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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

#241

Post by throwaway158497 »

skybrian wrote: post #208
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.

Thats not the point of my question. Substack can say something like medium does. "You can view five posts for free and then you should login to read more"

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

#242

Post by epicureanideal »

svnt wrote: post #223
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…

My question is who is starting the Signal equivalent of Substack? You know, for when these guys stop loss-leading, fuck everyone over and start monetizing.

Is that what Ghost.org is?

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

#243

Post by arthurofbabylon »

cjbest wrote: post #54
klabb3 wrote: post #32

A popular sentiment on HN is "don't make an app when you can just have a web page". Reading articles is an an almost perfect fit for the web. What are your reasons for having an app?

Reading articles may be an almost perfect fit for web, but we see a really clear pattern among the 70% of our users that read in mobile: they discover stuff to read on the web through links that get shared, but once they sign up they overwhelmingly read in their email client. Email is actually pretty great for this, and email is especially powerful for giving writers direct connection to their readers. But there are…

By "read in their email client" (presumably on mobile) I will assume that people view but do not read. Attention spans on mobile are atrocious (notably, the fulcrum is screen size having a neurological impact on ability to pay attention - this is a biological fact) – very little real reading takes place.

I can imagine Substack is more of an "aspires to read X" platform than a place for actually reading X. This argument is anecdotally supported by the sensationalism of popular pieces I see go viral, the payment system (it is always easier to quickly monetize aspiration than behavior), and its reliance on growth through virtue-signaling (eg twitter).

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

#244

Post by yucky »

micromacrofoot wrote: post #124
rileymat2 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To clarify, for the good of the user or for their own purposes?

definitely their own purposes; show me a company that makes an app that tracks users less than the web alternative

There are actually quite a few, namely companion apps that are purpose built.

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

#245

Post by pingsl »

I have accounts on Medium and Substack.

In the beginning, I posted blogs on Medium, and I sent out newsletters on Substack.

Then Medium started to provide email subscriptions.

Now Substack has a mobile app.

I need to rethink my content strategy going forward...

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

#247

Post by blisterpeanuts »

krapp wrote: post #230
BurningFrog wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Feels weird to have to say this, but Trump is the leading candidate to become US president in 2024, not some fringe extremist.

Trump was always going to be the leading candidate. He could have won a second term if not for his fumbling over COVID and his meltdown over secret commies stealing his votes. No one was ever going to vote for Biden twice, the left only hates him less than they hate Trump and half the country never stopped drinking the Trump Kool-Aid. You can't beat a man who has a cult and started a revolution with... whatever the h…

Are you saying Trump could have won in 2020? I think the pandemic killed his presidency... it's like 1932 when Herbert Hoover got voted out because of the Great Depression, regardless of whose fault it was.

It was that, and mail-in balloting and dropboxes, which the Democrats used to great advantage, blindsiding the Republicans in all the swing districts.

It seems to me the Democrats snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in 2020. However in 2022... mathematically, they're almost guaranteed to cede the House and maybe the Senate as well, depending on how events in Europe and general economic trends play out.

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

#248

Post by M5x7wI3CmbEem10 »

boplicity wrote: post #246

I run an email newsletter with 150,000 email subscribers, and monetize it by selling educational courses, as well as some ad revenue. Any considerations, in terms of deciding whether or not to use Substack for my business?

any advice for someone looking to do the same? greatly appreciated.

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

#249

Post by [deleted] »

gonehome wrote: post #218
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 think you're wrong (I'm ignoring the inflammatory rhetoric and taking the core of your argument in good faith). The good thing about substack compared to most centralized apps is that writers maintain control over their audience address list. This aligns incentives since leaving is possible. It makes them more of an actual software platform for their writers which is a good thing imo. As long as this remains true,…

[deleted]

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

#250

Post by blisterpeanuts »

I subscribe to two paid blogs on substack and read and comment on them regularly. The comment sections get pretty lively at times. 98% of the commenters are sincere and post interesting opinions, sometimes quite informative in their own right; that's the benefit of the $50 or $60 a year filter, I suppose.

Nonetheless it would be nice to provide a mute/block feature, to improve the signal-to-noise ratio. There are a couple of commenters who are rather insufferable, and there's no way to downvote them or put them on ignore. I guess it's a relatively tangential use of substack, which is presented as a blogging platform first and foremost, and it certainly succeeds in that. But a bit of user control over their comment stream would be a nice-to-have.

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