make a project on that topic.

While I may do an occasional one-off stream, or a limited series, I’m quitting for now.

The Hotline and the supporter streams are canceled.

The mrgirl Podcast will continue, but won’t be streamed.

Office Hours will become the new paid subscriber benefit, and it will be a pre-recorded video. If there are project updates to share, I’ll share them in those videos, but it is likely I will keep details under wraps until projects are released.

(If you are subscribed on my website, these videos will still be posted in the Horseworld Discord server as usual.)

I will be making more video content

I’ve spent years lamenting that there isn’t a YouTube for adults. Substack claims to be exactly that. Let’s put that to the test.

The mrgirl backlog is now on Substack

Videos from my banned YouTube channel are now on Substack as a paid benefit.

(The mrgirlsplaining series needs to be re-edited to remove the outro music to make them copyright compliant for Substack, and they’ll be posted in the coming weeks.)

I’m paywalling content older than one year

I view myself as a public artist, and I’d like to make my work available for “free” using an advertising model in the de facto public square of YouTube.

But even without the ban, YouTube was not good for me. There’s a constant atmosphere of fear on the platform, because everyone knows their livelihoods can be instantly destroyed at any moment, often for no reason. Tiptoeing is simply unavoidable, and I can’t be a tiptoer.

I need to commit to the patronage model, which means charging for access to my work.

The compromise I’ve reached is to keep my work free for one year and paywall everything older than that. Accountability-focused pieces like The Destiny Report or Dr. K: Reckless will stay free forever.

Also, raising the percentage of paid subscribers helps with discovery on Substack, so I really need to encourage people to pay.

Hardship passes: If you’re poor and want a free month of paid access, message me on Substack.

I’m raising the subscription price to $8

I would like more money so I am raising the price.

If you’re already subscribed, your fee will be unaffected. If you’d like to support at the new rate voluntarily, you’ll need to resubscribe.

-Max