I think the nice thing about Substack is that it feels old school and a place to get away from a constant barrage of videos. Just as I'm about to launch a Substack, I share the same concern as other writers that those of us who don't want to post videos of ourselves will get penalized just as Instagram penalizes content creators who don't jump on the latest thing they are pushing out.
But are you not concerned that the users will penalize writers who don’t use video features? That people are going to choose only to pay for Substacks who are offering videos?
Who said anything about being entitled to anyone’s money?
This argument keeps attempting to be made and it’s massively flawed. It’s not being entitled to expect that you get treated fairly.
It’s also not entitled to point out massive flaws in a platform. Or to point out that the business model of a platform is fundamentally flawed.
The underlying assumption of this argument is that somehow pointing out problems is the same as being angry or upset or whatever people think is the reason why the platform is getting criticism.
That’s the clear implication of your many, many negative comments in this thread. Despite the fact that the response to this update is overwhelmingly positive. Giving creators more options for content creation is a positive, period.
People who feel your content provides them value will subscribe to you, people who don’t won’t. If someone requires video content to feel they’re getting value from someone’s content, then you are not the creator for them and that’s fine. Creators and subscribers shouldn’t be given less options just because you don’t want the pressure of utilizing new features. You aren’t entitled to anyone’s money or support. Just focus on cultivating an audience that’s well matched to your content.
I’m not arguing that these things should be taken away. Although I think there is an argument to be made for that, I don’t necessarily think that way. My issue is whether or not that’s what the platform should be doing in the first place. It’s not obvious how this is going to benefit the platform or the creators.
It’s also not about not wanting the pressure. I literally do not have the resources to create content that would compete with video creators. That’s simply not an option for me. It’s why I focus on the writing aspect.
Here’s the problem with the theory you have. The premise of the theory is that it’s all going to be perfectly balanced out and people will naturally divide themselves into people who want video and those who don’t.
The flaw in this is that people are fundamentally visual creatures. They are more likely to gravitate towards moving pictures than they are words on a page. This doesn’t mean that no one will enjoy the written word. Only that they gravitate more in the direction of video.
Which means that more money on the platform will gravitate towards those who implement video and less money will flow towards the written word. This skews the value of the platform towards video. As a result, because the video aspects are bringing in more money, Substack will be incentivized to push people more towards what will make them the most money. Rather than having things be more evenly distributed.
It’s a business. That’s how businesses work. They are more interested in making money. Which I am not begrudging them for making money. Only questioning the validity of the claim that this is the best option for the platform and that it will be better for everyone in the long run.
That’s not “entitlement”, it’s basic knowledge of reality.
Having faith in people is fine. But blind faith isn’t necessarily the best strategy for a platform to take. Or to paraphrase someone:
“I always hope for the best. Experience however has taught me to expect the worst.”
You have to account for the potential for people to exploit the features when building them. That doesn’t mean being cynical, but being honest about the reality.
The movie industry is worth billions of dollars, while the book industry is dying. You know what’s propping up the book industry? When people make movies and TV shows out of books.
That’s not an accident. It’s a reflection of the value people place on things.
Has anyone at Substack considered the potential downsides of all these new features?
If you give people all these features, people will begin expecting writers to use these features. Which means that if you don’t? People will think that you’re not giving them enough of a reason to pay for your Substack.
Especially if you don’t use the feature that they like most. Not wanting to use features that Substack allows might undermine the ability of writers to get paid.
I agree. I'm actually turned off by all of these new features. I wanted to find a place where I can simply just write and not ne distracted by everything else. I feel that this is just becoming another social media platform where small writers will get lost in the algorithm because they aren't jumping through all of the hoops. I want a place of simplicity and that was substack until all the extras. Now I have to worry about some random creepers direct mesaaging me (so that's turned off), and balancing all the other features that I actually just don't have time for. Feeling disappointed that this is the direction this platform is going. I understand it has some benefits, but then use the other platforms with those features if that's what you need.
Yeah, I have looked at alternative platforms and the problem is that even the competition has many of these same features. So my current strategy is to use some of the other platforms to try and drive traffic to my Substack. At the moment, this is the only platform with a clear financial support option that doesn’t go through a bunch of hoops.
