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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

#201

Post by Lascaille »

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…

No post body was provided.

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

#202

Post by Mavvie »

nelsondev wrote: post #174
meowface wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yes, but not because they were right leaning. According to them, it was due to the lack of moderation and dangerous content being hosted.

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

#203

Post by syshum »

cgati wrote: post #197
syshum wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not know enough about substack to comment here but to claim medium is some vestige of virtue in the space is laughable if you want to "own your content" self host, do not use any of these platforms.

I think you'll find you misread the post you're replying to and you're in agreement on owning your content.

You are correct, I read that as "Medium" the blogging platform that is a competitor to substack...

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

#204

Post by ellegriffin »

alisonatwork wrote: post #198

Are there any plans to allow readers/subscribers to decouple identities between different newsletters? Or, asked a different way, will the app allow you to "subscribe" to newsletters anonymously? I find myself very reluctant to sign up for new newsletters on Substack now because my identity is shared across all newsletters, so I feel I can no longer keep my interests separated. To be clear: after commenting on one ne…

Honestly, I hope this doesn't change. As an author, I think the reason why the comments section of my newsletter is such a positive place is because all of the commenters are doxed and have a profile. In addition, that's how I find other writers to follow—you can see who follows what and follow that thread which is nice.

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

#205

Post by atlantas »

paxys wrote: post #178
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?

If it involves money and it's something you don't like, you call it a pyramid scheme. Twitter discourse 101!

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

#206

Post by gnicholas »

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…

I don't know how the fees stack up (no pun intended), but I assume Substack charges some amount more than if you used Stripe or some other payment processor to manage subscription/donations. In exchange, you get (1) some amount of discoverability and (2) marginally lower friction for users to signup (people aren't as worried that you're going to defraud them if they enter their CC details, and if they already have an account they just click subscribe). I think they also help defend authors WRT free speech and other legal issues, but I don't know the status of this.

It seems like this would be a cost-benefit analysis for each writer. For technical writers who can spin up their own blog and add Stripe subscription billing, it might not make sense. But for writers who are technically not savvy, or who write things that could benefit from journalistic legal protections, it might make more sense. I don't get the sense that the amount they charge is so high that it wouldn't be a reasonable option for anyone.

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

#207

Post by dasyatidprime »

hihihihi1234 wrote: post #173
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…

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 busin…

A scenario much like what you describe has sometimes been discussed by someone who did wind up moving their writing efforts to Substack later on:

> HL Mencken once said that “the trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one’s time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.”

> There’s an unfortunate corollary to this, which is that if you try to create a libertarian paradise, you will attract three deeply virtuous people with a strong committment to the principle of universal freedom, plus millions of scoundrels. Declare that you’re going to stop holding witch hunts, and your coalition is certain to include more than its share of witches.

> So while some small percent of Reddit’s average users moved over, a very large percent of its witches did. Sometimes the witchcraft was nothing worse than questioning Reddit’s political consensus. Other times, it was harassment, hate groups, and creepy porn.

https://slatestarcodex.com/2015/07/22/freedom-on-the-central...

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

#208

Post by skybrian »

throwaway158497 wrote: post #188

When are you implementing a login wall like medium.com? I believe any user generated content must not be hidden behind a login wall, unless (of course) the user wants. Unfortunately, I believe that is what you will be doing soon, just because all other companies have done the same.

Authors can already make whichever posts subscriber-only they want. Also, sometimes comments are subscriber-only.

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

#209

Post by ellegriffin »

sachinmonga wrote: post #90
cgb223 wrote: post #30

Hi Chris, Hamish, Jairaj, and Sachin! I'm a huge fan of your platform, and love that its empowered some of my favorite journalists and other others to write freely while continuing to be able to provide for themselves. One question I have is as a small time blogger, I currently use Medium as my platform. The reason I do so is because it has an audience baked in, so I'm easily(-ish) able to attract new readers to my b…

To answer your question a bit more specifically, one thing that's starting to work as a nice discovery loop in the app is being able to tap on a commenter's profile and see what other Substacks that person is subscribed to. Reader profiles existed before the app, but since comments don't render in emails (but do in the app), this discovery loop was pretty constrained. We have some other exciting ideas in the works fo…

Yes exactly. There's this red thread you can follow through the platform. My favorite kind of discovery!
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