Newsletters surely have a place but they do, I feel, depend on existing networks and on people already inside the in-group. The advantage social media (potentially) offers is the reach, the scope and scale to sell the philosophy and culture of naturism to a far wider audience than can be reached by newsletters alone. Modern social media is why their utility has become limited. I think we’re boxed in. Absent a change in editorial policies on Meta et al we’re condemned to the naught corner. The recent letter from the various national nudist associations was excellently presented but it seems to have sunk without a trace. Barring naturist forums I haven’t heard a peep. This is not to say newsletters aren’t great, I depend on my INA one to keep me informed and up to date - it’s just a different and more limited tool.
When you’re an organization with limited resources, you have to make a choice as to where to put those resources. Given the choice between the two, one is sustainable and direct, another is indirect and uncontrolled. If you can only choose one, the choice is clear. That’s a hypothetical that doesn’t reflect reality. We can choose both. So it’s about how to balance those. Social media can reinforce our newsletters; it doesn’t work the other way around.
Let me add that nudist libraries preserve newsletters--and thus your history for your members to read. If this article persuades you to start up your newsletter again, be sure to send copies to the nudist libraries.
Unfortunately, some so-called newsletters have turned into calendars of events. They're all the same, week after week. Newsletters need news. Newsletters need thought.
Lately, I've been thinking of that bit in The Sun Also Rises where a character is asked "How do you go bankrupt?" and he responds "Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly."
This seems relevant because I feel like wee've been watching a cultural bankruptcy unfold in America, gradually, then suddenly. We had the first signs back in the 90s when books like Bowling Alone began to identify there was a growing problem with the dissolution of civic institutions, like Elks Lodges and Bowling Leagues, a category which nudist organizations could certainly be included in. This gradual bankruptcy over the past decades became sudden over the past few years, and social played a big part in that, as what I see as method of radically redistributing cultural capital. The older means of acquiring cultural capital, participation in civic or communal life, developing friend groups, joining organizations, were suddenly replaced by a bizarre, lottery-like mechanism where cultural capital became determined by odd, parasocial ideas such as likes and followers. And we find ourselves in the situation we're in now, where a 15 second on the street interview in which a young woman improvises the sound of oral sex can launch an entire mini-industry that includes a podcast and a cryptocurrency. Wherever we are now, it sure as hell isn't Kansas any more.
But that also brings us to the ping-pong ball in a hurricane that community standards have become. The social bankruptcy has also made any kind of agreed on standard impossible, as the point about making oral sex sounds a legitimate path to fame decidedly illustrates. You describe the AANR's marketing as simple, tasteful, and nonsexual, which I agree with, only I'm not sure my agreement really carries much shared meaning nay more. Simple? Apparently that now means slightly changing the font size in corporate logo. Tasteful? Not to keep going back to her, but I don't think forty years ago Hawk Tuah Girl would have been invited to any of the better parties in the Hamptons. Nonsexual? I mean, when dressing up as a squirrel is a sexual thing where do I even begin?
None of this is an objection to your ideas, Evan, which as an old small press guy myself I find just wonderfully tempting. I do love the smell of a mimeograph machine in the morning. It is, however, to say that we need to address the problems we have, not the problems we want to have. And I'm not convinced that reinvesting in direct communication is enough unless the message is one that will address the issues that are slowly strangling organized naturism, and recognizing that they're just another variation on the issues that are slowly strangling all of civilized society. And not that I disagree with the principles behind it, but progressive messaging of the past few years has been focused heavily on "Someone more screwed than you must always come first" instead of what I think could have been a more effective message along the lines of "We're all screwed."
Now that I've brought you down, let me throw in some optimism here. Naturism may be in a unique place among this failing civic organizations to offer an appeal to what there is a demonstrated societal craving for but is in short supply. And offering things that were ion short supply to build community around was a key element to the thriving of those civic organizations in their heyday. Granted, in the case of the Elks Lodge it was usually access to alcohol and pornography when they were much harder to obtain, but the point is that it worked.
