I was really upset to find that Substack had "train AI on my newsletter" set to the default in my settings. As a platform that celebrates and is supposed to be supporting human writers, the default should be set to OFF on AI training on our content.
I found out why: we’re worried that Google in particular will treat “AI scrape” settings as the same as “search crawler scrape” settings, since from their POV “it’s all the same.” This isn’t settled yet, but in the meantime, if we default this to off, publications *could* lose all their search traffic / SEO / Google ranking. And when you lose it, it’s costly and takes time to get it back. Basically: we were scared we’d demolish a ton of traffic AND AI scrapers can (and do) ignore these settings, so it was “possible gain” with “possible severe loss,” and maybe we were just too anxious.
In case it needs to be said: it doesn’t help Substack at all to be scraped by AI; we don’t like it, we don’t want it, we have the same moral and creative objections to it as everyone else, and it doesn’t do us any good even from a purely capitalist POV. If we can stop it, we will. It’s already prohibited by our TOS, for example.
Team is discussing right now! Thanks for this feedback, of course, and here’s hoping we can mess these scrapers all up.
Exactly! We haven’t seen them (yet) treat the AI setting as a search crawl setting, so for now you can safely set it to block AI crawlers, we believe. (This is an opaque issue we are not allowed by Google to know much about). If this changes, we will announce it for sure. But it’s definitely nerve-wracking, and then on top of this is the fact that any AI company can just… choose to ignore the settings! Eventually we’d catch them, but the AI folks are pretty wild / unconcerned about us I’m sure.
Also, for all the emails that arrive to Gmail, Google trains on the emails, so unless people only read your work on the Substack app and you don’t send emails, Google is still training on your work.
Yeah, found that setting my first week on substack. Turned it off, I think it was responsible for the attempted auto-correct/suggestions. Haven't seen it since I turned it off, thankfully.
Can we get Substack’s by city/region in the future? Would love to see everyone’s Substack in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area where I’m based.
Also wondering if the issue with google’s changes to gmail spam management is impacting Substack open rates? Is there anything we need to do as users to authenticate our emails?
Thanks! The edits were done by a friend at Story Circle. I took the video on my phone (sitting on our back deck with a little script) and she did the rest.
Thank you! Seeing yours finally made me edit mines and just get it out of the way. This was a really good template to follow. Also made editing the about page not as overwhelming as I thought as first.
The world map is a really interesting feature for exploring content in other languages! It just seems limiting to me, for the time being, that it is reserved for the top posts: a random selection or selection by theme could also be interesting, so as to enhance even small to medium-sized publications. What do you think about?
Also very nice encouragement for quality networking - feel like I have an adorable company that I could attend great social events with an employee identity
Thanks for the link Ben, That silly brainless title of, "Why Is There a Gun Problem in America? The Gun Capitalists Are Partly to Blame." Got me laughing! History free suckers & fools don't know that our first God fearing settlers established an anti-capitalist, proto Marxist Communist style society here, in the 1620's, it brought disharmony & death, So Gov. Thomas Bradford [thinking it/ he was trying to play God] so he switched to [what fools call, evil today!] Capitalism! It brought harmony & God’s abundance & the greatest nation on God's green earth! Now Godless suckers & fools want to go back to the failed 1620's evil, failed system! God, Guns & Guts built this nation! NOT a Marxist "free stuff" man government acting as their god & savior! As we now see here today, in failed, Hell bound USA!
I want to hear of some success stories of how independent musicians are making an income from Substack. There are bigger artists like Tegan & Sara, but I want some hope that I could make it viable for myself.
I hit my first $1000 in paid subscriptions. After sharing my art and comics online for free since 2010, this was a big milestone in valuing my work and being open about needing to get paid for it! Substack sent me premade graphics to share and when I posted them, even more people subscribed. Thank you for helping me grow!
Love the new About Page video! One thing I noticed is that I can see my new About Page video on my website About page but in the app it doesn't appear on the about page. Any troubleshooting tips you can offer? Thank you! https://www.fromthenocturne.com/about
I am trying to use the Upload Transcript with a .txt file but getting the following error message: There was a problem generating the transcript.
