SimonWoods
SimonWoods

I’m starting to actively dislike Substack.

I wanted to sign up to your newsletter, and support you and all of that good stuff.

And part of the cost is I am now roped into Substack’s centralised account system with a bunch of notifications for things that are not your newsletter?

That’s terrible.

|
Embed
Progress spinner
SimonWoods
SimonWoods

And now that I'm taking a closer look at the design in general, it's easier to see all kinds of gross decisions.

Hiding unsubscribe buttons? Really?

|
Embed
Progress spinner
SimonWoods
SimonWoods

So much of the way this website is designed has one goal at the heart of it: Entrapment.

Not "this is so good that you'll happily pay for it" but instead "just follow these tricks into easily subscribing and never leaving".

Fucking. Gross.

|
Embed
Progress spinner
SimonWoods
SimonWoods

The only thing Substack has done, for me, is this:

  • Cut down my subscriptions to a handful.
  • Switch off any and all notification options.
  • Develop an immediate negative reaction to potential new subscriptions.

I am now less likely to sign up for one of their newsletters at all, let alone consider "upgrading".

|
Embed
Progress spinner
BenSouthwood
BenSouthwood

@SimonWoods Had a quick look at the new feature. It has that ‘smugness’ that made Twitter intolerable.

|
Embed
Progress spinner
maique
maique

@SimonWoods Looks like I picked a good day to give Substack another go 😅

|
Embed
Progress spinner
SimonWoods
SimonWoods

@maique The newsletters are great! Giving an accessible and discoverable spot for them has always been the most valuable aspect of Substack.

I've just lost my tolerance for the generic "platform" design of their site, including all of the sleazy strategy that I rattled off. Using services such as Micro.blog, Glass, and omg.lol have now proven to me that the gross side of Substack is much more of a deliberate choice than that which they are willing to admit.

|
Embed
Progress spinner
maique
maique

@SimonWoods Got it. I did find the site generally meh, and a bit confusing. I’m enjoying the newsletters on Feedbin, but had to turn notifications off for the app, and I’ll probably delete it anyway, can’t find an excuse to keep it around.

|
Embed
Progress spinner
SimonWoods
SimonWoods

@maique Yeah, if they manage to leave the core delivery system alone then they will have done a good thing. Beyond that, they'd have to make some pretty big changes to look any different than the other social platforms.

|
Embed
Progress spinner
JohnPhilpin
JohnPhilpin

@SimonWoods @maique @bensouthwood

whilst I don’t disagree … maybe I’m not so virulent in my objection.

|
Embed
Progress spinner
JohnPhilpin
JohnPhilpin

@jasonekratz well i do do that - but this one seems ok to me?

|
Embed
Progress spinner