What I think that naturism could message as offering is something which has become in even more short supply these days - to be unobserved. To be in a place where continually snapping pictures is discouraged and even forbidden, to be in a place where judgement over appearance is socially taboo, to be in a place where you can be authentic without having to perform authenticity. A place where, in a world where more and more people don't want the world to be like that, the world isn't like that. Which also seems like a good way to start rebuilding community.
I am aware this is a fairly complex set of ideas to have to convey, and to a general audience the concept of "to be naked is to be unobserved" is going to be an interesting one to try and sell. But I do think that selling naturism as a way to escape the panopticon is the germ of a good idea.
Anyway, this was probably way too long and I think I may have wandered from the main point of your article ever so slightly. I should probably have just said "good article" instead of basically hogging the comments as a platform for some ideas which have been brewing in my head for a while now. I'll probably regret this later, but what else is new? So - good article. Let me know if you need some mimeograph-friendly cartoons.
If I could like this more than once I don’t know when I’d stop. Though I would like to again put out a plea that you write an essay or something because your point and your delivery of the point, as expected, are compelling and engaging to read.
Certainly the newsletter won’t be a panacea for the many marketing woes our organizations face, but it will be more effective than the reliance on social media. What messaging goes into those newsletters, perhaps to your point, is another discussion. But one that we can continue to have here.
Mimeograph cartoons sound good! If they’re anything like your Mime cartoons I’m sure I will enjoy them!
"... to be in a place where you can be authentic without having to perform authenticity"
Wow, this is a beautiful way of putting it, and perfectly represents what is most important about naturism for me. We sign the social contract 'I will accept you as you are if you accept me as I am' by doing what many consider the most vulnerable thing a person can do - being nude in front of others.
I agree with your reasoning. Social media has become a cesspool of misinformation and it appears to be taking a hard turn further to the right with stricter and stricter censoring for what they term "Community Standards". Which brings me to the point...WE are a COMMUNITY of Naturists/Nudists. Newsletters and magazines represent OUR community and are aimed at that audience. We, in turn, as community members (the "audience") need to share these newsletters and magazines with our textile friends and families so that they will see and appreciate what the Naturist/Nudist "community" is truly about.
I couldn't agree more with the premise of this article. I also appreaciate the many comments that were already stated, so I won't repeat them here. I personally like the newsletters because I can save them and read them when I feel like it instead of letting things jam up my already jammed up emails. I have 3 years of ANNR Bulletins stored on my computer that I can read when the spirit moves me! But I love being nude and I don't care who knows it! I agree that social media is ruining society. That is why the newsletters from the Western Region of ANNR and ANNR are so fun to read. It really is wholesome entertainment and information. I am glad to have websites like Naturist Hub to connect with other naturists as well! So I hope naturist clubs and organizations will continue with their newsletters.
There's so much here in Evan's essay and the comments to it. But what's lacking is a broader view of the whole "social media" world. Every type of "personal" interaction has pluses and minuses. Even interactions that occur "face to face" anywhere naturists gather have the problem of being ephemeral - unless people carry recording equipment - both aural and visual. There are serious issues with that as well - though it's very rare anyhow.
When "newsletters" were entirely on paper, they either ended up in the trash (perhaps years later) or in libraries or personal archives. Yet they didn't reach the large majority of people who might find them useful.
Electronic media now open up a vastly larger space for naturists (or any other special interest group) to interact. And if they're properly maintained, they can (in principle) outlast even paper records - while also reaching far more people.
They can also offer limited interactions among users in comment sections.
Currently, extant electronic media have all sorts of problems of their own. Almost all of the most "popular" social media mostly stink in some way or other. That includes Facebook (and other products from Meta), Twitter/X, TikTok, etc. These are all commercial products whose primary purpose is to benefit their corporate owners - definitely not their users. (Meta, as of today, has a market value of $1.556 *trillion* - vastly underserved. All based on worthless ads.)
Various other types of social media aren't sufficiently covered in this discussion. Each has its own positives and negatives. Electronic newsletters such as Substack are nice. But they're also commercial products, and certainly vulnerable to the whims of the medium's owners. What is there to stop Substack from censoring newsletters if they consider that in their best (profit) interests?