I think that's what people like us will have to do. At least we have the advantage of this still working as a newsletter service and gathering email addresses and knowing the email open rate. I just don't get the need for video on a platform like this. It's supposed to be more about the written word and a place for writers. My worry is that it's just going to become like every other platform and unless you have like 10k subscriptions you won't be heard of or seen
Which is an honestly reasonable concern to have. Despite what they claim, most of the people they feature in their newsletter are not “starting from scratch”. People with $10,000 monthly marketing budgets are not the same as people without a marketing budget. Yet Substack treats them the same.
They have fallen for what I call the “cool kids at high school” problem. Many bigger names decided to come to the platform and suddenly they’re obsessed with giving the “cool kids” what they want so they keep hanging out with them.
Which is very frustrating as writers. Most of us put effort into making sure that we use the right words. Problem is that the platform itself apparently isn’t.
Yeah, I really don't want that to happen. I love the quirky writing-centric Quora. Audio (via podcasts) seems adjacent enough, and doesn't auto-play as soon as it appears on your screen.
As long as the videos don't auto-play, and as long as Substack algorithms don't marginalize the pure-text folks in order to favor the video folks, it will still be recognizable as "Substack".
I think it's natural to feel nervous about creeping enshittification.
This is really a great move towards harnessing the full potential of the substack chat. Very impressive. The next should be analytics of the notes and chat. Thank you substack
Yes, that would’ve been nice. They clearly have tried to become everything to everyone and steal as much of the users from other places as possible. Regardless of whether it actually benefits the writers or users generally.
It was definitely lots of fun to try out the new video Chat feature for Substack - and subscribers were excellent guinea pigs who gave excellent feedback. I used it to give little glimpses of what’s going on behind the scenes, peeks into gardens etc. Nothing glamorous or super-edited, just real-life moving snapshots of things I thought subscribers might be interested in.
And of course, we need to remember the potential for critical 🐶 🐱content. Now where's my robot vacuum....
That's fab, thanks Substack team! But when are we going to be able to posts images, vids, or voice recordings as replies in comments? My followers don't seem to want another app, most of them recieve posts by email rather than app.
Not keen on all of these updates! I think most people here are here for the same reason and that's to simply write and enjoy the small little community they build through writing. If you want all the fancy features there are other social media platforms for that, which I think a lot of us are tryinflg to avoid these days! Less is more
In the mean time, you’re opening people up to potential trolls. You know that despite Facebook’s claims that they don’t allow explicit content, some trolls and people do receive explicit images and videos.
Are you prepared to have creators complaining that this feature is causing them to receive such complaints?
That’s certainly a barrier. It just depends on how committed the trolls are to doing it. What if you have a political writer who has someone that opposes their viewpoints? You could have government officials from hostile places paying for users to spam comments with explicit videos. All to drive away support for the viewpoints being expressed.
I'm sure if you continue to aggregate all the features from Youtube, TikTok, Twitch, etc. it will only lead to more success for all of us!....except that the vast majority of all users from those sites have never even heard of Substack and never will, and also skew far younger. Due to the mantra of VC-backed growth, you continue to move away from the rare features that have made Substack worthwhile or different--words, back and forth--words, and at least a partial emphasis on the quality of them, purportedly. It is telling that even Substack doesn't really believe in this.
Definitely something for the coaches and influencers, but not so much for the writers. I get it but it would be nice to get back to doing something for the writers. Explore an ebook platform! I’m telling you, it’ll be a game changer.
PHEW. I was running out of things to distract myself from getting my writing done.
I’m waiting until the substack can clean, do laundry or grocery shopping…
haha I hear ya!
I think the nice thing about Substack is that it feels old school and a place to get away from a constant barrage of videos. Just as I'm about to launch a Substack, I share the same concern as other writers that those of us who don't want to post videos of ourselves will get penalized just as Instagram penalizes content creators who don't jump on the latest thing they are pushing out.
100% agree with you
Hear, hear!
But are you not concerned that the users will penalize writers who don’t use video features? That people are going to choose only to pay for Substacks who are offering videos?
You’re not entitled to anyone’s money.
Who said anything about being entitled to anyone’s money?
This argument keeps attempting to be made and it’s massively flawed. It’s not being entitled to expect that you get treated fairly.
It’s also not entitled to point out massive flaws in a platform. Or to point out that the business model of a platform is fundamentally flawed.
The underlying assumption of this argument is that somehow pointing out problems is the same as being angry or upset or whatever people think is the reason why the platform is getting criticism.
