Creators

i usually take everything Taylor Lorenz says with a grain of salt but this take about substack's dark patterns re: creators stuck with me:

"substack's whole appeal to creators is that their creative labor is worth something, and creators should own the fruits of that labor, namely the connections with their audience. 

substack successfully differentiated itself from other platforms with this value proposition and attracted a vibrant array of talented creators as a result. 

with the follow button, however, substack contradicts their core principle of creator ownership, instead recreating the very kind of walled garden their founders originally opposed.”

anchoring substack's app experience in generalized attention is paradoxically hostile towards a creator's individualized mission and limits a creator's growth outside of substack's own walls.

in the near future, direct-to-fan relationships > direct-to-consumer platforms.

totally agree with you on this! it's kinda wild how substack started with this big promise of empowering creators, but then seems to be backpedaling with these new features. feels like they're building the same kind of system they were initially against. creators need more freedom to connect with their audience, not less!

helping build farcaster | surfing @ venice, ca | eating @ gjusta / gjelina | “lucky me, lucky mud”