Migrating from Twitter to Newsletters

I've been following the whole collapse of Twitter via, incredibly, my inbox. 

I remember when I realized how much my mind was fraying on Twitter. The spring of 2019, I'd just started a new job and was in that phase of onboarding I'm trying to absorb a massive amount of information and context, to the point I could see the docs and code floating in the ether when I closed my eyes. And, I could feel the difference between that kind of information overload, and the one I'd get from spending my hours with twitter and feedly.

So I embarked on migration from twitter to newsletters:

1. Cleared out my followed accounts with the delightful Marie Kondo-inspired Tokimeki Unfollow tool on Glitch.
2. Combed through my remaining follows for as many TinyLetters and Substacks as I could find.

The best thing I did was use a "+newsletter" tag to the email I use for all my subscriptions (you+anything@gmail.com will still be routed to you). Then I created a filter that automatically moves them is a separate folder, to spare my poor inbox.

A screenshot of my where all my newsletters wind up. This would have been anathema to my former inbox-zero self.

In the spirit of the internet (l'esprit de l'internet?), I figure I'd ought to share the email filter and process so anyone (even you!) can try it. 

1. Copy or save the template file gist.github.com/theeddieh/newsletterMailFilter.xml
2. Change TKTK_YOUR_EMAIL_HERE_TKTK to, well, your email.
3. In gmail, go to "Settings -> Filters and Blocked Addresses -> Import filters"
4. Click "Choose File"
5. Choose the file you just saved
6. Click "Open file"
7. Click "Create filters"

(And in a different kind of l'esprit de l'internet, I must note the quotes in the steps above are google's copy verbatim, and I noticed to the inconsistent case style, too.)

The result: if there's anything happening on twitter worth knowing, I'll read about it by the end of the day from at least one writer, probably more (I'm reading [checks other tab, gasps] ninety five writers on substack alone). This crystalized for me over the last few months, as I kept up with the twitter collapse, the fall of SVB, and the WGA strike. 

So that's how my media diet has been evolving. Tune in next week for my rant about how podcasts are the new TV :)