The reader looks great and I have really enjoyed it! Thank you for this!
A feature request that is more quality of life than anything, I would really like to be able to customize the "recommended" sidebar by tweaking whose publications add to that list. A majority of the recommendations are from "On Substack" or "Substack Community" and w…
The reader looks great and I have really enjoyed it! Thank you for this!
A feature request that is more quality of life than anything, I would really like to be able to customize the "recommended" sidebar by tweaking whose publications add to that list. A majority of the recommendations are from "On Substack" or "Substack Community" and while obviously I wish to remain subscribed to those publications, I am less likely to be interested in what they recommend. There are some other publications I might want to customize so the recommended pubs are more likely to be things or topics I am interested in. I don't know how feasible this request is, and can't complain about how it is operating otherwise.
Good catch, Scoot. I haven't been using the recommendations much because...well, I'm just not interested. And now I understand that may be because of the "On Substack" or "Substack Community" subscriptions.
I stand corrected. I just took a quick walk through my recs, and most of them come from other 'stacks I follow. Only one was a "substack" recommendation.
4 of my top 10 recommendations are from substack, and when I click the "view all" button under the sidebar, there's another sidebar with recommended publications and 7 of 7 of the top ones are from substack.
There's nothing wrong with them being from substack in and of itself, but the principle still stands that being able to customize this would really help these features be tailored to me and my interests. Again--I don't know how feasible that is, but it would be really nice!
It’s feasible! I think it would be great to be able to x-out specific recommendations or say “See fewer recommendations from Substack Reads.” Right now the system is quite simple but we’re very focused on making this better.
Thank you very much! I really appreciate both how innovative Substack is with their system and how willing to listen to the community you are about features. Can't wait for the future of this platform!
I agree--the other day when looking at recs, I moved on because I didn't have a way to x-out ones I wasn't interested in. I'm subscribing to more and more substacks, and sometimes I'd like an x-out feature for my inbox for days I just don't have the time.
It's not a huge number--34 I just counted--but even if I only subscribed to two newsletters, if one of them was a publication who is very liberal with recommendations, it might flood my recommendations sidebar with publications I'm not interested in. So being able to manage that would still be useful. You're right though, the density of substack-based recommendations will depend on how many subscriptions I have!
I was more curious why you had so many substack recs vs others. I'm probably right where you are on subscriptions. When I refreshed just now, I did see 4 or 5 recs in a row by one writer. I didn't like that. I can see the case for being able to customize your recs based on interests (categories, maybe?).
That would be interesting! I am sure there is a clever way to address this issue and add functionality we haven't thought of. If we pull on this thread hard enough we end up with an Algorithm, and I know that's something contrary to the Substack ethos. It'll be cool to see how this feature evolves!
I think you may be seeing more recommendations from On Substack than others because the stacks you follow haven't implemented the Recommendations feature. I am always seeing recommendations from other Substacks created by individual users instead of something like On Substack.
The reader looks great and I have really enjoyed it! Thank you for this!
A feature request that is more quality of life than anything, I would really like to be able to customize the "recommended" sidebar by tweaking whose publications add to that list. A majority of the recommendations are from "On Substack" or "Substack Community" and while obviously I wish to remain subscribed to those publications, I am less likely to be interested in what they recommend. There are some other publications I might want to customize so the recommended pubs are more likely to be things or topics I am interested in. I don't know how feasible this request is, and can't complain about how it is operating otherwise.
Good catch, Scoot. I haven't been using the recommendations much because...well, I'm just not interested. And now I understand that may be because of the "On Substack" or "Substack Community" subscriptions.
I stand corrected. I just took a quick walk through my recs, and most of them come from other 'stacks I follow. Only one was a "substack" recommendation.
4 of my top 10 recommendations are from substack, and when I click the "view all" button under the sidebar, there's another sidebar with recommended publications and 7 of 7 of the top ones are from substack.
There's nothing wrong with them being from substack in and of itself, but the principle still stands that being able to customize this would really help these features be tailored to me and my interests. Again--I don't know how feasible that is, but it would be really nice!
It’s feasible! I think it would be great to be able to x-out specific recommendations or say “See fewer recommendations from Substack Reads.” Right now the system is quite simple but we’re very focused on making this better.
OPML for RSS import would be a start I reckon. I have too many feeds to import.
Thank you very much! I really appreciate both how innovative Substack is with their system and how willing to listen to the community you are about features. Can't wait for the future of this platform!
I agree--the other day when looking at recs, I moved on because I didn't have a way to x-out ones I wasn't interested in. I'm subscribing to more and more substacks, and sometimes I'd like an x-out feature for my inbox for days I just don't have the time.
How many other 'stacks do you subscribe to?
It's not a huge number--34 I just counted--but even if I only subscribed to two newsletters, if one of them was a publication who is very liberal with recommendations, it might flood my recommendations sidebar with publications I'm not interested in. So being able to manage that would still be useful. You're right though, the density of substack-based recommendations will depend on how many subscriptions I have!
I was more curious why you had so many substack recs vs others. I'm probably right where you are on subscriptions. When I refreshed just now, I did see 4 or 5 recs in a row by one writer. I didn't like that. I can see the case for being able to customize your recs based on interests (categories, maybe?).
That would be interesting! I am sure there is a clever way to address this issue and add functionality we haven't thought of. If we pull on this thread hard enough we end up with an Algorithm, and I know that's something contrary to the Substack ethos. It'll be cool to see how this feature evolves!
Agreed! Great discussion!
I think you may be seeing more recommendations from On Substack than others because the stacks you follow haven't implemented the Recommendations feature. I am always seeing recommendations from other Substacks created by individual users instead of something like On Substack.