19 Comments

The detail you went into here to explain the change shows the level you care about people that subscribe. That said, if we're being honest, $8 a month was the biggest steal in sports content. From a value perspective there is no way to have any issue with $15

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May 17, 2023Liked by Ben Gretch

Ben, I really appreciate the upfront explanation about price. I really enjoy your writing. I do have 1 ? I will be subscribing annually and aren’t sure for the annual package or founding member. I’m in my first FFPC main event this year and would like any pointers I can get. This newsletter, Ship Chasing & ETR are my go to for my only hobby ( other than watching wrestling). I actually might wear my Ship Chasing workout tee when I meet the Hitman next month.

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I really should have had everything in better order with the founding member tier, but the truth is I don't yet know what that will constitute of, and don't want to make any promises about what I'll be able to pull off. The one thing I plan on is for the last couple years, I've offered a separate feature through Discord that was a weekly in-season Q&A session, and I want to try to fold that into this founding member tier. That would be like once a week, between when Stealing Signals posts on the site (Tuesday night) and when FFPC waivers run on Wednesday night, where I field questions about anything in Signals that wasn't clear. I would like that to be a video session this year.

To be honest, the main limitation for that is just whether I can get the technical side working the way I want. I should be able to, and hopefully if I get it done soon, I can do more direct stuff in the offseason, too. But as I said, I don't want to promise anything right now, so I'm sort of implying the founding member tier has no other benefits, and then later when I figure it out I'll have more information and have to come up with a way people can upgrade if they want to.

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May 20, 2023Liked by Ben Gretch

Hey Ben, you're well in line for a raise as Stealing Signals has been far

underpriced for a few seasons. I'm signing on for another season but I hope there is some possibility of an audio component for android users on the horizon. It's just much easier for me to process content while doing dishes or folding laundry than it is to actually sit down and read it (I know this makes me lame but i am who i am). Love your work!

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Hi Alec. The Android Substack app now has the audio option. I'm in the Discord (iawr) if you want me to explain how.

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Will this is excellent news. My leaguemates are doomed!

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May 18, 2023Liked by Ben Gretch

No problemos here Ben, the price increase is still well worth paying for without any doubt. Once you have a better feel for what additional features/access will look like for the higher paying bracket it would be good to have that laid out. At present I think I'm only the lower bracket but definitely considering the upgrade! Cheers

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I will definitely lay it out better when I get it clear, and will figure out a way to upgrade people as needed at that time!

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May 18, 2023Liked by Ben Gretch

No issues here, your work is invaluable Ben!

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May 17, 2023Liked by Ben Gretch

Yourself and Pat work so well together and do good work in tandem that it only makes sense to keep "competitive" with similar ventures. No call outs meant here in any sense - except to say I enjoy supporting both of you. Cheers.

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Ha, fwiw it wasn't a competition thing, and instead something where we talked about these things early in the offseason and I already had this pricing decision in mind then (which I mentioned in one of my first offseason posts). I actually encouraged him strongly to go off on his own, and am super glad he did and it's going well! It's def true our stuff works well in tandem — he and I are in agreement on that — and I def think people should sub to both.

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Hi Ben, so I'm assuming that my increase won't take place until next March as I already renewed for 2023 in March. Keep up the good work!

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Correct, that's exactly how it works

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May 17, 2023Liked by Ben Gretch

With how much you wrote before revealing the price I was a bit worried it was going to be a larger jump :)

If anything my first impression is the monthly rate is too low. Someone signing up for August-December gets a 25% discount versus the yearly rate and still gets pretty much all the actionable content if they play seasonal.

Sad to see premium Discord die but optimistic about the possibility of ‘founding’ streams instead.

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May 17, 2023Liked by Ben Gretch

Thankyou as always Ben!

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So, a nearly 100% increase per month & 50% annually. I suppose the massive bump in price means greater expectations & your availability

I don't understand why you don't get an editor and cut down on the preamble, which would save your time & the readers

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May 17, 2023Liked by Ben Gretch

Come on, man. I know I don't need to defend Ben and he can speak for himself...but he already did with this incredibly thoughtful post about a decision he clearly did not take lightly. If you don't like the price increase, it's okay! No one here will be upset if you quietly unsubscribe! But it's really shitty to trash the guy in the comments section. You've paid up to this point, so you clearly think his work is valuable. Just be respectful.

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It's my opinion; there was no disrespect, but I didn't love what Ben did, so I said so. There was no ad hominem attack. I gave my feedback; it doesn't mean I’m right either, but it's mine to give

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To be clear, I specifically wrote the increase in price should not mean greater expectations, but is rather a thing where people who aren't anchored to the old price and believe my current work is worth the higher price should sub, and those who don't believe that shouldn't.

Otherwise, no issue with your comment. I've written about editors and my lengthy writing style before, citing a favorite quote from Blaise Pascal multiple times: "I would have written a shorter letter but I did not have the time." Similarly, I've been on both sides of the editing process and it adds considerable time. My goal here is to stay informal to keep zero constraints on my writing, because that maximizes my output for people who are ok with the writing style. I'm absolutely aware that's not for everyone — it wouldn't be for me as a consumer, and I've written before I wouldn't sub to my own newsletter if I was on the other side.

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