That’s the clear implication of your many, many negative comments in this thread. Despite the fact that the response to this update is overwhelmingly positive. Giving creators more options for content creation is a positive, period.
People who feel your content provides them value will subscribe to you, people who don’t won’t. If someone requires video content to feel they’re getting value from someone’s content, then you are not the creator for them and that’s fine. Creators and subscribers shouldn’t be given less options just because you don’t want the pressure of utilizing new features. You aren’t entitled to anyone’s money or support. Just focus on cultivating an audience that’s well matched to your content.
I’m not arguing that these things should be taken away. Although I think there is an argument to be made for that, I don’t necessarily think that way. My issue is whether or not that’s what the platform should be doing in the first place. It’s not obvious how this is going to benefit the platform or the creators.
It’s also not about not wanting the pressure. I literally do not have the resources to create content that would compete with video creators. That’s simply not an option for me. It’s why I focus on the writing aspect.
Here’s the problem with the theory you have. The premise of the theory is that it’s all going to be perfectly balanced out and people will naturally divide themselves into people who want video and those who don’t.
The flaw in this is that people are fundamentally visual creatures. They are more likely to gravitate towards moving pictures than they are words on a page. This doesn’t mean that no one will enjoy the written word. Only that they gravitate more in the direction of video.
Which means that more money on the platform will gravitate towards those who implement video and less money will flow towards the written word. This skews the value of the platform towards video. As a result, because the video aspects are bringing in more money, Substack will be incentivized to push people more towards what will make them the most money. Rather than having things be more evenly distributed.
It’s a business. That’s how businesses work. They are more interested in making money. Which I am not begrudging them for making money. Only questioning the validity of the claim that this is the best option for the platform and that it will be better for everyone in the long run.
That’s not “entitlement”, it’s basic knowledge of reality.
Having faith in people is fine. But blind faith isn’t necessarily the best strategy for a platform to take. Or to paraphrase someone:
“I always hope for the best. Experience however has taught me to expect the worst.”
You have to account for the potential for people to exploit the features when building them. That doesn’t mean being cynical, but being honest about the reality.
The movie industry is worth billions of dollars, while the book industry is dying. You know what’s propping up the book industry? When people make movies and TV shows out of books.
That’s not an accident. It’s a reflection of the value people place on things.
Has anyone at Substack considered the potential downsides of all these new features?
If you give people all these features, people will begin expecting writers to use these features. Which means that if you don’t? People will think that you’re not giving them enough of a reason to pay for your Substack.
Especially if you don’t use the feature that they like most. Not wanting to use features that Substack allows might undermine the ability of writers to get paid.
I agree. I'm actually turned off by all of these new features. I wanted to find a place where I can simply just write and not ne distracted by everything else. I feel that this is just becoming another social media platform where small writers will get lost in the algorithm because they aren't jumping through all of the hoops. I want a place of simplicity and that was substack until all the extras. Now I have to worry about some random creepers direct mesaaging me (so that's turned off), and balancing all the other features that I actually just don't have time for. Feeling disappointed that this is the direction this platform is going. I understand it has some benefits, but then use the other platforms with those features if that's what you need.
Yeah, I have looked at alternative platforms and the problem is that even the competition has many of these same features. So my current strategy is to use some of the other platforms to try and drive traffic to my Substack. At the moment, this is the only platform with a clear financial support option that doesn’t go through a bunch of hoops.
I think that's what people like us will have to do. At least we have the advantage of this still working as a newsletter service and gathering email addresses and knowing the email open rate. I just don't get the need for video on a platform like this. It's supposed to be more about the written word and a place for writers. My worry is that it's just going to become like every other platform and unless you have like 10k subscriptions you won't be heard of or seen
Which is an honestly reasonable concern to have. Despite what they claim, most of the people they feature in their newsletter are not “starting from scratch”. People with $10,000 monthly marketing budgets are not the same as people without a marketing budget. Yet Substack treats them the same.
They have fallen for what I call the “cool kids at high school” problem. Many bigger names decided to come to the platform and suddenly they’re obsessed with giving the “cool kids” what they want so they keep hanging out with them.
That is oh so true! No scratch-to-famous-billboards here! They've been on the billboard BEFORE they came here!
