Susbstack adding another big feature set to manage while they can’t get to profit with tech as simple as email newsletters with payments bolted on and a 10% cut is worth a pause.
My little burns aside, when it comes to substack I really just want the email and the easy way to directly support writers. Most features that have come after that haven’t been interesting to me, including the app, because the seem to be more about benefitting Substack than the writer-author relationship.
Long time reader, first time poster: I'm a former heavy twitter user who has converted that energy into a newsletter. A primary reason I continue to look at twitter is because it is so much easier and nicer-looking to embed tweets on other websites than it is for any other type of post (Instagram embeds often look like garbage, Facebook posts require a ridiculous amount of code).
It's one of the reasons Twitter has always seemed bigger than it is, because it was easy to put and see tweets in ecosystems that aren't twitter. Tweets as a unit of internet content can thrive outside of Twitter — YouTube has this ability, too, and TikTok is pretty good at it.
Forcing tweets to only live on Twitter will, imo, drive the site out of relevance faster than just about anything else Musk has done or could do. I know people who tweet videos just so they can embed them in stories because it's a quicker process than using the CMS to upload the video natively, and we have all seen the way tweets are used as "here's how people are reacting" sections of stories. By making it so curators, journalists, etc can longer quickly inject colour and commentary into their stories via tweets, they will no longer have an incentive to browse and even use the site for the exact reasons you described.
I quit Twitter when Musk took over and I don't miss it at all. Mastodon is great for doing the same things I used to do on Twitter, and between Garbage Day and Today in Tabs, I feel like I get all the zeitgeisty internet content I need for the day. Thank you, Ryan, for your service.
Musk is a weapons-grade dildo. What baffles me is that someone who spends so much of his time there is that he’s so *bad* at understanding why it works, and even worse at actually posting
This is next-level petty, even by Musk's usual standards. I mean, he's free to run his little empire as he sees fit, but someone is giving him some seriously bad advice.
Is Substack's Notes a good idea? I'm not sure yet. What I /do/ know is that someone tweeted about my latest Substack article and I can't thank them, or even like their tweet. That's annoying af.
I also like embedding tweets for the same reasons you've listed. That's off the table now too (at least for now, anyway).
I really liked your post. The sad reality is that Muak, according to him, came to save freedom of expression for everyone. And now it seems that your freedom of expression only works if you pay for Twitter blue. In short, he is screwing up the social network that he came to save.
Every time I had to click on a Twitter embed to understand some of the GD content & watch that dumb doge icon load, I would feel kind of rotten. So blessing in disguise. ty elon, would love to never interact with you tangentially ever again
Regarding the NPR thing, if we’re going to be honest, the US very much does have equivalents to Xinhua and RT, such as Voice of America or Radio Martí, under the U.S. Agency for Global Media.
Yeah, they’re technically independent, but they’re still not allowed to broadcast domestically, since Americans consider them government propaganda…
(Neither Voice of America nor Radio Martí is currently marked as “state-affiliated media” on Twitter, while NPR still is, because sure why not.)
Some leftists inexplicably still defend RT, so I make the comparison with the notoriously right-wing Radio Martí to be equally unflattering to RT as it is to Radio Martí.
I'm really enjoying the AI videos, but I wish it was a different brand, one without weird links to child pornography.
Also, Elon Musk is a man child with too much money, too fragile an ego, and either bad hearing or too many yes men. I sincerely hope that the universe will set things right in the end. That's all I've been hoping for lately, while looking at what's going on with the world. Thankfully Elon is only destroying twitter for now. I guess that's good, because who knows what he'll move on to next.
There's always some idiot ruining your favorite website
Susbstack adding another big feature set to manage while they can’t get to profit with tech as simple as email newsletters with payments bolted on and a 10% cut is worth a pause.
My little burns aside, when it comes to substack I really just want the email and the easy way to directly support writers. Most features that have come after that haven’t been interesting to me, including the app, because the seem to be more about benefitting Substack than the writer-author relationship.