Blogs are another category, although out of favor in the past few years. They're not immune from censorship (unless operated by individuals on servers they personally own) - but ISPs normally keep their hands off. Blog comments allow readers to interact with each other, but blog owners could do their own censorship - and may have good reasons (to exclude trolls and spammers) for doing so. Blogs can also distribute their work via email - exactly like newsletters. There are also third-party services such as Inoreader that can make blog posts much more conveniently available. (Using the RSS protocol.)
And what about Bluesky (which I, Evan, and thousands of other naturists now use)?
It currently does put certain mild restrictions on naturist nudity - which anyone can choose to bypass. Bluesky is structurally similar to Twitter/X, but with far fewer noxious characteristics. There are also developing protocols that allow users, if they wish, to move their entire content to similar services in what's being called the "Fediverse". That may be the best hope in the near to long term for naturists to interact.
From naturists' point of view, the best may be for naturist organizations themselves to operate electronic communication services - as opposed to printed magazines. British Naturism provides a stellar example. Naturist organizations in other countries may have similar services. Then there are privately managed (but low- or non-profit) services such as ANW ("A Naturist World"). Sadly, for U.S. naturists, AANR doesn't provide something similar. (Are you reading, Linda?) Hopefully, TPTB in AANR are thinking about it. TNSF has monthly 1-hour Zoom sessions, and those are good, but far too infrequent. Wouldn't it be nice if AANR or TNSF made that sort of thing available to any of their members who wanted to arrange conversational sessions?
And then there are the so-called "podcasts". They're not my cup of tea, but seem to have some popularity, despite the drawback of being 1-to-many rather than bi-directional. (Interaction in TNSF Zooms is possible, but very limited by 1-hour duration.)
My apologies for the length of this response, but I've been involved with computer-based communication systems for over 45 years. (Yes, forty-five.) What's surprising is that this type of interpersonal interaction is still not nearly as prevalent and useful as it could be. I think that the domain of "computer-mediated communications" is still in its infancy.
Having spent years working in and volunteering for a nudist library. I can personally vouch for the importance and validity of newsletters, even electronic newsletters. Any social media controlled by Zuckerberg or Musk, oligarchs, is not going to help naturism, their politics and agendas are fundamentally opposed to us. It makes no sense to use them. Even If we tried to use social media to sell and promote naturist philosophy, the algorithm would either block it or misconstrue it. This time might not be the best time for the movement or philosophy to grow. I think our main focus should simply be on protecting, supporting, preserving, and saving what we already have, so that when better times do arrive, and they will, we will still be here to help it grow and flourish. America is essentially becoming like Russia. We know what happened to the naturists and nudists there when Putin and the oligarchs took full control there.
I've been trying to come up with ideas of starting my own newsletter type thing, but one of my biggest failures is having the patience to do proper research and organization... I have ALL THE IDEAS... But none of the practical application. What I am glad of though is the gradual realization that social media, especially since its absolute takeover by egregiously dangerous oligarchy, is not the answer. It can still be a tool... But an extremely limited one that has a growing influence on radicalizing even the nudists among us to be worse and worse people overall.
Would that every naturist organization had its own Planet Nude... We need THIS kind of thing everywhere.
Most of the newsletters that I have subscribed to start strongly but soon fall into a template pattern with less content of interest and then fade into regional obscurity. As someone who has authored newsletters (in a different life), i understand how demanding frustrating and unrewarding they can be.
I accept that the risks of increasingly fragile social media platforms are many and increasing, but I believe that they still have a place.
My solution is to not rely on one or two social media sites, but to spread across many, some free and some paid.
I enjoy the connections and conversations that I have with many naturists from all over the world, and I enjoy exchnging views, stories and experiences.
It has taken some time to build up my network of naturist connections, and I understand that there are risks of losing access to some should one of the social media platforms suddenly cease, but most of the people I enjoy connecting with are also across multiple platforms.
