21 Comments

I view paying for Vince's content like buying merch at a show. Would I rather not spend 50 bucks on a t-shirt? Yes. But I also want bands to keep making music and doing shows and the only way a lot of them can do that now is by selling merch. So I will gladly eat the beans.

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Yes, my giant collection of shirts has kept many bands fed im sure. Plus, Vince is the longest running single writer ive read, as i was there at the onset of FD. Once Vince has enough subscribers im sure he’ll be keen to restart COTW

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Ooh that would be good, my old one I got for being clever 10 years ago is getting holy, and lord knows I don't want to pay Vince's merch prices!

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You still have yours?

Damn you, Stacey!!

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As a two time runner-up to COTW, I'm ready to make the exact same jokes and hope that Vince picks them this time, because it took a million comments to get nominated.

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And battle jacket/vest patches.

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"I like what you provide so much you should give it to me for free." Wtf? No brainer to support you. Thanks for the content man, I have gotten at least 7 bucks of giggles,. chuckles and snorts from you over the years. maybe even 14...

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The plot thickens ... Tom tweeted earlier today that he "misspoke" and that David's second chance was the three-way cookoff in the episode.

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Two thoughts:

Re: David Murphy, it never hurts to be a little bit empathetic and realize that we're talking about real people as characters on a heavily-edited TV show. I'm glad you wrote this, because I'd wondered myself; even if he was ridiculous and you (me?) spent all of Ep 1 making fun of him, it doesn't cost anything to realize "hey, this shit is tough and it probably was a sucky, draining experience."

Re Paywall, my suspicion is that the Top Chef rankings bring readers who might be a little bit older, female, and more apolitical than the average Substack newsletter subscriber. For someone like me, who spends way too much time on culture war bullshit *and* has seen several generations of beloved sports, entertainment, and politics writers open up shop here after their former homes were torched, getting on board is seamless. But for people who aren't a part of that Millenial Internet cultural milieu, but found you or the Pack your Knives crew through Google searching their Top Chef fandom and are now being asked to pay for previously-free content on a new platform, it's a bit of a bigger ask and harder mental adjustment. Maybe I'm totally wrong, and I'm being a sexist stereotyping dick! But my guess is that's where a decent amount of the pushback on the TC subreddit comes from.

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Did no one else get Matt Lieb vibes from David Murphy?

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Apr 3Edited

Jesus doesn't like it when criticize Tom's hats

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Vince, I happily pay for this and for the Frotcast on Patreon. This is the world now. And your stuff is too good to miss. Let the haters hate. Take care of your family, the charges are reasonable. I just renewed my subscription. You are doing good work and it's worth it.

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That Uproxx forced you and now Brian Grubb out means I'll never go to their site again--you were the only two reasons I was there in the first place. I was thrilled to find you here and happy to pay to keep reading--where else could I read my favorite rundowns of a show I haven't watched since the Voltaggio season?

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Vince, I would love to pay you for your work directly rather than bankroll Substack, would that be possible?

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Eh, not really, I don't know how to work out the logistics of that. If anyone does, I'm all ears. I'm also not entirely convinced that Substack is so much worse than its competitors, and isn't just more prominent (they did end up booting those Nazis, initially lame responses about it notwithstanding). But I am... as the say... monitoring the situation. I will look into migrating as I try to weigh how many subscribers I would lose over it and how difficult the transition is. It's just kind of annoying to leave after having built a nice little home here and learning the quirks of the platform. Which is maybe lame to say? I don't know. I had a whole post about this half written that I never posted and I'm still trying to work out how I feel about it.

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tbh my reservations about Substack go further back than the Nazi thing; they did the same re making money from anti-trans content 3ish years ago. I mean, I don't think any company is morally *good*. But I'd rather be able to pay writers directly and not fund this one. (And as a podcaster, my whole livelihood is also subject to the whims of tech bros, so I do get how annoying and exhausting it is)

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Molly White wrote a good explainer about moving from Substack to Ghost here: https://www.citationneeded.news/substack-to-self-hosted-ghost/. Ed Zitron also moved to Ghost.

I’d 100% like to move from Substack, but I also understand your shitty situation and not wanting to move… again.

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What if I sent you a dirty envelope stuffed with loonies?

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David reminded me of Phillip Franklin Lee from California Top Chef but with a anti-foodie food waste vibe. But Did not seem that genuine. Or maybe I just hated the Hat. Vince I love the power rating followed you on UpR***.

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You can't see me but I'm saluting.

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I overheard someone saying they don’t like Italian food in real life. That’s basically just edgelord shit.

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