That's It. I've deleted Substack. 💥
Navigating the algorithmic Internet.
The experiment continues.
I apologize for the somewhat clickbait title. I just find myself doing that here.
This is exactly why I need out. 🤷
I’m not quitting Substack, but I am deleting the app.
I thought I’d write a short piece about this since I’ve chatted with many of you about Substack’s evolution into a social media. Apparently it’s trying to be YouTube now?
Platforms inevitably evolve for the most profit. Because capitalism. This means they quickly morph from cozy creative havens into fast paced reactionary noise. The more enraged we are the more we engage, the longer we scroll, and the better it is for the investors. I saw this happen on Instagram and YouTube. So I can see the writing on the wall for Substack.
What I find frustrating is that we can’t have online spaces for specific purposes or energetic capacities. I miss having a platform for just photos and words.
Why can’t we have more variety between the tech platforms we have online?
I’ve been looking at alternatives since last year when Substack introduced Notes. I was this close to investing in Substack when they were taking money from writers to “make a writing platform.”
Then they suddenly decided to go for the Twitter audience and launched Notes.
Nope.
Not investing in a social media platform, thank you.
First I tried Ghost.org. I moved my whole membership over there in early 2023. I even tried to use Ghost to build Self Publishing 101. They don’t have a free tier so I bought an annual membership, but even so it has very restrictive limits on file size. Even my short Self Pub podcasts were too large to upload.
I cancelled the subscription before it renewed.
Then I tried to delete the app and do inbox only.
This made me realize I was subscribed to WAY more newsletters than I could read and I started unsubscribing. But it still wasn’t quite right.
Substack struggles with delivery rates to email inboxes (maybe especially Gmail.) I noticed I wasn’t getting
’s emails - even though I was on their paid tier. I looked in Spam. I searched the Promotions folder. Archived messages. Nothing. I followed this advice from Substack’s support. Still no emails.Frustration at missing weekly emails from Cody led me to downloading the app again.
Once I had the app I found myself scrolling and posting to Notes again.
That is where I found someone talk about reading Substack with RSS.
RSS you say? I remember that from the dark days of the early internet.
I am an Internet Elder.
One of the early adopters who used to hand code my own websites.
The internet was a different beast back then.
I never really got into RSS because I only followed a handful of blogs which I kept bookmarked in my browser. Each time I read a blog post I made a very intentional choice to open the bookmark and spend time there.
But I knew what RSS was.
Compared to social media it sounds like the holy grail.
A chronological, algorithm free, feed with no ads?1
Sign me up.
It was pretty clear that RSS was the way forward for me, but it’s taken some time to implement the transition.
I’m using two RSS apps right now. I’ve moved most Substack to Feedly. When I have a bit of time over a cup of tea I can scroll through everyone’s long form posts and do a bit of digital foraging.
Publications I’m subscribing to are kept in a separate feed using Net News Wire. This is insurance that I don’t miss anything they post even if Gmail fails to deliver again.
I finished that process today.
And I deleted Substack.
I may pop into notes on a weeklyish basis to respond to comments. And I may sometimes open up the window to “restack” in Safari to share a post.
But I won’t be living there any more.
This feels right for me.
I’m also experimenting with Substack alternatives. Right now I’m sending weekly emails over on Beehiiv to half my list. (The most engaged folks. If you want more emails from me you can sign up here.)
Meanwhile, folks keep finding me here. At this point I’m trying out monthly digests on Substack that point toward my blog or digital compost heap. Part of this pivot is a desire to archive my long form writing on my own website.
And I’ll continue using Substack as a course library platform for now. There’s a lot of functionality here available for smaller creators that usually requires a massive investment to something like Podia or Kajabi.
I’m not telling you what to do.
We all have unique creative ecosystems and have to make the choices that work for us. But I’m sharing what I’ve done in case it’s helpful. I often find myself paddling upstream dominant culture. So I’m no stranger to doing things in a different way. This is just the newest iteration of that.
Here are some of the resources I found inspiring and useful during this shift.
Screentime by Becca Caddy
This is a light read with actionable prompts to consider what boundaries you might need online. My biggest takeaway from this was learning about the emotional contagion scale and having an additional framework for understanding my autistic experience of hyper empathy.
Filterworld by Kyle Chayka
This one is a dense read (I confess to skipping parts - especially the chapter about Tik Tok) that digs into the history of computing and algorithms. If you want the cliff notes version you can listen to this podcast chat with the author.
Social Media Escape Club
Have you met Seth?
His posts have made a huge impact on me. Not only in reframing how I’m engaging with online platforms… he’s also inspired me to buy a roll of film. After shooting digitally for over a decade I’m excited to witness the magic of light hitting film again.
Slow Lived Substack
Another inspiration is my friend
who embodies slow lived values online. She has a passion for Substack and what it can do for you and your creative work. But she also doesn’t push you to use it in a particular way. Claire offers coaching and mentorship for artists, writers, and multipassionates.
And conversations like this one…
Thankful to Kerani and others who have hashed this out with me on Substack Notes, and comments, and newsletter replies.
It helps to know I’m not alone.
The final part of my shift has been developing and spending time in my Creative Compost Heap. 🌱
I’m recentering my energy on my own artistic practice. Then sharing my work (a la
). Somewhere along the way the “content creation” started coming first so I’m essentially inverting my online experience. I’m already seeing the fruit in my creative work and in the depth of connection I’m having in comments and email replies.I’ll continue to keep you updated on this experiment.
Happy to chat in comments.
I’m planning to check in on a weekly basis rather than trying to keep up with comments as they come. Something I used to do that I’m circling back to. 💫
Cheers,
P.S. If you want scrappy weekly updates from me rather than monthly digests hop on my Digital Foraging list over on Beehiiv. 🐝
Turns out Feedly has ads. I’d highly recommend Net News Wire for an ad free RSS experience that has no desires to become “profitable.”
I’m pretty close to doing this myself. Thanks for the suggestion on RSS!! I wouldn’t have thought of that. I’m feeling quite frustrated with the state of Substack right now myself. I feel compelled to participate in notes because that seems to be how smaller newsletters are seen, but it’s definitely messing with my screen time and therefore my personal time to actually make art. I’ve noticed less than half of my posts seem to be reaching my subscribers inboxes…not sure why that is :/ I’ll give you a follow elsewhere just in case!
Did anyone answer about the illustration? It looks like Anne of Green Gables to me, but I couldn't find the edition it's from (if any.)