I admit I was dismayed when I logged in after lent, to find fifty or so "notices" waiting for me, all to inform me about the new Substack twitter-clone feature... barely a week after I had deleted my twitter account because I found, on the balance, that it was a drag on my life and well-being.
"Finally: A space where I can use my reader's time less carefully"
Hah. When I first saw that new Notes thing, I thought: "really? MORE emails, for smaller stuff?", which was greeted by a flood of mails saying "Yo, you won't believe it, but I'm on Notes, too!"
I kept my trap shut until now, not wanting to be the negative guy again, but ... I'm still skeptical as to whether that thing is such a great idea :D
Now seeing you refer to it as Twitter replacement in another comment... I feel flight reflexes tingling
I think I learn younger than other writers on Substack, and yet even I'm feeling my curmudgeon side coming out. I'm extremely concerned that people will just read whatever gets posted in a note rather than the article or link and just get information from there instead. Substack used to be antithetical to the short-form model that social media has taken since it allowed greater room for provided more context and information. Now, we may just have people going back to reading headlines and pontificating based on that once again.
I think the biggest crux will be whether Notes actually translates into more readers.
I'm still trying to understand Notes. I can see posting things there that point potential readers back to the blogs, but if the content itself shifts from the blogs to Notes, what becomes of paid subscriptions?
I see that there is a "Subscribed" filter button for Notes, and I would hope that it picks up all notes from subscriptions, but I depend on subscription emails to identify what to read and and in what order, giving priority to paid subscriptions, taking advantage of features of my IMAP email client, and often using it to read offline. With Notes, no emails.
I don't think it's meant to change how the newsletter part works, except perhaps for feeds that were already using newsletters for trivial content. Otherwise it's just a twitter replacement with an integrated user base, as far as I see it. Gettr didn't work for me because it was a totally different ecosystem. Notes is both easier and exciting in that it blends the establishment writers of substack with us crazies.
I can certainly see it as a way to reach out "through the algorithm", and I plan to try that. That assumes that there will be plenty of people out there scrolling through their bottomless Notes feeds to see what's new, and/or that search engines will pick up Notes. I think that is or will be a valid assumption, but I will not be one of the scrollers! Too old, and life's too short.
Twitter transitioned to algorithmic feed organization eight-ish years ago and I assume notes (like all other imitators) intends to go the same way. Whatever the capricious flaws of the algorithm that determines which notes get staying power, and the horrible incentivizing of self-retweeting, it reduces the scrolling down for the reader.
I admit I was dismayed when I logged in after lent, to find fifty or so "notices" waiting for me, all to inform me about the new Substack twitter-clone feature... barely a week after I had deleted my twitter account because I found, on the balance, that it was a drag on my life and well-being.
"Finally: A space where I can use my reader's time less carefully"
Hah. When I first saw that new Notes thing, I thought: "really? MORE emails, for smaller stuff?", which was greeted by a flood of mails saying "Yo, you won't believe it, but I'm on Notes, too!"
I kept my trap shut until now, not wanting to be the negative guy again, but ... I'm still skeptical as to whether that thing is such a great idea :D
Now seeing you refer to it as Twitter replacement in another comment... I feel flight reflexes tingling
I think I learn younger than other writers on Substack, and yet even I'm feeling my curmudgeon side coming out. I'm extremely concerned that people will just read whatever gets posted in a note rather than the article or link and just get information from there instead. Substack used to be antithetical to the short-form model that social media has taken since it allowed greater room for provided more context and information. Now, we may just have people going back to reading headlines and pontificating based on that once again.
I think the biggest crux will be whether Notes actually translates into more readers.
I'm still trying to understand Notes. I can see posting things there that point potential readers back to the blogs, but if the content itself shifts from the blogs to Notes, what becomes of paid subscriptions?
I see that there is a "Subscribed" filter button for Notes, and I would hope that it picks up all notes from subscriptions, but I depend on subscription emails to identify what to read and and in what order, giving priority to paid subscriptions, taking advantage of features of my IMAP email client, and often using it to read offline. With Notes, no emails.
As for there being less to write about,
1) Good. Glad for that change.
2) Just wait a little while. There's more coming.
I don't think it's meant to change how the newsletter part works, except perhaps for feeds that were already using newsletters for trivial content. Otherwise it's just a twitter replacement with an integrated user base, as far as I see it. Gettr didn't work for me because it was a totally different ecosystem. Notes is both easier and exciting in that it blends the establishment writers of substack with us crazies.
I can certainly see it as a way to reach out "through the algorithm", and I plan to try that. That assumes that there will be plenty of people out there scrolling through their bottomless Notes feeds to see what's new, and/or that search engines will pick up Notes. I think that is or will be a valid assumption, but I will not be one of the scrollers! Too old, and life's too short.
Twitter transitioned to algorithmic feed organization eight-ish years ago and I assume notes (like all other imitators) intends to go the same way. Whatever the capricious flaws of the algorithm that determines which notes get staying power, and the horrible incentivizing of self-retweeting, it reduces the scrolling down for the reader.
That subtitle speaks to what I was thinking! Ok now back to read your actual article.
Thanks for writing.