Which is very frustrating as writers. Most of us put effort into making sure that we use the right words. Problem is that the platform itself apparently isn’t.
Can’t wait for Substack to be a carbon copy of all the other socials we’re on! Woop!
Yeah, I really don't want that to happen. I love the quirky writing-centric Quora. Audio (via podcasts) seems adjacent enough, and doesn't auto-play as soon as it appears on your screen.
As long as the videos don't auto-play, and as long as Substack algorithms don't marginalize the pure-text folks in order to favor the video folks, it will still be recognizable as "Substack".
I think it's natural to feel nervous about creeping enshittification.
I hope it doesn't happen, though.
That would be very disappointing
This is really a great move towards harnessing the full potential of the substack chat. Very impressive. The next should be analytics of the notes and chat. Thank you substack
Welcome to TikTok, folks. It's going to be a bumpy ride.
Everything is becoming Tik Tok while people are trying to get away from Tik Tok.
If only there was a place where writers could just be writers. Oh wait - there was! It was here - until around five minutes ago.
Yes, that would’ve been nice. They clearly have tried to become everything to everyone and steal as much of the users from other places as possible. Regardless of whether it actually benefits the writers or users generally.
I think the writers are going to end up second tier to an influx of TikTok influencers. They’re already courting them.
Well would say third tier. Remember that you have podcasters as well. So you have Tik Tok influencers at the top, the podcasters, then writers.
Sigh, you’re right.
100%
It was definitely lots of fun to try out the new video Chat feature for Substack - and subscribers were excellent guinea pigs who gave excellent feedback. I used it to give little glimpses of what’s going on behind the scenes, peeks into gardens etc. Nothing glamorous or super-edited, just real-life moving snapshots of things I thought subscribers might be interested in.
And of course, we need to remember the potential for critical 🐶 🐱content. Now where's my robot vacuum....
The robot vacuum is probably out the door exploring or trying to pick up women….
Not sure that this is a good idea- down a Youtube slippery slope...
This can get very tricky and I hope it remains status quo.
That's fab, thanks Substack team! But when are we going to be able to posts images, vids, or voice recordings as replies in comments? My followers don't seem to want another app, most of them recieve posts by email rather than app.
That would be great, Jasmine, I look forward to it. Thanks for your reply! 😊
Not keen on all of these updates! I think most people here are here for the same reason and that's to simply write and enjoy the small little community they build through writing. If you want all the fancy features there are other social media platforms for that, which I think a lot of us are tryinflg to avoid these days! Less is more
Lol! Did Substack just inadvertently re-invent OnlyFans?!? Kidding, kidding (sort of)!
Funny enough? I just saw someone elsewhere say that Substack is just the OF for the mind.
LOVE IT! This way I can leave a quick video message or coaching.
Do you also want to add just audio? This would be easier when I'm with the kids.
As a part-time creator you "create" whenever it's possible ^^
Thanks for the update, Kristina God
> If you allow subscribers to start their own chat threads, they are able to share their own videos with the community
Any way we can disable this?
Yes! I love that paid subscribers can start chat threads—it’s a great perk—but don’t want them to be posting videos.
In the mean time, you’re opening people up to potential trolls. You know that despite Facebook’s claims that they don’t allow explicit content, some trolls and people do receive explicit images and videos.
Are you prepared to have creators complaining that this feature is causing them to receive such complaints?
I feel like allowing only paid subscribers to start chat threads sort of mitigates the troll posting. Not many trolls are leaping over that paywall.
That’s certainly a barrier. It just depends on how committed the trolls are to doing it. What if you have a political writer who has someone that opposes their viewpoints? You could have government officials from hostile places paying for users to spam comments with explicit videos. All to drive away support for the viewpoints being expressed.
Yes!!!!!!
I'm sure if you continue to aggregate all the features from Youtube, TikTok, Twitch, etc. it will only lead to more success for all of us!....except that the vast majority of all users from those sites have never even heard of Substack and never will, and also skew far younger. Due to the mantra of VC-backed growth, you continue to move away from the rare features that have made Substack worthwhile or different--words, back and forth--words, and at least a partial emphasis on the quality of them, purportedly. It is telling that even Substack doesn't really believe in this.
Definitely something for the coaches and influencers, but not so much for the writers. I get it but it would be nice to get back to doing something for the writers. Explore an ebook platform! I’m telling you, it’ll be a game changer.