In the diverse digital world we are living in, getting noticed is given importance by a considerable lot. However, many experience a tumultuous struggle despite possessing talent and art. At such a time, Scriggler has created a platform for long form self-expression and debate. Mr Dmitry Selemir, Scriggler’s CEO, interacted with Spectralhues about the central idea behind the platform, the unique services it offers, its policy, significance and journey so-far.
Beginning with the interview, my first question for you is, what was in your mind while you planned to start a platform, as terrific as Scriggler?
Ah, thank you for the compliment there, very kind of you. Scriggler has been in planning for a long time. The central idea was to create a much more meaningful version of a social network dedicated to long form self expression and debate. It is a place where anyone can write on any topic in any level of detail. There are no taboo subjects and no political flavour to the whole platform. We offer a place where anyone is able to find an audience that is right for them and in the process get exposed to other ideas, views and cultures.
All of the existing platforms are mainly focused on giving contributors a nice looking environment and easy way of connecting with their existing friends (or fans), but they do little in the way of helping find new people who might be interested in what you have to say. This is the primary goal of Scriggler – we believe everyone has an audience out there, someone who is looking for exactly this type of content and we are building effective ways of connecting them.
Is there anything that propelled you to start Scriggler or did it come up just casually?
The final inspiration that solidified my decision to really start working on it came from my experience with Soundcloud. In many ways we can be seen as Soundcloud for the written word – there are certain similarities in the way the platform is organised, its business model, its ability to help artists (and in our case writers) reach out to a wider audience. There are significant differences, of course, yet their success was in a way an extra validation of my idea.
What new does Scriggler offer in an era where there are a numerous other sites providing a platform for writers and bloggers?
Everything about Scriggler is new, what we offer is fairly unique. A Majority of websites for writers and bloggers concentrate on either providing a silo-like space where they can keep their profile, or they deal with book listings and promotion or they offer advice and support on the writing process itself.
What Scriggler brings is a combination of blogging platform and social network and it’s not just a regular social network. If we look at all the major players in the social networking space – they are all based on existing social circle being transferred online. Twitter is an exception from that rule to an extend, however – it takes a very long time for a majority of new users to build their audience and until that happens – it is virtually impossible to get anywhere.
What Scriggler brings is a flat structure, where all publications go into the same pool. We even go away from the traditional strict timeline approach as for the majority of publications on Scriggler – time of publication is not so relevant. A great story or a poem or even an essay can be just as relevant in a few years as it is now. We have a lot of tools and algorithms sitting on top of that pool, helping readers navigate through all the information and find what is relevant to them. For some of it they have to take a very active approach, some will happen behind the scenes. In addition we actively promote our members’ publications on social media and provide additional opportunities for promotion they can do themselves. After all, we believe that the best advertisement for us is our members and the success of their work.
How has Scriggler’s journey been so-far?
It’s been a lot of fun. I was pleasantly surprised by the sheer quality of all the publications coming to the website and the people themselves have been an absolute pleasure to deal with. Until recently I made a point of reading all publications coming our way, and it was certainly a luxury, I really enjoyed it. Our growth has picked up significantly in the last two months – partly because of our growing reputation and partly because of improved outreach strategies we have implemented. We’ve had more new members joining in the last two months than in the previous year. Unfortunately, that means I am no longer able to keep up with my to read list, but in a way – that is a nice problem to have, I am not going to complain (smiles).
Are there any offensive or abusive write-ups you have come across, on Scriggler?
There is a real communal spirit on Scriggler, I haven’t come across anything inappropriate or particularly rude. I certainly do not agree with everything that is being published, but this is precisely what we had in mind when we were still in the planning stages – a place where all opinions matter and everyone has a voice. As we grow this will become more of a problem, but we believe the mechanisms we already have in place will help us deal with it.
What policy is Scriggler following?
I suppose I could say that our policy is precisely – no official policy. Let the people decide. Having said that – we do urge people to be civil in their dealings on the platform.
How important do you think a platform like Scriggler is, in today’s diverse digital world, where many struggle to get noticed?
Well.. You hit the nail on the head there. Getting noticed is extremely difficult. Let’s take publishing as an example. The landscape of the publishing industry is changing rapidly, yet the industry itself has been very slow on the uptake. In a way the impact of digital revolution made a much more significant impact on the music industry and it was forced to move quicker. Publishing, while facing a similar problem is lagging behind as the problems didn’t manifest themselves nearly as much, but things are changing. The main problem is – whether you are a self published author or have a contract with a big five publisher – largely promotion of your books is left to you. Particularly if you are a debut author.
