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.
As someone who just joined Substack, I have a unique perspective of all of this. All your points made total sense and helped me understand how things work around here even more.
You know from our conversation that I feel similarly about a number of these critiques. The two that matter most to me? The limitations placed on Discovery and the badges (points 4, 5, and 6).
If I think about this from Substack's perspective, these two decisions are clearly meant to increase revenue (which is ultimately the reason Substack exists). I get it. The company wants to highlight the most popular writers because they are the accounts making the company the most money. But I think this is short-sighted and off-brand.
The platform's intention to "make writers money," has turned into "make established writers more money." By making obscure newsletters more difficult to find, Substack is forcing us off the platform to build our audiences, something they claim to not want to do (https://on.substack.com/p/growth). I honestly wouldn't mind opting into a walled garden if it was self-sustainable. But the recent changes mentioned above have made it less so.
You make some good points Nikhil. I've also been considering ghost. As one of the writers who has never turned on paid I definitely feel like I'm excess to Substack's requirements. Couldn't even get a retweet or a like out of them on twitter, even though I was promoting them to the 117 Russian bots that follow me. I am thinking of going paid next year and just wondering if it is best to stay or go. I do like the simplicity of it but I'd like to do a 6 month season of 6 great "episodes" but there is no real option to do that. I'll see how Substack progresses but the Twitterfication of Substack is a bit off putting. Good on you for putting all this out here. You should stick it up on office hours.
Hi Nikhil, thanks for sharing, all of these sound like gripes I also have with the platform. I'm not too fond of it becoming too much like a social network, and a rather insular one a that.
Ultimately, I don't want my readers to think of my blog/newsletter as a Stack, but more as my own thing.
Although at this point, I just want to focus on writing more good stuff and potentially migrating to a different system and domain in the future.
The first four points I agree with wholeheartedly and I think they’re undermining the “mission.” After that, I’m neither here nor there--perhaps I’m just not as impacted.
I'm considering Ghost as well. I'm thankful that I ponied up to unlock the custom domain feature early on in my newsletter so it would be easy to direct people away from Substack and onto my own site.
Thanks for clearly articulating your concerns. You are telling it like it is, and I for one appreciate the honesty and courage that it takes to stand up for yourself and others. I think that for me the issue is simply that Substack over promised and under delivered, which naturally causes some disappointment and disillusionment. But if you forget about all the promises, the overt cronyism that means some writers get officially promoted repeatedly, the burying of smaller publications with lopsided “discovery” tools and divisive status badges, etc. and just see Substack as a place to post/bulk email for free (and perhaps build an audience), then it works for that and it is pretty nice. Fewer expectations means greater satisfaction 🤗
I’ll follow you wherever you go. I hope the decision makers at Substack read this thorough, thoughtful piece.
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.
As someone who just joined Substack, I have a unique perspective of all of this. All your points made total sense and helped me understand how things work around here even more.
You know from our conversation that I feel similarly about a number of these critiques. The two that matter most to me? The limitations placed on Discovery and the badges (points 4, 5, and 6).
If I think about this from Substack's perspective, these two decisions are clearly meant to increase revenue (which is ultimately the reason Substack exists). I get it. The company wants to highlight the most popular writers because they are the accounts making the company the most money. But I think this is short-sighted and off-brand.
The platform's intention to "make writers money," has turned into "make established writers more money." By making obscure newsletters more difficult to find, Substack is forcing us off the platform to build our audiences, something they claim to not want to do (https://on.substack.com/p/growth). I honestly wouldn't mind opting into a walled garden if it was self-sustainable. But the recent changes mentioned above have made it less so.
You make some good points Nikhil. I've also been considering ghost. As one of the writers who has never turned on paid I definitely feel like I'm excess to Substack's requirements. Couldn't even get a retweet or a like out of them on twitter, even though I was promoting them to the 117 Russian bots that follow me. I am thinking of going paid next year and just wondering if it is best to stay or go. I do like the simplicity of it but I'd like to do a 6 month season of 6 great "episodes" but there is no real option to do that. I'll see how Substack progresses but the Twitterfication of Substack is a bit off putting. Good on you for putting all this out here. You should stick it up on office hours.
Hi Nikhil, thanks for sharing, all of these sound like gripes I also have with the platform. I'm not too fond of it becoming too much like a social network, and a rather insular one a that.
Ultimately, I don't want my readers to think of my blog/newsletter as a Stack, but more as my own thing.
Although at this point, I just want to focus on writing more good stuff and potentially migrating to a different system and domain in the future.
The first four points I agree with wholeheartedly and I think they’re undermining the “mission.” After that, I’m neither here nor there--perhaps I’m just not as impacted.
I'm considering Ghost as well. I'm thankful that I ponied up to unlock the custom domain feature early on in my newsletter so it would be easy to direct people away from Substack and onto my own site.
so much here to contemplate - thank you for laying it out so clearly for us fellow writers! subscribed, excited to read more from you!
i also write music musings on my newsletter, FRESH! let me know what you think:
https://www.freshbywing.com/
Thanks for clearly articulating your concerns. You are telling it like it is, and I for one appreciate the honesty and courage that it takes to stand up for yourself and others. I think that for me the issue is simply that Substack over promised and under delivered, which naturally causes some disappointment and disillusionment. But if you forget about all the promises, the overt cronyism that means some writers get officially promoted repeatedly, the burying of smaller publications with lopsided “discovery” tools and divisive status badges, etc. and just see Substack as a place to post/bulk email for free (and perhaps build an audience), then it works for that and it is pretty nice. Fewer expectations means greater satisfaction 🤗