Hitting the Reset Button

Today is the last day of my 41st trip around the sun. As I approach The Ultimate Answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything, I’ve been thinking a lot about my writing and where it fits into the world.

I started this thought exercise back in July when I posed a question to everyone: “How do we keep the web open while keeping our work out of large language models? Should we even worry about it?”

Many of you sympathized with the puzzle, acknowledging that LLM companies are forcing creators into a corner. Unfortunately, the only suggestions amounted to maintaining subscription walls. As I said back in July, it’s a forced choice:

I can’t find balance with keeping the web open. I want to remove the subscription requirement for my website, but I don’t trust the anti-AI protections in place if I do so.

Frankly, I’ve not been happy with the options, and it’s taken away any excitement or joy from writing. It’s why you haven’t heard from me in a few weeks.

A lack of choice has paralyzed me into inaction, but I don’t want to start a 42nd year without a direction. Today, I’m taking a stance: I choose the open web.

While subscription walls seem like the only choice to prevent LLMs from stealing my words, they are user adverse. These walls make it pretty impossible to attract new readers since there’s no trial, no example, no choice.

The subscribe-or-die approach might work for giant publications or journalists with proven track records, but individuals cannot survive without some form of free showcase. My writing is not my job, and I don’t have the time or energy to fight the AI companies. So, I’m opening my site back to everyone and everything. Consequences be damned.

I want people to read what I write, and requiring an email address at entry is pretty presumptuous for new visitors. I don’t immediately subscribe to new sites or follow people online without sampling their creations. Why should I expect anyone to behave differently on my site?

The web should be open and accessible, and that’s how I want to manage my small corner. The subscription wall is now only required for Write Now interviews, since they are technically exclusive to The Writing Cooperative. Almost everything else is free to read without a subscription.

My writing on Medium will continue to remain behind the paywall. The platform allows readers to sample work before subscribing. I don’t have that technological complexity on my website.

Team Justin paid subscriptions are not going anywhere for those who want to support my writing. I will try to be more conscious about adding paid subscriber-only portions to the weekly newsletter. Occasionally, paid subscribers will see updates about rewriting my book, statistics on publication submissions, and other behind-the-scenes updates.

If you’ve been wondering what you should do with your writing, I have bad news for you: I honestly do not know.

Everyone who creates should have a personal website to house and showcase their creations. Whether that is behind a subscription/paywall or part of the open web is entirely up to you.

While I want the web to be open and accessible to all, I don’t want people’s work stolen or writers to have to work for free. The game is, unfortunately, rigged, and tech companies want to force our hands.

Maybe I’m making the wrong choice by opening my site up, but I don’t care anymore. I’d rather focus on connecting with my readers than worry about subscribers and access. So, that’s what I’m doing.

I’m hitting the reset button and focusing on my words, not how people can access them.