No one will be prepared to take that extra risk and put big advertising dollars behind you. Increasingly successful authors are engaging expensive PR companies to help them run the promotional drive. There are also anecdotal cases of authors making significantly more money from self published books than from the ones done with a publisher, simply because they get to keep more of the proceeds. The ability to sell your books is now becoming just as important if not more important than the books themselves.
Arguably for the majority of writers this is an alien territory and they really don’t feel comfortable with this state of affairs. What we are striving to achieve is create an environment where authors can help each other – by sharing their influence and their audiences. Rather than sitting in a silo, with their blog and social media profiles left for them to develop and promote – we are giving them a much more communal space designed precisely to give them as much ongoing visibility as possible. We help them climb that most difficult first step of the ladder and give them the opportunity to spend less time poking in the dark, trying to figure out how to promote themselves and more time writing and creating the content around their books.
It’s great for readers too, since they can come to Scriggler and get a real taste of the writing style, flare and ideas each writer has and if makes sense – engage with them on a more personal level. We give them all the tools they need to find just the right content, both requiring their active involvement and working behind the scenes.
Mr Dmitry Selemir, CEO, Scriggler.com
What is the significance of such a medium at a time when there are attempts to muzzle up the freedom of speech and expression?
To be realistic – no platform can really help with freedom of speech and expression. On the one hand – this is precisely what we are all about, on the other – these days it is relatively easy for authorities to keep track of what is being said and discussed all across social media and at times they can act on this information and block or shutdown resources they are uncomfortable with and pursue the people who are contributing to the discussion. Having said that — there is a very important role that we can play. News outlets generally add a significant cultural, national, religious and political flavour to the way they discuss and report events. We rarely get to see the other side of the argument. This is where today’s media is largely failing. Perhaps having a discussion forum where a number of people from all sides of the story can come and make their point could provide a much more balanced perspective.
Trolls and abuse is something sickening when it comes the social media. How do you deal with such problems on Scriggler?
So far we haven’t had to deal with trolls or abuse of any kind. There was one particular case when we were asked to remove an article from the site, as the person mentioned there was unhappy about it, however, it was removed by the author before we even had the chance to look at it properly. Having said that, we have thought about potential abuse quite a lot and at a very early stage. There are a couple of things that I think help us prevent it even before it happens. On Scriggler – there is no official moderation as such. The whole community of the website plays that part. For that we introduced a point system – we call those points “Scriggles” (of course!).
People receive points for positive interactions – publications views, leaving or receiving comments, likes, re-shares. Scriggles also get taken away for negative interactions – i.e. dislikes or black cards. The overall Scriggles of each publication and each contributor impact their visibility on the website. Mind you – this isn’t just the case of people with the most Scriggles being always at the top. This makes people value their online personae on Scriggler a little more.
After all, they come to Scriggler to find more readers and they know that by being disruptive, rude or abusive, they will most certainly hinder their chance of building any kind of audience. We also ask people to use their real names. This isn’t a hard rule – we have no way of checking if they are real, however – most people do use their proper names on the platform and it means it is less impersonal that on the majority of other sites. This too means people conduct themselves in a much more responsible manner.
Now that Scriggler is on its route to attain popularity, what plans do you have for the coming future?
This is a super exciting time for us. The growth of the platform has really picked up in the last couple of months and it makes the platform that much more interesting. There are more publications, more variety, more comments, people are becoming a lot more engaged and it’s really fun to see. Of course we are nowhere near the level we want to achieve and that means we have our work cut out in the next few months and years. There are plans on new features, new capabilities for our authors, more tools and ways for them to connect with their readers. We also want to enhance the support and advice available on Scriggler and will be looking into creating a member vetted directory of relevant services available to writers – on demand printing, illustration, cover design, editing, proofreading services, influential reviewers, agents, independent bookshops etc. etc..
Our biggest task in the coming months would be to secure additional funding. So far Scriggler has been driven by sweat, tears and resources poured in by the two founders. We are keen on keeping the basic service we provide free and we also want to keep it entirely free from advertising. This means the introduction of additional, premium services and we do have plans for these two. Attracting external investors, however will speed up that process significantly and will help us increase the scope and effectiveness of our outreach program.
Is there anything you would like to tell our readers?
Come, join us and let’s shape the publishing and media world of the future. These are really exciting times for the industry – perhaps not for established players, but for those with the new ideas and the courage to be open minded and to give new things the benefit of a doubt. If that’s you – we would love to welcome you on Scriggler.
Thank you so much for interacting with us, sir!
Tags: ceo Dmitry Selemir Scriggler
