Thank you — Want to join a virtual event?

I'm hosting a mashup of a book club, a 5x15 event, and a powerpoint party as a thank you to supporters.

I was planning to email each person who signed up for a supporting membership to the Roundup with a personal thanks, but then my inbox exploded. It started with the outpouring of support from this community, then my article about tags vs. folders got featured in The Browser, and then I hit the front page of HackerNews. As exciting as this is (front page of HackerNews is literally a dream come true — my husband got to see one of my articles come across his dash organically!!), it also crashed my website and I had to figure out Cloudflare caching on the fly.  

So instead you get a mass email, sorry for the lack of personalization 💚💚

First, some numbers & logistics. About 10% of Roundup subscribers have upgraded to a paid plan, which is about what Substack says is what a "high quality" newsletter can expect. I am very encouraged by this!

To celebrate, I want to do a virtual event — something you might find valuable, but that's also fun and kind of casual. I'm still working out the logistics of whether I'll host it on Zoom or Topia (there are pros and cons to each), but it'll be at 9AM EST on Tuesday, February 1 — exactly one week from the time this email is scheduled to go out.

I'm planning to combine the best parts of a book club, a 5x15 event (5 speakers, 15 minutes each) with a powerpoint party. It'll be called Eleanor's 5x8 — numbers chosen because that's the size of an index card, which feels appropriate. The idea is that everyone will show up with an article they liked and want to share (preferably one you've got notes on), which feels more bite-sized than a traditional book club and we won't all have read the same thing — which can sometimes be a more effective method of collaborative learning.

I'll go first, "whole group" style, and talk for no longer than 8 minutes. Then we'll split off into groups of five (I'll probably bounce around to see how things are going, just like I would in a classroom), share articles in small groups, and then after 40 minutes (or when groups are done) come back to the "main" room to share highlights with the big group.