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Sara Rosinsky's avatar

I’ll follow you wherever you go. I hope the decision makers at Substack read this thorough, thoughtful piece.

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

I appreciate the time it took you to put this all together. I definitely agree that a native tipping option (even if the default goes to one's Ko-fi) would be a huge. Medium recently did that, and it might be the one positive change that's happened over the last year.

I'd also like to see bundling become a thing. Substack has previously said they're against it, but never really said why. And to be honest; they get a cut anyway, so it's in their best interest. People generally spend the same amount, so they'll either pay $50 to one author annually, or that same $50 to be split amongst 2-4 writers. The net remains the same.

Regarding chat: I've gone back and forth on whether or not to deploy it. Right now I'm debating adding it as a paid-only perk. But I dunno. I have all the notifications turned off, so I don't use it too often as it is.

Badges suck. I can't say it any better than you already have.

Regarding Substack Go/Grow/Pro- Go was a huge benefit for me personally. For Pro, I'd love to see them offer than sort of program to "middle class" writers on the platform. It's a low-lift investment for Substack, but could be life changing for a writer.

I still find value in Office Hours, but your points are 100% accurate and well taken. And tbh, anyone that "demands" an in-kind subscription, recommendation, etc. rarely gets heard from by me again. If I wanted that, I'd have doubled down on Medium.

I do want to respectfully pushback a little on discovery in general. I seem to be finding more people than ever (and vice versa). I didn't realize they cut it to 25, but I just looked before writing, and there are some newer/smaller names on there.

Same with the benefits of other platforms. I tried Mailchimp and Aweber. I didn't like either. I don't want to fuss with widgets, I just want to write. I recognize that others find value in that sort of thing, but I also have to believe that a lot of writers are in the same boat as me?

I 100% expect Substack to introduce native ads at some point this year. No idea what that'll look like or even how I feel about it, but I can't help but think it's coming.

All of that said, we can tell ourselves that this isn't a social media platform, but it is. It's just one that has a longer tail form to it. Ask writers what they like-or why they stay- and "the people" or a similar answer will usually be in the top 3. That's certainly true in my case.

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