I would sign up to a world wide naturist newsletter or similar project, but I think it is each of our responsibilities to manage our own social networks and connections. Not all naturists are the same or want the same things, and we each need to decide who to connect with and how to curate our own tribes.
I agree. A newsletter should convey news. Social media are news farts and comments, one in every posts. You can't do that with a newsletter, sending out something each time you feel like saying something.
Something I forgot to mention! Existing Greyfriar's Isle comics in four languages (English, French (Quebec), Danish and Dutch) are free to use by naturist newsletters. Or at least that was the intention when I started the comic; my plan was to make printable versions of comics available as a matter of routine. That kind of fell by the wayside, but I will still supply individual comics as hi-res files free of charge if asked.
See.. The problem here is that we have the equivalent of, "Heh, we thought we could have literal conventions in a public space, and it turned out that everyone that provided money, advertising, legal advice, etc. to the convention centers, as well as a small, but very powerful collection of politically influential people, still hate us, so I guess we have to go back to only doing stuff in the basement, where no one can bother us." Yeah, it absolutely sucks that social media is run by all of the above. It sucks more than the riches people on the planet, who could maybe have the money to do something about this are into Nazis and bigots. It sucks that we don't have the money to build our own, or fight back. But.. lets be honest here, if "newsletters" where going to gain public attention, shift things in the favor of social nudity, and change laws in the US they would have already made major inroads to do so.
Hate it, be frustrated by it, despise the people running it, but until we somehow can do to social media what was done to TV - replace it with something that isn't beholden to some clown that says, "We can't show that, not just during regular hours, but at all." In other words, I don't think giving up and giving in is the right path. Because, ultimately, the value, when it works, ironically *because* of those very algorithms that are such a pain in the backside, is that someone who isn't already looking for nudist/naturist content may find it by accident, by recommendation. Sure, if its banned, then they won't, newsletters... unless you are already part of the community, or know to look for it, how are you ever going to come across it? How will you even know if every single resort in a state is closed, one by one, and you missed out? How does anyone, other than word of mouth (and that works so well, right...), ever going to find the community?
I admit to having no freaking idea how to solve it at the moment, especially when the very services doing this BS won't even follow their own plain wording of their own TOS in many cases to do so.
All I can say is.. it would be damn site simpler of these companies where not run by US corporations (or China), but where out of Spain, or France, or something, but its precisely because they are in the US that means it isn't just possible, but imho mandatory that we fight them. Because, its not just nudist that are being banned, shadow banned, etc. from them, especially with them now also all panicking over whether or not the crazy in chief might destroy them if they don't bow to people that also hate nudists, but probably consider us to be the "smaller fish", compared to well.. just about everyone else they also hate.
Its bigger than just us, but we are part of the same fight. But, also.. what I said above about how its far more effective to expand membership by people "stumbling" over something than by desperately hoping they will up and one day decide to look for it.
Also - what other have said, if all the newsletter is comes down to a calendar of events, and a few people talking to each other, instead of the outside world, why would anyone care if they did come across it?
I agree with the premise or this article but the term "newsletter" isn't right. I think most people would interpret that to be a periodic collection of news items and likely in printed form. The distribution of news doesn't have to be done that way anymore. It could also be, like Planet Nude, in a more modern format where each news item exists independently. There is no longer any need for our news feed to be gathered into a collection before it is distributed. That was a limitation previously imposed on us by the cost of printing and postal distribution. Indeed, social media is also a news distribution system. So what you are really talking about is controlling distribution. Many of us gave that up to Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter and we therefore lost control of editorial rules, formating, and the subscriber list. Even Substack which is the "engine" that drives Planet Nude is a private enterprise that could someday decide that your content is no longer appropriate for their business model. But at least substack lets you download the email list of your subscribers. (hopefully you are periodically backing it up) So I agree with you that we need to regain control of naturist news distribution but it doesn't have to be a newsletter.
