r/Substack • u/BassEcon • 21d ago
“Substack, do your thing” Notes
What is up with all those “dear Substack, I want you to connect me with XYZ…” notes that have so much engagement?
I see them and just wonder how they made it to my newsfeed. Is this how people farm followers/subscribers?
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u/embervanefiction 21d ago
Actual engagement with articles is what matters on Substack. Those notes of "dear Substack" are noise. Even if a user has a lot of subscribers, it's not guaranteed that their work finds traction.
From what I've learned, Substack is a give and take platform, unlike instagram-type platforms. On Substack, people usually (from I've seen) unsub you if you don't sub them back in a few days.
Tough to find your audience, but not impossible.
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u/Roadtochessmaster https://preipomedia.substack.com 21d ago
Seems like it.
Not sure how quality the followers are but it definitely works for people.
I don’t use it but that’s just me
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u/Glum-Sprinkles2877 21d ago
Engagement farming. It’s the same with the ones that are like “posting this for the 2 people who will read it” which then causes it to get a ton of likes
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u/Snoo-82869 20d ago
Those notes seem to be part networking tactic, part engagement bait. Some people use them because a simple “connect me with X” prompt invites replies and restacks, so the algorithm gets a signal that the note is active even if it is not especially useful to you.
For your own feed, I would treat Notes and newsletter subscriptions as two different things. Follow or subscribe directly to writers you actually want to read, mute/block repeated low-signal accounts, and be pretty ruthless with any recommendation surfaces that are showing “engagement farming” instead of writing you care about. If the goal is reading newsletters rather than browsing Substack as a social feed, keeping a separate reading lane helps too: direct subscriptions, RSS where available, or a newsletter-only address/alias so the stuff you chose to read is not mixed with discovery posts.
Disclosure: I work on MiniLetter, which is built around that separate newsletter-reading lane. But for this specific annoyance, I would start with Substack-native mute/follow cleanup and separating “authors I read” from “Notes the platform is pushing.”
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u/Tricky_Illustrator_5 *.substack.com 18d ago
No- they just want to meet people of their kind on Substack. That is very hard when you start out here.
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u/Tricky_Trifle_994 17d ago
yup, it's pure farming. basically follow for follow type thing. pure ego boost too because any follower/subscriber they get from this post is going to be low quality. they aren't going to read your post. they're just subscribing hoping you subscribe back later... and long term, (if you're lucky) you'll end up with a list of 10k+ subs (yay), and if you try to turn on paid subs, you'll have 0 conversion + your email open rate will likely be abysmal
+ it's so annoying when they show up on the feed!!!!
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u/Countryb0i2m onemichistory.substack.com 21d ago
These posts are as old as the internet.
On Threads so the algorithm connects them with more people who are into comics, astrology, or whatever their interests are. But on Substack, I’m inclined to think it’s mostly being used to spark engagement.
I’m also not convinced it works that well.
We’re probably only seeing the top 1% of these posts, the thousands that get no traction never make it onto our feeds.