My Thoughts on Read Now That Rusty is Gone

There was a time when I went to great lengths to make sure that an article I wrote here was at least three minutes long. Maybe it was somewhere in the rules I read that an article should be three minutes long? Or maybe it was read somewhere that our old, now gone friend, Rusty preferred articles at least that long.

Either way. I also understood that the slightly longer format did seem akin to what the objective was here as opposed to its sister site, noise. Longer writing. Not that it is that hard to write longer pieces.

I tend to have things to say, you know, and if you called me a windbag, you would not be the first one to have ever called me that.

But the question becomes now. What about now? Does it matter how long an article is? If I have something quicker to say, can I just say it and not worry about how long it takes me to say it?

Because not that I ever wrote for Rusty in the past—I wrote for you, the real people out there—I still understood that how long something I wrote was, engaged the algorithm in a particular way that writing shorter pieces might mean my "quality score," or however it was figured out, might be negatively impacted and Rusty might ignore me altogether even when I put my best foot forward and even with the best of intentions.

I suppose, now that Rusty is gone, there is a lot to consider about what I do here, and whether or not I even do anything at all here.

The long and short of it is that I do like the site. I have from the start. And I have enjoyed the people here very much. I have enjoyed the interactions, and yes. I have enjoyed the tips. Both from Rusty, but also from readers like you.

Still, there has to be something here to write for. There has to be readers, and quite frankly, in order to allow me the time to spend here, there needs to be a bit of a monetary incentive as well.

It's just the reality of things. Time is money.

I have already read a couple of posts from what I would call "prominent members" on the site expressing that they must now leave considering the absence of Rusty. I understand it. It makes sense to me at least. Even if I still contend that the site could be more profitable for all of us and better if we all contribute something to it, both in terms of interaction and money.

But I did mention reality a paragraph above. People aren't likely to do it. They are not likely to spend their time writing longer pieces for a few pennies, and if they only receive a few pennies they aren't likely to share any of them.

So, for all intents and purposes, read.cash is likely dead. If it is not dead entirely yet, it is certainly in its death throes, heaving its last breaths.

I still have a desire to give it a go for a little bit longer. Just in case my words are heeded from a couple of previous posts expressing what I thought we could do to make the site still go. Just in case there are still enough people here who believe in the site and the prospects of its future. Just in case there are enough people still here willing to do the work necessary to make things happen.

It is a futile thought and futile effort I suppose. Who am I kidding? Without the "free money" part are people really going to make the time and effort? Are they really going to care? Or are they just going to move on to the next big thing?

Probably all of the above with the exception of "doing the work."

Look, the bottom line is this. I would take the same attitude for any site where they paid and stopped paying. I'd stop writing for them. Because there is no point even if the money is not the only point.

I like to write. Plain and simple. And I enjoy people having the opportunity to read what I write. Also plain and simple.

Here it is different only in that we can still get paid—the site may have stopped providing the funds, but we don't have to. We can still pay each other.

At the same time, I mentioned about concerning myself with the length of what I write here. Does that matter anymore? Not really. I mean, I think still ensuring something is still at least three minutes long helps the site. But it doesn't matter because Rusty isn't deciding what works here anymore.

That is up to us to decide.

We are calling the shots on whether or not something is worth reading or tipping based on our experience with the post. Not based on what an algorithm decides.

I will tell you, I'd like to see this site defy the odds and do something I have never seen any site that stopped paying do. Maintain its people and continue. Because again, for the first time this happens to be a site that does not need to depend only on what the site pays.

Still, I am not sure it will or can. I am not sure the people have the will to do it. But we will see. I hope to be proven wrong. I really do. All we can do now is play a little bit more and see what happens and make an informed decision based on what really happens than on what we think will be the case.

It really is up to us.

Lead image by Porwest. Just my cats in a box. Because does quality matter anymore?