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We’re the founders of Substack, we just launched an iOS app. AUA

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Re: We’re the founders of Substack, we just launched an iOS app. AUA

#171

Post by scott_paul »

KerrAvon wrote: post #134
hihihihi1234 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a follow-up question to #3. Like the parent post I commend your stance on free speech, but recognise you host some controversial figures that other platforms have been happy to ban. The range of opinion that Big Tech deems permissible seems to be getting narrower and narrower, and as Substack gets bigger it's naturally going to attract more attention, both from those who call for increased censorship, and from…

> The range of opinion that Big Tech deems permissible seems to be getting narrower and narrower I'm not affiliated with Substack, but I'm having difficulty with your premise here. There's literally a Trump app on the App Store right now dedicated to spreading falsehoods about the 2020 presidential election. What opinions is "Big Tech" "censoring" and why should one think there's any validity to your slippery slope a…

Well, for starters Gab is banned from the App Store for their near-absolutist stance on free speech.

More than that is the general culture of suppression of the "wrong" view of reality. Most people who were merely to the right of center moderates in the 00's are now accused of being absolute evil if they voice any opinions. I've been told by well more than a dozen former co-workers that they're afraid to say anything or let anyone at work find out about their political opinions because they're afraid of getting fired & won't be able to feed their families. The suppression and censorship is very real.

One or two exceptional counterexamples do more to prove the rule than to disprove it.

Re: We’re the founders of Substack, we just launched an iOS app. AUA

#173

Post by hihihihi1234 »

KerrAvon wrote: post #134
hihihihi1234 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a follow-up question to #3. Like the parent post I commend your stance on free speech, but recognise you host some controversial figures that other platforms have been happy to ban. The range of opinion that Big Tech deems permissible seems to be getting narrower and narrower, and as Substack gets bigger it's naturally going to attract more attention, both from those who call for increased censorship, and from…

> The range of opinion that Big Tech deems permissible seems to be getting narrower and narrower I'm not affiliated with Substack, but I'm having difficulty with your premise here. There's literally a Trump app on the App Store right now dedicated to spreading falsehoods about the 2020 presidential election. What opinions is "Big Tech" "censoring" and why should one think there's any validity to your slippery slope a…

Parler got booted from everywhere based on alleged connections to Jan 6th that, in my estimation, were very tenuous, no worse than what had been seen on more established platforms, and seemed to me to be little more than a convenient pretext to shut down an upstart competitor. Whatever your take on Parler, the episode was a sobering lesson in just how difficult the big players in this industry can make it to do business if they decide they really want to get rid of you.

Maybe the word "censorship" is too loaded, but the claim that big tech platforms permit a narrower range of expression than they used to is so uncontroversial that it's barely worth defending. That's not always a bad thing; many of the people who've been banned in recent years are noxious pricks whom I don't miss, but what happens when the people who've been banned from Twitter and YouTube, kicked off AWS, terminated by Cloudflare and blocked by Visa and MasterCard decide to start a Substack because its commitment to free speech means it's the only place that will host them? I won't name names but I can think of, for example, a couple of semi-prominent figures who have been banned from other platforms due to their, ahem, "heterodox" views on vaccines, who now write on Substack and reportedly make a very healthy income from doing so. And worse actors might join the platform if they haven't already.

Is it really such a conspiratorial "slippery slope" to suggest that if the people who've been banned from everywhere else grow a huge, lucrative audience on Substack, then Substack is going to come under increasing amounts of pressure to kick them off - pressure far greater than what it's received so far in the face of lesser controversies? What form might this pressure take?

Re: We’re the founders of Substack, we just launched an iOS app. AUA

#174

Post by nelsondev »

meowface wrote: post #160
KerrAvon wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The range of opinion that Big Tech deems permissible seems to be getting narrower and narrower I'm not affiliated with Substack, but I'm having difficulty with your premise here. There's literally a Trump app on the App Store right now dedicated to spreading falsehoods about the 2020 presidential election. What opinions is "Big Tech" "censoring" and why should one think there's any validity to your slippery slope a…

They're probably using Big Tech as a stand-in for Big Social Media Platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter).

Amazon AWS also deplatformed right leaning services.

Re: We’re the founders of Substack, we just launched an iOS app. AUA

#176

Post by stereoradonc »

Substack is a pyramid scheme in terms of "payments" - I am sure they will start up a "search" for the newsletters and then paid advertisements.

To all the HN regulars here - own your medium instead. Own your content. There's no need to stick to yet another VC funded "writing experience". Many potential readers will eventually hit a subscription fatigue. There are several proven strategies to monetise your content (and Substack isn't one of them).

Data export, mailing lists, billing information all belong to a third party who charges you commission to "facilitate". I am sure that commission will increase down the line, and the net effect will be less and less.

Think before you leap into this.

Re: We’re the founders of Substack, we just launched an iOS app. AUA

#177

Post by criddell »

mrfusion wrote: post #166

Have you considered selling an $80/year membership where users could subscribe to up to say 20 blogs and the fee gets distributed to those creators? Or even have an unlimited package.

I would guess the writers would have to opt-in to that. Some newsletters charge $80 each month.

Re: We’re the founders of Substack, we just launched an iOS app. AUA

#178

Post by paxys »

stereoradonc wrote: post #176

Substack is a pyramid scheme in terms of "payments" - I am sure they will start up a "search" for the newsletters and then paid advertisements. To all the HN regulars here - own your medium instead. Own your content. There's no need to stick to yet another VC funded "writing experience". Many potential readers will eventually hit a subscription fatigue. There are several proven strategies to monetise your content (an…

Can you elaborate on that? How is it a pyramid scheme? Do new subscribers have to recruit their friends in order to make money?

Re: We’re the founders of Substack, we just launched an iOS app. AUA

#179

Post by miiiiiike »

ubac wrote: post #108

Hi Hamish -- how much of your success do you attribute to the secret benefits you offer certain writers to prevent them from leaving? And is it sustainable in the long run (or does that not really matter to you?)

Is this a guess? Do you have any evidence of “secret offers”?

Re: We’re the founders of Substack, we just launched an iOS app. AUA

#180

Post by cyberpunk »

aozgaa wrote: post #161
sachinmonga wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As a user I don't mind an app from a technical perspective. It gives me more options! But what are the things the app can do that the web cannot? A simple but important one: being able to get a notification on your phone when a new post lands in your inbox. There are lots of subtle little things around readability, scroll performance, etc. too. There are also a decent number of Podcasts on Substack now, and listeni…

How is this different from getting a notification in gmail?

It has a different logo on it, for.. uhh... a better experience? >_<
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