Yeah, boosts is as boosts does, and boosts ain't what they used to be.

This was inevitable, I feel - as I flagged up last year.

They were talking about expanding the programme from 100 to 1000 nominators. That is great, and I think it will happen. I really believe they see human curation as the only way to maintain quality and keep the AI and clickbait trash out of sight to users.

It seems incredible in the Big Data age, but hey, whoever foresaw the resurgence of vinyl?

I now think they are right (and no, I haven't been hauled off to a reeducation camp in the Guyanese forest). But that also means that by a process of distribution inflation, each wheelbarrow of boostiness buys you fewer readers and less cash.

Maybe that's OK. They need to tune their numbers, as they say in the gaming world, and I think they do so constantly.

If, in 12 months' time, we are in a position where all good writers have access to several boosting pubs that they feel thematically and editorially comfortable with, and a decent chance of getting a boost every few stories. And those boosts get at least 300 or so views and make $30-40, sometimes several times both those figures, that sounds like a reasonable spot for this platform to be as a fun sideline for those of us who love writing.

It feel to me right now that it should be capable of getting there.

But that 'should' is doing a shitload of heavy lifting. BTW - I've just set up a Slack channel for Iberospherical. I'll post the invite link in a private note now in case you're interested in joining.

Take care.