Substack “Notes” Is The Healthy Social Media Alternative

6 min readApr 14, 2023

Is this the community building tool we’ve all been waiting for?

This post originally appeared on my Substack: Strategic Altruism.

Substack just launched a feature called “Notes.”

The idea is that writers (or creatives, or whatever the heck we’re called) can post short thoughts, half-baked ideas, prompts, images, or even snippets from other people’s work.

I just made a few posts to test things out. Here’s an example:

As you can see, nobody likes it. Which means there’s still time for you to be first.

If you’ve been paying attention you’ve noticed that Twitter didn’t like this. Some people alleged that links were blocked and posts were silenced.

From what I can piece together, Twitter blocked shares and likes (a critical input for it’s algorithm to spin up popular posts) as a response to the legal use of the Twitter API (the Application Programming Interface, which is the way all apps talk to each other).

Here’s a quick summary of an exchange that happened between Elon Musk (The CEO and co-owner of Twitter) and Chris Best (Substack’s CEO).

So, I guess we’ll see what Twitter’s lawyers say about whether or not Substack is in compliance with the use of Twitter’s API, but many Tweeters and Substack writers are speculating that Substack’s new “Notes” feature is making Musk feel threatened.

I’m withholding judgment until more info comes out, so stay tuned — but this is a wild ride for writers.

Is This The Community Building Tool We’ve All Been Waiting For?

It might be.

Substack has tested a variety of tools, like “Chat” and “Threads” to engage reading communities with writers — but “Notes” engages communities with each other. By following the “Notes” feed, writers are already noticing how easy it is to bump into other writers.

Marisa Kabas stated it cleanly:

Not only does it allow for smaller, more frequent touch points with readers, but readers also get to feel like insiders, having closer access to writers. This was one of the major initial tenets of Twitter when it launched 17 years ago in 2006.

Twitter’s Great Concept

The idea was based around conversations and developing relationships. What was cool about Twitter was that it suddenly became possible to get a reply from Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Twitter’s use of hashtags allowed communities to organize conversations around topics and let new users find their people.

Hamish McKenzie has since deleted this Tweet, but I still love how surgically precise it is.

Hamish McKenzie is one of the co-founders of Substack.

The problem that plagued them was twofold:

1 — It was never supposed to be Twitter.com, it was always supposed to be search.Twitter.com

Twitter.com was a uncontrollable firehose that beat most people off the platform. But the people who understood the value of hashtags and conversations knew to start at search.twitter.com to find what/who they were looking for and engage.

The firehose was (and still is) unsurvivable.

2 — Insane overhead burn and no plausible consumer strategy

Twitter burns a wild amount of cash.

When Musk took over, arstechnica reported that:

“Overall costs at Twitter in 2021, the last annual period that the company reported before being taken private, were $5.6 billion, during which time it made a net loss of $221 million.”

But that was just the latest period. Allegedly, Twitter was looking at a negative $3 billion (with a “B”) cashflow.

If you’re curious about Twitter’s cash flow situation, Forbes did a decent write up about how to understand their P&L sheet, as well as some of the limitations of their modeling. It’s 4 years old, but the context might help you dive into the new data better.

So, despite the fact that Twitter’s concept was this field-leveling, community engaging, free speech outlet for journalists — they’ve been running with, in my opinion, poor leadership and direction. But that’s another post.

What will make or break Substack Notes?

Substack Notes will need to figure out how it incentivizes writers and readers with it’s content algorithm. Twitter is totally fine with doubling down on the power of hate. Hate is shareable, actionable, like-able, and unites people against a common enemy. It’s insidious and it’s super profitable.

But somehow, from what I’ve witnessed from the community development team at Substack, specifically with the guidance of Bailey @ Substack.

I just don’t see them falling for this trap.

Right now, Substack is using subscriber counts as a proxy for authority. You can see this by the orange and purple checkmarks next to writers’ names. I’m not sure I have an opinion about whether this is good or bad yet, so I’m sure I’ll be using Notes to do more thinking.

Substack has developed many features over the last year or so to lift up writers. They mandate a minimum $5/month for paid subscriptions because they know that writers tend to sell themselves short. They developed better search for publications because they know that writers hate self-promotion. And they have been testing features like Chat and Threads to help writers oxygenate the lifeblood of their publication: community development.

Overall, this feels like a smart, thoughtful move.

As writers figure out how to best use this new tool, I think the way Substack sticks (or doesn’t) to their values will determine their success.

Not Another Social Network

I know you don’t need another social network. I know you don’t need another account. I know that your attention is valuable and at a huge premium right now.

I think this is worth your time.

I’ve deleted most of my social media accounts and I’m teetering on the edge of deleting Twitter and Instagram. I don’t like the way I feel when I’m on their platforms and I don’t like how intensely they can grab my attention.

I think Substack Notes might be just the alternative I’ve been looking for, and I think you should consider snooping around to see if it solves these problems for you, too.

Here are some insights that really helped me shape my opinion about it:

Just look at the way the community brags about each other and lifts others up:

It keeps going on like this.

And on.

And on.

This community of writers and readers is already winning me over.

Join Us On Substack Notes

Head to substack.com/notes or find the “Notes” tab in the Substack app. As a subscriber to Strategic Altruism, you’ll automatically see my notes and everything I post is free. And you won’t hurt my feelings if you turn off my notifications.