Substack was down • Hacker News Board

Re: Substack was down

#21

Post by AlbertCory » Wed, Dec 21, 2022, 8:22 PM UTC

berkle4455 wrote: post #18

alphabet9000 wrote: post #17

it's a shame substack continues to get more and more visually bloated. I remember when it first launched, thinking the site looked really clean and simple. i figured it was only a matter of time before the simplicity went away, and it became more like Medium.com (in a bad way). it seems like there is a very predictable model for how a site like this devolves: - it starts ultra clean, posts have a title and body, mayb…

hey those product managers gotta earn their equally bloated compensation packages.

The PMs, and the senior engineers. "Leave well enough alone" is never a winning pitch.

We see this phenomenon literally everywhere. The Patent and Trademark Office just replaced their perfectly usable Search page with something vastly more complicated, and incomprehensible at first glance.

When I was researching my article about Twitter and firing all those engineers, I looked at the R&D spending for Proctor & Gamble and other consumer products companies. It's usually 1-2% of revenue. They spend their money on marketing, where it belongs when your product is mature.

Re: Substack was down

#22

Post by Banditoz » Wed, Dec 21, 2022, 8:45 PM UTC

alphabet9000 wrote: post #17

it's a shame substack continues to get more and more visually bloated. I remember when it first launched, thinking the site looked really clean and simple. i figured it was only a matter of time before the simplicity went away, and it became more like Medium.com (in a bad way). it seems like there is a very predictable model for how a site like this devolves: - it starts ultra clean, posts have a title and body, mayb…

Hopefully an alternative frontend project pops up for it soon.

Re: Substack was down

#23

Post by guelo » Wed, Dec 21, 2022, 8:52 PM UTC

After Twitter I hope we're all starting to realize that these billionaire VC backed media platforms are not the place to pour our heart and souls into. You are giving them power over you and your content. No matter what they promise, eventually they will abuse their power against you.

Re: Substack was down

#24

Post by BurningFrog » Wed, Dec 21, 2022, 8:58 PM UTC

AlbertCory wrote: post #21

berkle4455 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

hey those product managers gotta earn their equally bloated compensation packages.

The PMs, and the senior engineers. "Leave well enough alone" is never a winning pitch. We see this phenomenon literally everywhere. The Patent and Trademark Office just replaced their perfectly usable Search page with something vastly more complicated, and incomprehensible at first glance. When I was researching my article about Twitter and firing all those engineers, I looked at the R&D spending for Proctor & Gamble…

You may be right, but percent of revenue is a terrible measure.

Re: Substack was down

#25

Post by Veen » Wed, Dec 21, 2022, 8:59 PM UTC

ScottyAdams0 wrote: post #15

_Algernon_ wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doubt you could do that in a way where you'd attract users at the level of Substack.

Umm maybe it’s the fact substack is outright paying for traffic and lying about it? It’s just their own paid influencers who use it.

Perhaps I'm a bit old-fashioned, but paying writers to write doesn't seem like a particularly nefarious activity to me. I mean, I believe the NYT does it too, and a few other organizations.

Re: Substack was down

#26

Post by blowski » Wed, Dec 21, 2022, 9:01 PM UTC

alphabet9000 wrote: post #17

it's a shame substack continues to get more and more visually bloated. I remember when it first launched, thinking the site looked really clean and simple. i figured it was only a matter of time before the simplicity went away, and it became more like Medium.com (in a bad way). it seems like there is a very predictable model for how a site like this devolves: - it starts ultra clean, posts have a title and body, mayb…

You missed out the bullet point where someone posts a variation of this comment on Hacker News.

Re: Substack was down

#27

Post by AlbertCory » Wed, Dec 21, 2022, 9:27 PM UTC

BurningFrog wrote: post #24

AlbertCory wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The PMs, and the senior engineers. "Leave well enough alone" is never a winning pitch. We see this phenomenon literally everywhere. The Patent and Trademark Office just replaced their perfectly usable Search page with something vastly more complicated, and incomprehensible at first glance. When I was researching my article about Twitter and firing all those engineers, I looked at the R&D spending for Proctor & Gamble…

You may be right, but percent of revenue is a terrible measure.

What do you think is better?

Re: Substack was down

#28

Post by sofixa » Wed, Dec 21, 2022, 10:11 PM UTC

alphabet9000 wrote: post #17

it's a shame substack continues to get more and more visually bloated. I remember when it first launched, thinking the site looked really clean and simple. i figured it was only a matter of time before the simplicity went away, and it became more like Medium.com (in a bad way). it seems like there is a very predictable model for how a site like this devolves: - it starts ultra clean, posts have a title and body, mayb…

> then "reading time indicators" (e.g. "5 min read") are added to the top of every story

Many CMSes and static site generators include this and it's genuinely useful (it matters if an article is a short read or something that needs to be saved for later because it requires 30 minutes reading). Is it really "bloat"?

Re: Substack was down

#29

Post by guelo » Thu, Dec 22, 2022, 12:51 AM UTC

guelo wrote: post #23

After Twitter I hope we're all starting to realize that these billionaire VC backed media platforms are not the place to pour our heart and souls into. You are giving them power over you and your content. No matter what they promise, eventually they will abuse their power against you.

At their whim

Re: Substack was down

#30

Post by BurningFrog » Thu, Dec 22, 2022, 3:23 AM UTC

AlbertCory wrote: post #27

BurningFrog wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You may be right, but percent of revenue is a terrible measure.

What do you think is better?

Not sure what the economists call it, but if a business spends $8M producing goods they sell for $10M, the money they can potentially spend on research is $2M, not $10M (the revenue).