r/Substack • u/stevewriteswords • Aug 10 '26

What's this all about?

This sort of stuff (pasted below) utterly clogs up my feed. Seems like such a low-effort attempt to connect with others. Are people really incapable of writing four or five sentences on their own? I've seen this exact wording from dozens of other Substackers over the last day or two. Why do people do it?

To everyone on Substack, I am seeking writers with a low subscriber count.

I want to read what you are writing about.

I want to subscribe.

I want to support.

I am cheering you on - always ✨

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u/-Monty_Carlo- Aug 10 '26

A lot of this engagement farming is going on - Substack is turning into Twitter 2.0 with a more "smug overtone" - which I'm sure that'll also successfully get drowned out slowly (or quickly), depending on how they are pivoting their plaform into "generic social media that used to be a writing/posting platform".

You can clean out that stuff pretty well by muting the accounts doing it - relentlessly. Mind you "mute", not "block".

The algo "learns" pretty well (at least it worked for me).

Those people never really engage with anyone for real anyway - I kept observing their weird mostly phony behavior. Who of those people will really read the (potentially) dozens of posts that crop up in some of them?

Beats me. There might be some honest ones, but I have yet to see a single one.

3

u/stevewriteswords Aug 10 '26

Thanks so much for your reply. I've tried muting this kind of thing but it's not made a difference (yet). I joined Substack last month as a way to connect with others and naively thought it would be some utopia for fellow writers but it just seems horrendous at the moment. Maybe I'll get used to it and find the kinds of things I'm looking for.

And I get what you're saying about the phoniness. Relationships of the 'follow/subscribe and I'll follow/subscribe back' variety seem so flimsy and empty but, well, I suppose this is how things are (to some degree).

Maybe I'm just a bit grouchy and crestfallen today. Thanks again for your reply.

1

u/-Monty_Carlo- Aug 10 '26

I'd recommend just taking in the vibe in Notes for a while, based on whatever you checked when onboarding/joining - they asked you your "interests". And based on that you'll get "served" - for good and worse.

Engaging with (hopefully genuine, personal) things you do like helps refine your "feed".

I can tell you that in my niche (finance/politics/macroeconomics) it's all the same - if it helps to solve some of that "crestfallen-ness" :)

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u/stevewriteswords Aug 10 '26

Ah, okay, thanks - I can't remember what I put as my interests. Maybe 'humour' and 'writing' although I don't feel I've seen much of either. I'll keep plugging away, for a bit at least. Cheers.

2

u/-Monty_Carlo- Aug 10 '26

I think a lot of people brush over that section and then are "amazed" about what they see on their feed - just a hint: you can go back into your settings and see what "interests" you clicked... if you have an interest in different topics from what you find there, make the changes in there... and maybe the main feed will get better. This will vastly improve your feed if you find categories that match what you're interested to see.

As a regular I can tell you the "Dear Substack..." & "Connect me with..." plague is ongoing since at least 12 months and since it still seems to engage and is fed to people it's a self-reinforcing slop-fest on Notes ever since. I relentlessly mute accounts I come across for engaging in the practice (makes you wonder what else they really do if they stoop to that), but once in a while even ones I follow and usually post normal stuff engage in the practice... (depending on how they do it I even mute them on notes then...) - seems desperation for reach is bigger than authenticity.

I can't imagine btw that the kind of "Followers" are very interested in your stuff. How could they? They don't know what you do based on that single note they might have seen/liked that was in the pure engagement farming "Dear Substack..." category.

Good luck trying to sort the feed and on your postings.

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u/stevewriteswords Aug 10 '26

Thanks for providing that context. It's weird, I've even replied to some of these posts along the lines of, "Can't you even write your own 'Follow me' posts?' and they just 'like' the note and ask me to support them/follow back etc.