A warning shot from ChatGPT about securing your email list
And the best way to do it
In this post, I’m following up on my October article about newly emerging censorship-resistant services. If you or your organization has an email list (or want to build one), this article is for you.
Email lists are the lifeblood of every online business and non-profit. That’s why nasty companies like MailChimp will lock you out of your account if they don’t like your message. The whole point is to destroy organizations they disagree with.
Any informed consent non-profit (such as CHD, NVIC, etc) and freedom-businesses (like VaxCalc) are at risk. Even small informed consent email lists are at risk.
And now that AI is taking center stage, there are going to be an increasing number of AI-driven account shutdowns. The time to plan for this is now.
I played around with ChatGPT and can tell you that it’s just like WikiPedia in that it reinforces the establishment views: the CDC is highly trusted, Dr Fauci is highly respected, the Covid vaccine is rigorously-tested, vaccines are safe and effective.
Here’s a little conversation I had with ChatGPT.
Dissenting views must stay away from AI-based platforms as much as possible.
Back to Substack.
Substack provides an excellent platform for authors, but it isn’t an email list platform. For example, you can’t create autoresponder campaigns with Substack.
If you need an email list provider that you can trust, I give my strongest recommendation to BerserkerMail. VaxCalc has been with them for a few months and I’m very pleased with how easy they are to use and their proven values.
I mean, it doesn’t get any better than this on their sales page:
BerserkerMail’s founders find the big tech de-platforming shtick as revolting as it is stupid. They don’t care if you are a Republican. They don’t care if you believe vaccines are the devil. And they don’t care if you believe a secret cabal of billionaires want to de-populate the world. They hate the thought police, despise big tech fascism, and have nothing but contempt for cancel culture.
I can confirm that all this is true.
It’s even better than that. They will send you weekly emails with a link to remind you to backup your list. Just click the link and download your list.
Now that sounds simple and like it’s not really a big deal. But it’s huge when you consider that just about every tech platform tries to keep you by making it hard to leave and inconvenient to get the data you own (such as your email list).
I’m also very happy with their support. Have you ever tried getting help from MailChimp?
Besides their freedom-stance, what I love most is their simplicity. They aren’t competing with bells and whistles. The platform is meant for serious emailers who email a lot. You aren’t going to be able to send out an email that looks like a newsletter. This is really for straight-forward email writing.
I will be phasing out this Substack soon, and would love to have you come along for the ride on our next adventure. You can sign up here: https://vaxcalc.berserkermail.com/Join-Vx-List
(Before you check out that link, keep in mind that while VaxCalc has its roots in the non-profit world, we are going all out freedom-business — so there will be a lot more marketing emails, postcard campaigns and offers. This might not be your thing. It’s just that I strongly believe that business needs to be in this fight, too.)
Now don’t get me wrong. I think Substack is great. It’s just that BerserkerMail gives me everything I need such as an API to integrate with VaxCalc and a way to integrate with the upcoming VaxCalc app for iPhone/iPad/Android. Substack just isn’t meant for that.
I love BerserkerMail so much that I’ve done something that I’ve never done ever before: joined an affiliate program. Yep, VaxCalc is an official affiliate of BerserkerMail. Why? Because freedom-businesses need to support other freedom-businesses. And good affiliate programs make it easy to measure your success at doing this.
If you support that, try out BerserkerMail here: https://app.berserkermail.com/signup?ref=chrisdowney2
If this ruffles your feathers, then bypass my affiliate link but check them out anyway if you need a trustworthy email list service: https://berserkermail.com/
All my best,
—Chris