Although the creator should disclose the link to beehive, I don't think this should be flagged as it's raising valid points and showcasing a worrying trend.
Substack just killed the creator economy
41–50 of 60 posts
Re: Substack just killed the creator economy
#42> Most importantly, that means that if writers choose to leave Substack, they won’t be able to port their paid subscriptions over to another platform like they could previously. That seems like a big change. Having to abide by Apple’s user-friendly subscription and cancellation policies is small potatoes, compared to vendor lock-in of the subscriptions.
This is either misunderstanding it or interpreting in bad faith. The very next sentence explains why this is a bad thing. They aren't escaping vendor lock in, they're being moved to something worse.
Re: Substack just killed the creator economy
#43Don't usually like Apple, but (the inevitable but), Creators should be happy they're passing the cost to customers. We know they didn't choose to write on substack out of altruism. If someone thinks you are worth enough to pay 30% more they'll pay. That's always been the case.
Not everything in life is binary the way you portray. They did not choose to use substack out of altruism, nor did they choose to fully exploit everyone as much as possible (they might have gone with apple pay themselves if that were the case). There can be in between zones were people are writing to reach readers and make some money from it, not as much as possible.
The last paragraph is patently untrue, it's used as a clever gotcha for transactive capitalist interactions (assuming it can only be this way and no other), completely ignoring the human elements.
Re: Substack just killed the creator economy
#44> Most importantly, that means that if writers choose to leave Substack, they won’t be able to port their paid subscriptions over to another platform like they could previously. That seems like a big change. Having to abide by Apple’s user-friendly subscription and cancellation policies is small potatoes, compared to vendor lock-in of the subscriptions.
This is either misunderstanding it or interpreting in bad faith. The very next sentence explains why this is a bad thing. They aren't escaping vendor lock in, they're being moved to something worse.
????
Didn’t I affirm the author’s point that the increased vendor lock-in for creators was a big deal, implicitly agreeing that it was bad?
By “Apple’s user-friendly subscription and cancellation policies”, I mean e.g. the ability to unsubscribe without having to fight through the usual dark patterns. Having to offer that shouldn’t be onerous, although sadly some publishers see it that way.
I can accept that I may not have communicated my point as well as I might have, but “bad faith”, wtf?
Re: Substack just killed the creator economy
#45Is it still too hard for people to make their own website blog / newsletters? I know it takes a bit of technical knowledge, but compared to a decade ago there are so many options and tutorials. It's comical at this point the number of platforms that people adopt, love, and then turn hostile towards their users.
> Is it still too hard for people to make their own website blog / newsletters? What Substack provides for its users: - Webpage - CMS - WYSIWYG editor - Email newsletters / notifications - Payment processing / Subscription handling I'm going to go with yes.
I think you can get the first ones with any blog engine.
It's the payment bit that's the key here.
Re: Substack just killed the creator economy
#46Don't usually like Apple, but (the inevitable but), Creators should be happy they're passing the cost to customers. We know they didn't choose to write on substack out of altruism. If someone thinks you are worth enough to pay 30% more they'll pay. That's always been the case.
Not everything in life is binary the way you portray. They did not choose to use substack out of altruism, nor did they choose to fully exploit everyone as much as possible (they might have gone with apple pay themselves if that were the case). There can be in between zones were people are writing to reach readers and make some money from it, not as much as possible. The last paragraph is patently untrue, it's used a…
I should make it clear I'm not saying substack was morally in the right here. Nor do I side with apple in any way. I'm pointing the obvious.
Honestly, I just can't see this as the little guy vs the corpo image this post is trying to make. Just two capitalistic ideas fighting one another. The people writing on here must have better paying jobs for their livelihood. The authors are treating their blogs as business which turns off the part of my brain with human emotional concerns.
Life isn't binary, but our choices often are.
Re: Substack just killed the creator economy
#47probably not coincidentally, Andresseen Horowitz newsletter just announced they are migrating to Substack ( https://a16z.substack.com/ ) (Not that I read their newsletter just was too lazy to cancel)
a16z are investors in substack.
Re: Substack just killed the creator economy
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't use Substack [1], but isn't part of the appeal of Substack discoverability? Like that's part of the reason that a lot of these platforms get popular. Most software engineers could write something to upload, transcode, and host videos in an afternoon or two, but that only gets you 10% of YouTube's value. The thing that keeps YouTube on top is it's hyper-addictive recommendation system. I assume that Substack o…
"publish on ur own site, syndicate everywhere" has never been more salient
https://indieweb.org/POSSE#COPE
(The whole site is down now, but that's the canonical source for POSSE, or spefically COPE - Create Once Publish Everywhere)
Re: Substack just killed the creator economy
#49Related/unrelated: anyone notice the seemingly big uptick in Substack submissions around here? Like ones reaching the front page, often submitted by newer-ish accounts. What's that about? Did (1) alot of bloggers switch to Substack recently? and (2) is there a concerted effort to take advantage of HN traffic bumps here?
You can monetise on Substack. Same with Youtube.
Anyone can create a blog host or a video hosting site.
Being able to pay creators who post on said platform is the key issue.
Re: Substack just killed the creator economy
#50Is it still too hard for people to make their own website blog / newsletters? I know it takes a bit of technical knowledge, but compared to a decade ago there are so many options and tutorials. It's comical at this point the number of platforms that people adopt, love, and then turn hostile towards their users.
I think one problem people have is payment processing. There really needs to be a federal program to allow people to easily transfer money as payment. There are too many extractive middlemen with rentier economies and ethics. There's no reason why Congress can make something like what Brazil has with Pix. Having a public option for payment processing can do a tremendous amount of good.
If only there was some kind of Internet money, that would not need to rely on governments.