It's pro free speech, which is the opposite of almost every other platform in 2022.
So this is an interesting distinction. Isn't "free speech" much easier to support if your platform is zero/minimal discovery to it? I.e. if you actively are searching for and subscribe to it, you're actively signaling your choice. Whereas, YT, Twitter, etc. content gets throw at you whether you like it or not.
Ask HN: Why is Substack so popular?
41–50 of 178 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why is Substack so popular?
#42They are very pro free speech, so you tend to get more interesting (and potentially more heretical) writers compared to other platforms.
Could you provide a link or two of content that might be censored elsewhere? I am curious to read “banned literature”.
(Former NY Times reporter)
Re: Ask HN: Why is Substack so popular?
#43Substack feels like Medium except instead of blogspam from overexcited junior React developers, you get blogspam from wannabe pseudo-philosophers. As other have mentioned the lack of Paywall is nice tho. Medium had one of the most frustrating iirc.
I will never give Medium a single dollar and big part of that is their lying paywall. It always says "Login to view the rest of the article" or something like that. After you login you have a 50-50 chance that it will say something like "you've reached the end of your free article limit" or some variation on that. Sometimes visiting the same link again will show you the content. It makes zero sense and pisses me off…
Re: Ask HN: Why is Substack so popular?
#44They are very pro free speech, so you tend to get more interesting (and potentially more heretical) writers compared to other platforms.
Could you provide a link or two of content that might be censored elsewhere? I am curious to read “banned literature”.
https://akarlin.substack.com/p/happening-the-ukraine-war-202...
One of his previous posts is his analysis of the (then, upcoming) war, its context, and causes.
Of course, you need to take it with an open pit sized block of salt — eg he predicted that the Russia will most likely conquer Ukraine in less than a week. This, needless to say, turned to be laughably wrong, and makes rest of his analysis rather questionable.
The point is, however, that you are unlikely to see this sort of unabashed (indeed, proud) and undistorted Russian perspective elsewhere in western media sphere — indeed, I wouldn’t be surprised if this comment got downvoted for “spreading Russian propaganda”. Myself, I think it is extremely important to understand the perspective and motivation of the enemy, so that you can predict their movements and effectively prevent or resist them.
Re: Ask HN: Why is Substack so popular?
#45It's pro free speech, which is the opposite of almost every other platform in 2022.
Re: Ask HN: Why is Substack so popular?
#46someone posted a twit where they explained how they get a lot more subscribers/followers in their newsletter with substack than wordpress. I guess substack is a lot more aggressive at this kind of marketing. So a lot of writers will prefer to post in it, especially since it looks clean until now.
Re: Ask HN: Why is Substack so popular?
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
I understand what they meant though: paying celebrities to join while giving people the impression that those celebrities joined by free choice* (ie because the platform was so great). * edit: free choice as in "not swayed by payment"
They signed a contract of their own free choice because it was a good deal for them. This isn't hidden. There's no reason to hide it any more than a musician would hide getting signed by a record label.
Musicians complain a lot about Spotify being a poor deal for them financially, but there's no doubt it was an excellent deal for Joe Rogan.
Re: Ask HN: Why is Substack so popular?
#48Re: Ask HN: Why is Substack so popular?
#49Re: Ask HN: Why is Substack so popular?
#50The get paid part is important. You like one writer on substack, you give em 5 bucks a month. You like someone else, it's exactly the same process to give 5 bucks.
It's the same as Twitch (for gamers) - where people give 5$/month to people who just stream themselves playing computer games. It's because it's a single click and it's the same click for all other streamers.
The barrier substack has broken, is the shitshow that is payments online - they did it for journalists, twitch did it for gamers, onlyfans did it for chicks showing their body parts, etc.
Of course the problem that'll destroy Substack is when they will inevitably raise their fees, piss off their writers and in 10 years, some other Substack like thing will pop up, that'll do the same thing and so the cycle continues.