Long time reader, first time poster: I'm a former heavy twitter user who has converted that energy into a newsletter. A primary reason I continue to look at twitter is because it is so much easier and nicer-looking to embed tweets on other websites than it is for any other type of post (Instagram embeds often look like garbage, Facebook posts require a ridiculous amount of code).
It's one of the reasons Twitter has always seemed bigger than it is, because it was easy to put and see tweets in ecosystems that aren't twitter. Tweets as a unit of internet content can thrive outside of Twitter — YouTube has this ability, too, and TikTok is pretty good at it.
Forcing tweets to only live on Twitter will, imo, drive the site out of relevance faster than just about anything else Musk has done or could do. I know people who tweet videos just so they can embed them in stories because it's a quicker process than using the CMS to upload the video natively, and we have all seen the way tweets are used as "here's how people are reacting" sections of stories. By making it so curators, journalists, etc can longer quickly inject colour and commentary into their stories via tweets, they will no longer have an incentive to browse and even use the site for the exact reasons you described.
I quit Twitter when Musk took over and I don't miss it at all. Mastodon is great for doing the same things I used to do on Twitter, and between Garbage Day and Today in Tabs, I feel like I get all the zeitgeisty internet content I need for the day. Thank you, Ryan, for your service.
Musk is a weapons-grade dildo. What baffles me is that someone who spends so much of his time there is that he’s so *bad* at understanding why it works, and even worse at actually posting
How long until Musk hate-buys Substack? If he comes with a ridiculous offer Substack's VCs will take the money and run, unfortunately.
This is next-level petty, even by Musk's usual standards. I mean, he's free to run his little empire as he sees fit, but someone is giving him some seriously bad advice.
Is Substack's Notes a good idea? I'm not sure yet. What I /do/ know is that someone tweeted about my latest Substack article and I can't thank them, or even like their tweet. That's annoying af.
I also like embedding tweets for the same reasons you've listed. That's off the table now too (at least for now, anyway).
I really liked your post. The sad reality is that Muak, according to him, came to save freedom of expression for everyone. And now it seems that your freedom of expression only works if you pay for Twitter blue. In short, he is screwing up the social network that he came to save.
Every time I had to click on a Twitter embed to understand some of the GD content & watch that dumb doge icon load, I would feel kind of rotten. So blessing in disguise. ty elon, would love to never interact with you tangentially ever again
Regarding the NPR thing, if we’re going to be honest, the US very much does have equivalents to Xinhua and RT, such as Voice of America or Radio Martí, under the U.S. Agency for Global Media.
Yeah, they’re technically independent, but they’re still not allowed to broadcast domestically, since Americans consider them government propaganda…
(Neither Voice of America nor Radio Martí is currently marked as “state-affiliated media” on Twitter, while NPR still is, because sure why not.)
Some leftists inexplicably still defend RT, so I make the comparison with the notoriously right-wing Radio Martí to be equally unflattering to RT as it is to Radio Martí.
I bet Mastodon embeds still work on Substack.
I'm really enjoying the AI videos, but I wish it was a different brand, one without weird links to child pornography.
Also, Elon Musk is a man child with too much money, too fragile an ego, and either bad hearing or too many yes men. I sincerely hope that the universe will set things right in the end. That's all I've been hoping for lately, while looking at what's going on with the world. Thankfully Elon is only destroying twitter for now. I guess that's good, because who knows what he'll move on to next.
mm... Musks ability to manage a social network is kind of like an oxymoron...
it’s as if an engineering student managed an editorial page! 🤣🤣🤣
It does not compute! 🤣
I'm pretty sure the D&D thing was an April Fool's post.
“the other dangerous maniacs that have turned their various websites in toxic rat holes over the years — Moot, Lowtax, Null, hell, even the Watkinses“
please we need an explainer!
Great post Ryan, I particularly enjoyed the part about Twitter.
Sorry for the remark, but it’s “palate cleansers “. Palette is something very different.