Is it possible the file size is too big? My computer says the file size is 53KB but when I do the upload in Substack it says it's 53MB. Maybe there is a glitch somewhere?
Are you asking about uploading a transcript over a video? Is this part of the new Substack video feature? Still learning. Me and tech are slowly becoming friends.
Welcome to the site! Substack usually promote a lot of them in these Newsletters, such as the ones mentioned above in the main Post. There's one there happening in LA, for example. You may also come across people talking about them in Notes. Good luck with your publication... 😎
My newsletter is a weekly newspaper about the Dallas suburb of Coppell. I’ve been publishing it for a little more than three years. I have a Google alert set up for “Coppell,” and my own content never appears in the daily emails I get from Google related to that alert. Why is that? What can I do to make Google searchers find my content?
Off topic, but I read that "Stripe" payment processor went after Dr. Robert Malone and Substack did not intervene at all. Freedom of Speech must be protected at all times. The matter was resolved by legal intervention. Here is summary of Stripe's action: Stripe initially requested comprehensive financial data from Dr. Robert Malone, a widely published mRNA vaccine expert who raised concerns over the COVID-19 vaccine on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. However, following legal intervention by the Dhillon Law Group, Stripe retracted this request. The situation highlights the intersection of financial privacy and free speech in the context of online platforms. Congressman Troy E. Nehls entered the transcript of Dr. Malone’s interview into the Congressional Record after Twitter and YouTube removed it from their platforms.
It's sad you 4 don't understand & realize what censor ship does to "topics"! Soon the only AI allowed "topics" will be, on how wonderful the new government policy is for "saving our lives, from climate doom, pandemics, evil guns, & those evil white raciest capitalists, Sexist, Intolerant, Xenophobic, Homophobic, Islamophobic, Bigoted. Republicans”!
I agree with your listed topics. Those would be worthwhile. However, only Republicans that are now really MAGAts are to be listed instead of Republicans, in general.
I was really upset to find that Substack had "train AI on my newsletter" set to the default in my settings. As a platform that celebrates and is supposed to be supporting human writers, the default should be set to OFF on AI training on our content.
I found out why: we’re worried that Google in particular will treat “AI scrape” settings as the same as “search crawler scrape” settings, since from their POV “it’s all the same.” This isn’t settled yet, but in the meantime, if we default this to off, publications *could* lose all their search traffic / SEO / Google ranking. And when you lose it, it’s costly and takes time to get it back. Basically: we were scared we’d demolish a ton of traffic AND AI scrapers can (and do) ignore these settings, so it was “possible gain” with “possible severe loss,” and maybe we were just too anxious.
In case it needs to be said: it doesn’t help Substack at all to be scraped by AI; we don’t like it, we don’t want it, we have the same moral and creative objections to it as everyone else, and it doesn’t do us any good even from a purely capitalist POV. If we can stop it, we will. It’s already prohibited by our TOS, for example.
Team is discussing right now! Thanks for this feedback, of course, and here’s hoping we can mess these scrapers all up.
Very much appreciate your attention to this!
Thank you for looking into this for us all!
it’s very literally a privilege to do this work for writers and creators!!! the joy of my life.
Hmm. Right now I have that setting defaulted to off, but I don't want to lose my heard work at SEO. Not sure what to do?
Exactly! We haven’t seen them (yet) treat the AI setting as a search crawl setting, so for now you can safely set it to block AI crawlers, we believe. (This is an opaque issue we are not allowed by Google to know much about). If this changes, we will announce it for sure. But it’s definitely nerve-wracking, and then on top of this is the fact that any AI company can just… choose to ignore the settings! Eventually we’d catch them, but the AI folks are pretty wild / unconcerned about us I’m sure.
Also, for all the emails that arrive to Gmail, Google trains on the emails, so unless people only read your work on the Substack app and you don’t send emails, Google is still training on your work.
Good lord, how depressing. Though they're not going to learn much from my emails lol
Thank you for this feedback. I'll make sure the team sees it.