Newsletters surely have a place but they do, I feel, depend on existing networks and on people already inside the in-group. The advantage social media (potentially) offers is the reach, the scope and scale to sell the philosophy and culture of naturism to a far wider audience than can be reached by newsletters alone. Modern social media is why their utility has become limited. I think we’re boxed in. Absent a change in editorial policies on Meta et al we’re condemned to the naught corner. The recent letter from the various national nudist associations was excellently presented but it seems to have sunk without a trace. Barring naturist forums I haven’t heard a peep. This is not to say newsletters aren’t great, I depend on my INA one to keep me informed and up to date - it’s just a different and more limited tool.
When you’re an organization with limited resources, you have to make a choice as to where to put those resources. Given the choice between the two, one is sustainable and direct, another is indirect and uncontrolled. If you can only choose one, the choice is clear. That’s a hypothetical that doesn’t reflect reality. We can choose both. So it’s about how to balance those. Social media can reinforce our newsletters; it doesn’t work the other way around.
Let me add that nudist libraries preserve newsletters--and thus your history for your members to read. If this article persuades you to start up your newsletter again, be sure to send copies to the nudist libraries.
Unfortunately, some so-called newsletters have turned into calendars of events. They're all the same, week after week. Newsletters need news. Newsletters need thought.
Most of the newsletters coming into the libraries these days are electronic. There's nothing wrong with that.
THIS ⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️
Libraries could, you know, subscribe themselves to the newsletters - especially if they are available gratis.
Great essay Evan!
Lately, I've been thinking of that bit in The Sun Also Rises where a character is asked "How do you go bankrupt?" and he responds "Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly."
This seems relevant because I feel like wee've been watching a cultural bankruptcy unfold in America, gradually, then suddenly. We had the first signs back in the 90s when books like Bowling Alone began to identify there was a growing problem with the dissolution of civic institutions, like Elks Lodges and Bowling Leagues, a category which nudist organizations could certainly be included in. This gradual bankruptcy over the past decades became sudden over the past few years, and social played a big part in that, as what I see as method of radically redistributing cultural capital. The older means of acquiring cultural capital, participation in civic or communal life, developing friend groups, joining organizations, were suddenly replaced by a bizarre, lottery-like mechanism where cultural capital became determined by odd, parasocial ideas such as likes and followers. And we find ourselves in the situation we're in now, where a 15 second on the street interview in which a young woman improvises the sound of oral sex can launch an entire mini-industry that includes a podcast and a cryptocurrency. Wherever we are now, it sure as hell isn't Kansas any more.
But that also brings us to the ping-pong ball in a hurricane that community standards have become. The social bankruptcy has also made any kind of agreed on standard impossible, as the point about making oral sex sounds a legitimate path to fame decidedly illustrates. You describe the AANR's marketing as simple, tasteful, and nonsexual, which I agree with, only I'm not sure my agreement really carries much shared meaning nay more. Simple? Apparently that now means slightly changing the font size in corporate logo. Tasteful? Not to keep going back to her, but I don't think forty years ago Hawk Tuah Girl would have been invited to any of the better parties in the Hamptons. Nonsexual? I mean, when dressing up as a squirrel is a sexual thing where do I even begin?
None of this is an objection to your ideas, Evan, which as an old small press guy myself I find just wonderfully tempting. I do love the smell of a mimeograph machine in the morning. It is, however, to say that we need to address the problems we have, not the problems we want to have. And I'm not convinced that reinvesting in direct communication is enough unless the message is one that will address the issues that are slowly strangling organized naturism, and recognizing that they're just another variation on the issues that are slowly strangling all of civilized society. And not that I disagree with the principles behind it, but progressive messaging of the past few years has been focused heavily on "Someone more screwed than you must always come first" instead of what I think could have been a more effective message along the lines of "We're all screwed."
Now that I've brought you down, let me throw in some optimism here. Naturism may be in a unique place among this failing civic organizations to offer an appeal to what there is a demonstrated societal craving for but is in short supply. And offering things that were ion short supply to build community around was a key element to the thriving of those civic organizations in their heyday. Granted, in the case of the Elks Lodge it was usually access to alcohol and pornography when they were much harder to obtain, but the point is that it worked.
