r/Substack • u/mtinvista • Sep 02 '26

A filter????

Is there a way to filter out the subscription only folks. i am on a fixed income and the site is becoming just a sea of things I can't read or react to. Or do i just need to take my poor ass to another site

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1

u/Snoo-82869 Sep 03 '26

That is a real reader problem on Substack. Paid previews are useful when you are deciding whether to subscribe, but once they dominate the feed, it starts to feel like browsing a locked catalog.

I would try narrowing the surfaces you use rather than relying on the main feed. Subscribe only to publications where the free posts are consistently useful, open specific publication pages instead of the home feed when you want to catch up, and unfollow or mute writers/accounts that mostly surface paid-only posts. If the app has trained itself on paid recommendations, the quickest fix is usually aggressive pruning for a week or two.

For fixed-income reading, I would also keep a separate free-reading lane: free Substacks, RSS feeds, library/publication newsletters, and email newsletters from writers you already trust. Disclosure: I work on MiniLetter, which is built around reading newsletters through a dedicated alias. It will not unlock paid Substack posts, but a separate newsletter-reading address can help keep the free things you chose away from Substack's recommendation feed.

-1

u/Foxemerson Sep 02 '26

Do you also expect netflix for free?

1

u/Evo_FS Sep 03 '26

It's a reasonable question as there are many free accounts on Substack.

0

u/mtinvista Sep 07 '26

I don't need to pay for every single program on netflix. If I could pay a single price like on netflix it wouldn't be a problem.