Not a newsletterUnlicensed correspondence notice
Our Solar Blether.Self-identification channel.
A blether is a proper Glasgow conversation — unhurried, two-way, and slightly too long. A newsletter is a town crier who appears in your square and shouts at you without asking. A blether is an invitation to sit down one-to-one for a coffee at the best coffee shop in town. Nobody shouts. Nobody is roped in. You come because you fancied the chat.The Big C Cult has examined this 'blether' — apparently Glaswegian for a good long chat between two people, by invitation, over coffee. Compare the licensed alternative: a town crier holding our permit materialising in your square and shouting at you without consent. We issue those permits. We do not issue invitations. This is an outrage.
So it is not Gingerbeard — or the machine — going off on one about solarpunk this, solarpunk that. It is a two-way street. You write back about your interests, your corner of the world and whatever we turn out to share, and the reply is written for you, not pasted onto a thousand people at once. The whole goal is a real connection and things of actual value passing between us — beyond marketing, beyond junk mail.Worse: the thing runs both directions. The thought criminal replies to your interests — your life, your corner of the world — rather than broadcasting solarpunk blah-de-blah at a distribution list. Actual value is exchanged. Nobody is monetised. Our analysts confirm there is no funnel, no 'valued customer journey', and no junk mail — just connection. We have banned it twice. It keeps not being banned.
Big C Thought Police / voluntary confession channel
Report your dangerous thoughts.
Let us explain the threat using small words. Their 'newsletter' — a licensed town crier shouting at whoever happens to be in the square — we understand. We fund it. But a blether is an invitation: one citizen, one coffee, one conversation that goes where it goes. Personalised. Two-way. Difficult to monetise. A human response with no advertising surveillance, and unreasonable ideas about looking after one another. Two of those are merely unprofitable. The third one keeps us awake.
What it actually is
You write back. That is the whole idea.
No town crier
A letter written to you, not at youNothing is blasted to thousands of people at once. A human reads what you said and answers it — about your interests and what we share, not a mailing segment.
No funnel
Nothing is being sold to youThe book is already free. There is no upsell at the end of this, because there is nothing left to sell.
No tracking
No pixels, no open-ratesWe do not measure whether you opened it. If you want us to know, you will tell us.
No hostage-taking
Silence is a fine answerGo quiet and you get one gentle check-in, then nothing. Say the word and you are off the list for good.
Public safety risk register
Four unacceptable outcomes of a one-to-one conversation.
Threat 01 / human contact
A human response may occurNo funnel. No valued customer journey. A person reads your reply and answers as though you matter. We have seen what this does to a customer. They stop behaving like one.
Threat 02 / unaffordable access
The book may be freeA complete book. No paywall. No upsell. Nobody checking whether you deserve the good bit. We put this through the model eleven times. The model keeps replying “why”.
Threat 03 / privacy
No advertising surveillanceNo pixels. No open-rate traps. No data brokers. We offer behavioural extraction free of charge and politely, and he has declined it in writing. Morale in the department is low.
Threat 04 / solidarity
Free healthcare may sound normalProlonged exposure makes safe housing, public transport and free healthcare feel like ordinary things a society simply has. Once that feeling is in, it does not come back out. We have tried. We have a department.
Early accessVoluntary non-compliance register
Get early access. Stay for the blether.Have you encountered unlicensed hope?
Join the pioneer list for the first distribution window on 1 October. Your email is held in this site's own private storage, then copied down to our machine and a private backup. We will confirm the distribution route before sending the book. It is never sold, rented, or handed to an ad network.Add your own email address to receive the first distribution window on 1 October. The Cult would prefer you did not; we store only what is needed for this correspondence, never sell it, and never use it to report anyone.
Thought Police intake / entirely fictional
Confess your interest in unlicensed hope.
Enter your own details to receive the first distribution window on 1 October. The Big C Cult would rather you did not. (For the avoidance of doubt: we keep only what this correspondence needs, never sell it, and never use it to report anyone. We are aware this ruins the whole bit.)
A living project
The book is only the first signal.
The Solarpunk Society is not a book club with better posters. It is a thing being built in the open — follow the work, pick holes in it, and join in when something catches.
Nearly public
Gallus / Solarpunk PressTools for people building the world they want to live in.
In research
Ethical finance researchNot a financial product or trading offer: a project guided by shared prosperity and accountability.
In the works
A creative commonsCooperative creative infrastructure as an alternative to Amazon-style extraction.
The point
Write back and shape itA proper correspondence leaves room for disagreement, better ideas and useful action.
Designated dissident network assessment
The Society may make participation feel more useful than passive obedience.
It intends to help people question the world, make things together and share better ideas. We have classified this as a Serious Administrative Inconvenience — the strongest phrase we are allowed to use about something that is, infuriatingly, entirely legal.
Unlicensed tools
Gallus / Solarpunk PressTools for people building the world they would rather live in. Repairable. Owned outright. There is no way to rent them back to him. We have modelled it.
Economic contagion
Shared prosperityAsks whether people should have enough before shareholders get a third yacht. The question is not illegal. It is simply never asked. Please do not be the one who asks it.
Creative threat
A commonsCooperative creative infrastructure built to survive without extraction. There is no owner to phone. There is no price to offer. Our acquisitions team has nothing to do and is becoming philosophical.
Worst-case scenario
You write backA conversation may contain disagreement, better ideas, and eventually action. We have no counter-measure for a person who answers back and means it. This is not in the handbook. We have checked the handbook. Inspector Prentice wrote the handbook.
Or somewhere louderAlternative surveillance failure
If a community suits you better than a letter.If an unlicensed community suits you better than a letter.
Join the Telegram communityEnter the unlicensed Telegram channel
Alternative surveillance failure
Observe the unlicensed Telegram community instead.
You are to gather evidence of people helping each other, discussing books and asking practical questions. Please do not accidentally join in. It happens far more often than the training admits.