What I think that naturism could message as offering is something which has become in even more short supply these days - to be unobserved. To be in a place where continually snapping pictures is discouraged and even forbidden, to be in a place where judgement over appearance is socially taboo, to be in a place where you can be authentic without having to perform authenticity. A place where, in a world where more and more people don't want the world to be like that, the world isn't like that. Which also seems like a good way to start rebuilding community.
I am aware this is a fairly complex set of ideas to have to convey, and to a general audience the concept of "to be naked is to be unobserved" is going to be an interesting one to try and sell. But I do think that selling naturism as a way to escape the panopticon is the germ of a good idea.
Anyway, this was probably way too long and I think I may have wandered from the main point of your article ever so slightly. I should probably have just said "good article" instead of basically hogging the comments as a platform for some ideas which have been brewing in my head for a while now. I'll probably regret this later, but what else is new? So - good article. Let me know if you need some mimeograph-friendly cartoons.
If I could like this more than once I don’t know when I’d stop. Though I would like to again put out a plea that you write an essay or something because your point and your delivery of the point, as expected, are compelling and engaging to read.
Certainly the newsletter won’t be a panacea for the many marketing woes our organizations face, but it will be more effective than the reliance on social media. What messaging goes into those newsletters, perhaps to your point, is another discussion. But one that we can continue to have here.
Mimeograph cartoons sound good! If they’re anything like your Mime cartoons I’m sure I will enjoy them!
"... to be in a place where you can be authentic without having to perform authenticity"
Wow, this is a beautiful way of putting it, and perfectly represents what is most important about naturism for me. We sign the social contract 'I will accept you as you are if you accept me as I am' by doing what many consider the most vulnerable thing a person can do - being nude in front of others.
I agree with your reasoning. Social media has become a cesspool of misinformation and it appears to be taking a hard turn further to the right with stricter and stricter censoring for what they term "Community Standards". Which brings me to the point...WE are a COMMUNITY of Naturists/Nudists. Newsletters and magazines represent OUR community and are aimed at that audience. We, in turn, as community members (the "audience") need to share these newsletters and magazines with our textile friends and families so that they will see and appreciate what the Naturist/Nudist "community" is truly about.
I couldn't agree more with the premise of this article. I also appreaciate the many comments that were already stated, so I won't repeat them here. I personally like the newsletters because I can save them and read them when I feel like it instead of letting things jam up my already jammed up emails. I have 3 years of ANNR Bulletins stored on my computer that I can read when the spirit moves me! But I love being nude and I don't care who knows it! I agree that social media is ruining society. That is why the newsletters from the Western Region of ANNR and ANNR are so fun to read. It really is wholesome entertainment and information. I am glad to have websites like Naturist Hub to connect with other naturists as well! So I hope naturist clubs and organizations will continue with their newsletters.
There's so much here in Evan's essay and the comments to it. But what's lacking is a broader view of the whole "social media" world. Every type of "personal" interaction has pluses and minuses. Even interactions that occur "face to face" anywhere naturists gather have the problem of being ephemeral - unless people carry recording equipment - both aural and visual. There are serious issues with that as well - though it's very rare anyhow.
When "newsletters" were entirely on paper, they either ended up in the trash (perhaps years later) or in libraries or personal archives. Yet they didn't reach the large majority of people who might find them useful.
Electronic media now open up a vastly larger space for naturists (or any other special interest group) to interact. And if they're properly maintained, they can (in principle) outlast even paper records - while also reaching far more people.
They can also offer limited interactions among users in comment sections.
Currently, extant electronic media have all sorts of problems of their own. Almost all of the most "popular" social media mostly stink in some way or other. That includes Facebook (and other products from Meta), Twitter/X, TikTok, etc. These are all commercial products whose primary purpose is to benefit their corporate owners - definitely not their users. (Meta, as of today, has a market value of $1.556 *trillion* - vastly underserved. All based on worthless ads.)
Various other types of social media aren't sufficiently covered in this discussion. Each has its own positives and negatives. Electronic newsletters such as Substack are nice. But they're also commercial products, and certainly vulnerable to the whims of the medium's owners. What is there to stop Substack from censoring newsletters if they consider that in their best (profit) interests?
