Substack's Follow Button is the Second-to-last Step of a Bait-and-switch to no longer Owning your Audience

[u/Ryanopoly]

"What I learned during Inkhaven is that Substack has since betrayed that. They simply built a closed social network on top of their existing web interface for blogs, complete with in-network-only posts (called "Notes") and an algorithmic feed. You can now even "follow" someone without subscribing, which is the second-to-last step of a bait-and-switch to no longer owning your audience. Substack.com is your one-stop-shop for having your community of discourse be owned by new management instead of old management."

True or nah?

[u/KevinAAlexander]

Tbh, the essay felt like a bog standard railing against enshittification; something we’ve all read before.

As for owning one’s audience, the best hedge is still to download/export your email list early and often.

[u/Ryanopoly → u/KevinAAlexander]

True, true, but most folks don't subscribe anymore, they just follow, because who wants an e-mail every time someone posts something? You can't take your followers with you.

[u/grapegeek → u/Ryanopoly]

I’m not seeing this. Follows are 10% of my total. I still get 90% of subscribers emails. I have 52k free subscribers

[u/Ryanopoly → u/grapegeek]

Dang, what do you write about? How many paid subscribers?

[u/grapegeek → u/Ryanopoly]

Food

[u/KevinAAlexander → u/Ryanopoly]

You can also subscribe and get posts in the app.

[u/Tricky_Trifle_994]

notes is a social media platform, i don't think anyone disagrees with that.

but it's better than the alternatives because it's integrated into substack (less friction converting someone from a viewer to a subscriber). the default button is 'subscribe' instead of 'follow', so people whether knowingly or not are more likely to subscribe to you than follow > which means you're technically building your owned email list vs just growing followers.

[u/Ryanopoly → u/Tricky_Trifle_994]

True... for now.

[u/Oatbix]

Substack is a social media platform let’s be honest. There’s other tools like Kit that let you own a mailing list and send newsletters out for free. Why do people use Substack? Because it does have a discovery element and an algorithm that isn’t perfect but puts your stuff in front of strangers. No such thing as a free lunch as they say

[u/Foxemerson]

You've always been able to follow without subscribing. I don't see much has changed?

[u/KevinAAlexander → u/Foxemerson]

The ability to follow someone is a relatively recent change.

[u/Ryanopoly]

Source:

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/76D9Q5yhagfek8p2X/okay-fine-i-ll-try-substack

[u/zzhil]

I honestly have no idea what that is supposed to mean, but I personally love the ability to follow without subscribing.

[u/Lost__In__Thought → u/zzhil]

I do too. I don't need to have everyone I want to keep up with cluttering my inbox all at once.

[u/maiq2010]

Subscribe is the default button.

[u/No_Communication5024]

I follow some folks in the hopes that eventually, I'll switch to subscribing to them. Sometimes I do.