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Tom Walker

Seeing people post positively about Substack now that it's challenging Twitter.

Reminder: Substack is also centralised. Worse, the business model is basically to take what would once have been blogs and paywall them as premium 'newsletters'.

Substack is not a friend of the open web.

8 Apr 2023 at 14:08 | Open on mastodon.social
6 comments
Phil Sherry
Lance

@tomw My understanding was that you can set up a totally free site, and you don't have to monetize if you don't want to.

In that respect, it doesn't seem all too different from Blogspot. But maybe things have changed recently.

8 Apr 2023 at 17:53 | Open on mastodon.art
Tom Walker

@analogfusion They push people to add a paywall, and whenever you click a link to Substack, it might be paywalled (there's no way to know before clicking).

8 Apr 2023 at 18:16 | Open on mastodon.social
Lance

@tomw I think I created an account but haven't used it yet for anything, so I can't say how hard they push on upselling the paid model. Obviously they want as many users as possible to monetize because that's how they turn a profit (and subsidize the free accounts).

But the paywall is still up to the discretion of the account holder, isn't it? With the steep decline in journalism as a viable profession, I can't fault a writer for wanting to make a living.

8 Apr 2023 at 18:27 | Open on mastodon.art
𝚝𝚓𝚠

@tomw one thing I weirdly like about it is a lot of opinions that are both odious and preaching to the choir tripe are paywalled out of having real reach.

8 Apr 2023 at 18:15 | Open on mastodon.social
Tom Walker

@thomasjwebb Yes, it is a trap for writers to give up reach for a bit of money (with the hope that it will become a lot at some point). I suppose there is a schadenfreude if people with repulsive views fall into that.

8 Apr 2023 at 18:20 | Open on mastodon.social
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