Blogs are another category, although out of favor in the past few years. They're not immune from censorship (unless operated by individuals on servers they personally own) - but ISPs normally keep their hands off. Blog comments allow readers to interact with each other, but blog owners could do their own censorship - and may have good reasons (to exclude trolls and spammers) for doing so. Blogs can also distribute their work via email - exactly like newsletters. There are also third-party services such as Inoreader that can make blog posts much more conveniently available. (Using the RSS protocol.)
And what about Bluesky (which I, Evan, and thousands of other naturists now use)?
It currently does put certain mild restrictions on naturist nudity - which anyone can choose to bypass. Bluesky is structurally similar to Twitter/X, but with far fewer noxious characteristics. There are also developing protocols that allow users, if they wish, to move their entire content to similar services in what's being called the "Fediverse". That may be the best hope in the near to long term for naturists to interact.
From naturists' point of view, the best may be for naturist organizations themselves to operate electronic communication services - as opposed to printed magazines. British Naturism provides a stellar example. Naturist organizations in other countries may have similar services. Then there are privately managed (but low- or non-profit) services such as ANW ("A Naturist World"). Sadly, for U.S. naturists, AANR doesn't provide something similar. (Are you reading, Linda?) Hopefully, TPTB in AANR are thinking about it. TNSF has monthly 1-hour Zoom sessions, and those are good, but far too infrequent. Wouldn't it be nice if AANR or TNSF made that sort of thing available to any of their members who wanted to arrange conversational sessions?
And then there are the so-called "podcasts". They're not my cup of tea, but seem to have some popularity, despite the drawback of being 1-to-many rather than bi-directional. (Interaction in TNSF Zooms is possible, but very limited by 1-hour duration.)
My apologies for the length of this response, but I've been involved with computer-based communication systems for over 45 years. (Yes, forty-five.) What's surprising is that this type of interpersonal interaction is still not nearly as prevalent and useful as it could be. I think that the domain of "computer-mediated communications" is still in its infancy.
Non sexual nudity is alive and well on X, formerly Twitter.
It also is on Mastodon, Mewe and Bluesky, be it that the first 2 aren't very "alive".
Having spent years working in and volunteering for a nudist library. I can personally vouch for the importance and validity of newsletters, even electronic newsletters. Any social media controlled by Zuckerberg or Musk, oligarchs, is not going to help naturism, their politics and agendas are fundamentally opposed to us. It makes no sense to use them. Even If we tried to use social media to sell and promote naturist philosophy, the algorithm would either block it or misconstrue it. This time might not be the best time for the movement or philosophy to grow. I think our main focus should simply be on protecting, supporting, preserving, and saving what we already have, so that when better times do arrive, and they will, we will still be here to help it grow and flourish. America is essentially becoming like Russia. We know what happened to the naturists and nudists there when Putin and the oligarchs took full control there.
I've been trying to come up with ideas of starting my own newsletter type thing, but one of my biggest failures is having the patience to do proper research and organization... I have ALL THE IDEAS... But none of the practical application. What I am glad of though is the gradual realization that social media, especially since its absolute takeover by egregiously dangerous oligarchy, is not the answer. It can still be a tool... But an extremely limited one that has a growing influence on radicalizing even the nudists among us to be worse and worse people overall.
Would that every naturist organization had its own Planet Nude... We need THIS kind of thing everywhere.
Most of the newsletters that I have subscribed to start strongly but soon fall into a template pattern with less content of interest and then fade into regional obscurity. As someone who has authored newsletters (in a different life), i understand how demanding frustrating and unrewarding they can be.
I accept that the risks of increasingly fragile social media platforms are many and increasing, but I believe that they still have a place.
My solution is to not rely on one or two social media sites, but to spread across many, some free and some paid.
I enjoy the connections and conversations that I have with many naturists from all over the world, and I enjoy exchnging views, stories and experiences.