Agreed - what made Substack popular is that they were different, now they're killing the golden goose of quality.
One of the many faults of Substack. Been chasing their support team for 3 months to import my mailing list but no sign of them.
Same here, but only 3 days. Guess easier to move.
All I’m saying is if AI trains on my newsletter, then Sora better put together a real masterpiece of a video for my About page.
Yeah, found that setting my first week on substack. Turned it off, I think it was responsible for the attempted auto-correct/suggestions. Haven't seen it since I turned it off, thankfully.
So glad you caught this.
Can we get Substack’s by city/region in the future? Would love to see everyone’s Substack in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area where I’m based.
Also wondering if the issue with google’s changes to gmail spam management is impacting Substack open rates? Is there anything we need to do as users to authenticate our emails?
Echoing this sentiment!
Really intrigued by the About page video idea. I wonder if you could share some examples of successful ones?
Here's mine, just done, FWIW: https://susanwittigalbert.substack.com/about
Wonderful. Does Substack video offer the editing option and adding photographs? Looks so professional!
Thanks! The edits were done by a friend at Story Circle. I took the video on my phone (sitting on our back deck with a little script) and she did the rest.
Thx for the splainin’! I will look at Story Circle website for charges.
Or here's some help for us youtube newbies: https://www.fotor.com/blog/best-video-editing-softwares-for-youtube-beginners/ My grandson does this all the time--can't be that hard, can it? 😂😂
Oy. I’ve seen a few of these lists when I googled. Thx for sharing. My kids are like your grandson. Anything tech— no problem.
Well done!
Thank you, Lori. Easy to upload--wish I'd done it a long time ago!
Thank you! Seeing yours finally made me edit mines and just get it out of the way. This was a really good template to follow. Also made editing the about page not as overwhelming as I thought as first.
I learned a LOT from studying others' About pages when I launched. Plenty of creative ideas out there! Good luck with yours . . .
Thank you. I had more fun than I thought editing it. It just felt like writing a much longer Note.
The world map is a really interesting feature for exploring content in other languages! It just seems limiting to me, for the time being, that it is reserved for the top posts: a random selection or selection by theme could also be interesting, so as to enhance even small to medium-sized publications. What do you think about?
I keep repeating this:
Any podcasts/hearing posts etc should ALL have transcripts or subtitles.
Millions of deaf people in the world.
Can we have some thoughtful people please.
Speaking of Vogue, last week Teen Vogue reposted an interview from my newsletter, Skipped History, on one of the overlooked origins of America's gun problem: https://www.teenvogue.com/story/gun-problem-in-america-why
Wahoo!
Congrats!
Thanks!!
Nice work!
Also very nice encouragement for quality networking - feel like I have an adorable company that I could attend great social events with an employee identity
Congratulations! That's great news and a wonderful achievement!
See: Instruments of Woke: Teen Vogue - Training Young Female Leftists @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7y5OKjDiqY
Thanks for the link Ben, That silly brainless title of, "Why Is There a Gun Problem in America? The Gun Capitalists Are Partly to Blame." Got me laughing! History free suckers & fools don't know that our first God fearing settlers established an anti-capitalist, proto Marxist Communist style society here, in the 1620's, it brought disharmony & death, So Gov. Thomas Bradford [thinking it/ he was trying to play God] so he switched to [what fools call, evil today!] Capitalism! It brought harmony & God’s abundance & the greatest nation on God's green earth! Now Godless suckers & fools want to go back to the failed 1620's evil, failed system! God, Guns & Guts built this nation! NOT a Marxist "free stuff" man government acting as their god & savior! As we now see here today, in failed, Hell bound USA!
I want to hear of some success stories of how independent musicians are making an income from Substack. There are bigger artists like Tegan & Sara, but I want some hope that I could make it viable for myself.
Had no clude Tegan & Sara were on here! OMG, this takes me back to a time! Thanks for this! Going to find them now.
