Quillstack export format
📌 TL;DR / Quick Summary <div style="background: rgba(0,0,0,0.3); border: 1px dashed rgba(255,255,255,0.2); padding: 15px; border-radius: 8px; color: rgba(255,255,255,0.7); margin-bottom: 30px;"> The columns of the subscriber export from 🏢 Quillstack (a fictional platform) and what each one means. Companion to Subscriber growth chart script, written the same Tuesday evening, five days after issue 42, so that I would count readers once a month and not every hour. </div>
🛠️ Instructions / Core Material One row per person who has ever subscribed. A plain file, comma-separated, dates in one format, which after the port data feels like a courtesy.
| Column | What it holds | What I use it for |
|---|---|---|
subscriber_id |
A number | Counting. The script never reads the address column |
email |
The address | Nothing. Dropped on the first line |
subscribed_at |
Date and time they joined | Who was on the list at a month end |
unsubscribed_at |
Date they left, empty if still here | The other half of the same sum |
status |
active, unsubscribed, bounced | Bounced are not readers; they are excluded |
source |
direct, recommendation, import | June: most of the 310 say recommendation |
last_opened_at |
Date of the last open | Looked at once, in July, and not again |
opens_90d |
Opens in the last ninety days | Not used |
plan |
free. There is no other | Nothing, until there is a reason |
Subscribed on a given day means: subscribed_at on or before it, and unsubscribed_at empty or after it, and not bounced.
⚠️ Key Warnings / Constraints
- The export is a list of people. It stays on the laptop, is never pasted into a model, and the script throws the addresses away before doing anything else.
- The dashboard counts bounced addresses and my chart does not, so my number runs a handful lower. The project note uses the month-end figures; I do not reconcile the two.
- Opens are an estimate made by the readers' mail programs. About 50 percent means about.
- The times are in UTC. Issue day is a Thursday in Port Vellan and occasionally a Wednesday in the file.
🔗 Related Entities & Resources
- 🏢 Quillstack: the platform that produces the export
- Subscriber growth chart script: the script that reads these columns once a month
- 📂 Slack in the System - 2025 issues: the project whose month-end figures come from this file