It has taken some time to build up my network of naturist connections, and I understand that there are risks of losing access to some should one of the social media platforms suddenly cease, but most of the people I enjoy connecting with are also across multiple platforms.
I would sign up to a world wide naturist newsletter or similar project, but I think it is each of our responsibilities to manage our own social networks and connections. Not all naturists are the same or want the same things, and we each need to decide who to connect with and how to curate our own tribes.
I agree. A newsletter should convey news. Social media are news farts and comments, one in every posts. You can't do that with a newsletter, sending out something each time you feel like saying something.
Something I forgot to mention! Existing Greyfriar's Isle comics in four languages (English, French (Quebec), Danish and Dutch) are free to use by naturist newsletters. Or at least that was the intention when I started the comic; my plan was to make printable versions of comics available as a matter of routine. That kind of fell by the wayside, but I will still supply individual comics as hi-res files free of charge if asked.
See.. The problem here is that we have the equivalent of, "Heh, we thought we could have literal conventions in a public space, and it turned out that everyone that provided money, advertising, legal advice, etc. to the convention centers, as well as a small, but very powerful collection of politically influential people, still hate us, so I guess we have to go back to only doing stuff in the basement, where no one can bother us." Yeah, it absolutely sucks that social media is run by all of the above. It sucks more than the riches people on the planet, who could maybe have the money to do something about this are into Nazis and bigots. It sucks that we don't have the money to build our own, or fight back. But.. lets be honest here, if "newsletters" where going to gain public attention, shift things in the favor of social nudity, and change laws in the US they would have already made major inroads to do so.
Hate it, be frustrated by it, despise the people running it, but until we somehow can do to social media what was done to TV - replace it with something that isn't beholden to some clown that says, "We can't show that, not just during regular hours, but at all." In other words, I don't think giving up and giving in is the right path. Because, ultimately, the value, when it works, ironically *because* of those very algorithms that are such a pain in the backside, is that someone who isn't already looking for nudist/naturist content may find it by accident, by recommendation. Sure, if its banned, then they won't, newsletters... unless you are already part of the community, or know to look for it, how are you ever going to come across it? How will you even know if every single resort in a state is closed, one by one, and you missed out? How does anyone, other than word of mouth (and that works so well, right...), ever going to find the community?
I admit to having no freaking idea how to solve it at the moment, especially when the very services doing this BS won't even follow their own plain wording of their own TOS in many cases to do so.
All I can say is.. it would be damn site simpler of these companies where not run by US corporations (or China), but where out of Spain, or France, or something, but its precisely because they are in the US that means it isn't just possible, but imho mandatory that we fight them. Because, its not just nudist that are being banned, shadow banned, etc. from them, especially with them now also all panicking over whether or not the crazy in chief might destroy them if they don't bow to people that also hate nudists, but probably consider us to be the "smaller fish", compared to well.. just about everyone else they also hate.
Its bigger than just us, but we are part of the same fight. But, also.. what I said above about how its far more effective to expand membership by people "stumbling" over something than by desperately hoping they will up and one day decide to look for it.
Also - what other have said, if all the newsletter is comes down to a calendar of events, and a few people talking to each other, instead of the outside world, why would anyone care if they did come across it?
I agree with the premise or this article but the term "newsletter" isn't right. I think most people would interpret that to be a periodic collection of news items and likely in printed form. The distribution of news doesn't have to be done that way anymore. It could also be, like Planet Nude, in a more modern format where each news item exists independently. There is no longer any need for our news feed to be gathered into a collection before it is distributed. That was a limitation previously imposed on us by the cost of printing and postal distribution. Indeed, social media is also a news distribution system. So what you are really talking about is controlling distribution. Many of us gave that up to Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter and we therefore lost control of editorial rules, formating, and the subscriber list. Even Substack which is the "engine" that drives Planet Nude is a private enterprise that could someday decide that your content is no longer appropriate for their business model. But at least substack lets you download the email list of your subscribers. (hopefully you are periodically backing it up) So I agree with you that we need to regain control of naturist news distribution but it doesn't have to be a newsletter.