#ScholarSunday Meta-thread (Ahead of Thread 300!)

Tomorrow I drop my 300^th #ScholarSunday thread! That’s 300 weeks (across about 6.5 years, ‘cause I missed a few weeks here & there) of finding, compiling, annotating, & sharing great public scholarship, which is really a whole lot when you stop & think about it.

Which I decided to do! In anticipation & commemoration of my 300^th thread, & all the work I’ve done & shared along the way, here are a few things about that work that I wanted—really, that I needed—to say.

Note: the first couple of these might seem more complain-y than my usual tone. But I’d call them instead direct requests for help & support, in a pair of ways that, yes, the threads need more of than they’ve been getting. I hope that difference makes sense, but in any case, I need to say these things.

First thing: In the 6.5 years that I’ve been sharing these threads, they’ve moved from Twitter to Substack to both Bluesky & this awesome website that my wife Vaughn made & maintains for us. (If you want to see all 300 threads, they’re compiled on this Google Doc.)

I’m very glad I made each of those moves, for very good reasons, & wouldn’t change a thing. But with each move, I’ve sacrificed a large community & network that I had built in that space, & the work of rebuilding them from scratch here on the new site has been slow & difficult.

So I’m going to ask directly: if you value these threads & want to support them & all the scholars they feature, please subscribe to them. (You can also subscribe on that page to any of our other newsletters, all of which are & will always be free.) That will really help, both practically & psychologically.

Second thing: I hear from lots of folks, in many different ways, that they appreciate these threads. That means a great deal. But the threads simply haven’t been getting enough Bluesky engagement, especially now that I’m not able to tag all the featured scholars (having been suspended for spam-tagging).

So I’m going to ask this one even more directly: if you’re on Bluesky, please engage with the thread posts that I share each Sunday morning (around 8am ET). More specifically, since likes don’t seem to move the needle over there: please repost the overall thread (ie, the first post in the sequence) each Sunday.

I have over 10.4K followers on Bluesky, & my thread posts there get on average ~20 reposts. That’s just not enough to adequately support these collections of amazing scholars & work, nor the work I do pulling them together. They need more engagement, & I’m asking you all to be part of that.

Third & finally, on a much more positive note because even on Halloween I would never want to just boo: these threads have been one of my favorite things I’ve ever done. As much as I want & need for them to get more support & engagement, I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t love it. & I do, a whole lot.

I love finding all this great work, on favorite sites & podcasts & publishers & newsletters, & on new ones every week. I love learning from it. I love coming up with my brief annotations for it. & most of all I love the idea that I’m helping get all this great work & these awesome folks out there, to you all & beyond.

I’m excited to keep this work going for another 300 weeks (& then some). To find & share so much great work, including yours! & as I do, those multiple ways you can support the threads & the work they feature will be hugely helpful, & I appreciate anything & everything you can do.

Thanks so much, & see you tomorrow for #ScholarSunday thread 300!