No problem! Here's my music if you'd like to listen too! https://open.spotify.com/artist/2xhd56iJIapFAK6rFw9zcH?si=7TkCMdg9Spa3griK5_M5jg
Check out the feature on https://fogchaser.substack.com/
I hit my first $1000 in paid subscriptions. After sharing my art and comics online for free since 2010, this was a big milestone in valuing my work and being open about needing to get paid for it! Substack sent me premade graphics to share and when I posted them, even more people subscribed. Thank you for helping me grow!
Bravo!
Substack is the finest thing on the Internet, bar none. Wish I had a bottle of tequila, I could start a brilliant converstion with Earth 2024!
Never one to think there is such a thing as bad tequila. OK, there is non-alcoholic, but, who cares?
Love the new About Page video! One thing I noticed is that I can see my new About Page video on my website About page but in the app it doesn't appear on the about page. Any troubleshooting tips you can offer? Thank you! https://www.fromthenocturne.com/about
Sharp catch! We will be shipping an update to the app very soon so this will be all seamless
Thank you for the update!
Bailey - Thank you! And PS Loving Art Dogs! Especially the discovery of John Steinbeck's "Pigasus"!
Oh thank you so much!! Yes I loved that as well - especially the way his wife described the metaphor
Yes! Also, I love your welcome email and just posted about Jamie Wyeth's dog Ziggy. What a fun thread and community!
When I click your link on my iPhone it says it can’t open the page.
Hi Charlotte! Thank you! I’m editing now! Here you go: https://www.fromthenocturne.com/about
I am trying to use the Upload Transcript with a .txt file but getting the following error message: There was a problem generating the transcript.
Is it possible the file size is too big? My computer says the file size is 53KB but when I do the upload in Substack it says it's 53MB. Maybe there is a glitch somewhere?
Are you asking about uploading a transcript over a video? Is this part of the new Substack video feature? Still learning. Me and tech are slowly becoming friends.
@Erica - one of our engineers is hoping to investigate this. I'll DM you, and can you share your file with me? Will send my email.
Reporting this. Let me see what's going on!
Good Morning Im new. If you have Automotive Questions I've owned a body shop for 35 years . Happy Friday eve!
Welcome to the site! I'm sure a lot of people will find that very useful and helpful... 😎
Love the globe feature!
HI! I'm new to Substack and I'd love to know how do we learn about the different meetups happening around the USA?
Welcome to the site! Substack usually promote a lot of them in these Newsletters, such as the ones mentioned above in the main Post. There's one there happening in LA, for example. You may also come across people talking about them in Notes. Good luck with your publication... 😎
Thanks for your thoughtful response. I’ll be on the lookout! See you around, Chris!
My newsletter is a weekly newspaper about the Dallas suburb of Coppell. I’ve been publishing it for a little more than three years. I have a Google alert set up for “Coppell,” and my own content never appears in the daily emails I get from Google related to that alert. Why is that? What can I do to make Google searchers find my content?
I'll ask after this with the team and report back!
Off topic, but I read that "Stripe" payment processor went after Dr. Robert Malone and Substack did not intervene at all. Freedom of Speech must be protected at all times. The matter was resolved by legal intervention. Here is summary of Stripe's action: Stripe initially requested comprehensive financial data from Dr. Robert Malone, a widely published mRNA vaccine expert who raised concerns over the COVID-19 vaccine on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. However, following legal intervention by the Dhillon Law Group, Stripe retracted this request. The situation highlights the intersection of financial privacy and free speech in the context of online platforms. Congressman Troy E. Nehls entered the transcript of Dr. Malone’s interview into the Congressional Record after Twitter and YouTube removed it from their platforms.
Yes, that's off-topic.
It's sad you 4 don't understand & realize what censor ship does to "topics"! Soon the only AI allowed "topics" will be, on how wonderful the new government policy is for "saving our lives, from climate doom, pandemics, evil guns, & those evil white raciest capitalists, Sexist, Intolerant, Xenophobic, Homophobic, Islamophobic, Bigoted. Republicans”!
I agree with your listed topics. Those would be worthwhile. However, only Republicans that are now really MAGAts are to be listed instead of Republicans, in general.