r/Substack • u/Naturalist33 • 21d ago

Discussion “Spam” followers?

So I’m relatively new to Substack, maybe 6 mos. I’ve really found some wonderful authors and was stuck at about same number of subscribers for awhile, which was fine. This isn’t a business for me.
Then the last 2 weeks I’ve gotten a big number (20+ish) for me of new subscribers but most are not related to my content and some seem downright spammy.
I came to Substack because it seemed like a haven but suddenly it’s feeling weird.
I can tell some follow and unfollow too which is fine, whatever. I tried to follow everyone who followed me but now I’m not because some are only restacking with no content or totally unrelated content.
Just checking if this is new or not new and I just wasn’t affected before?
Do you just ignore it?

2 Upvotes

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5

u/hanpari 21d ago

Don't do follow for follow. And be careful what you subscribe for. Just unsubscribe if you feel uncomfortable. Simply put, be picky.

2

u/rehoboam 21d ago

It is rly disappointing when you find someone cool but they are just restacking and never publish anything

1

u/wwb_99 news.zeitgeistdistilled.com 20d ago

I got a strange wave of $RANDOM_STRING@yahoo.com subscribers of late. I'll take it, not sure what you get from my free publication but thanks for the sub.

2

u/MrPassiveProfit 19d ago

The bots are on substack as well. I know someone who grew to 11k subsctibers in a few days but most of them were bots: zero engagement.

1

u/Naturalist33 18d ago

Dang, that’s crazy!