Decoder with Nilay Patel

Is Substack Notes a ‘Twitter clone’? We asked CEO Chris Best.

Apr 13, 2023

01:08:01

Episode guests

Chris Best

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

Substack Notes introduces Twitter-like features for authors, sparking competition with social networks.

Substack transitions from enterprise software to consumer product, aiming to revolutionize internet economics.

Substack stands by writers amidst Twitter's actions, emphasizing trust, audience ownership, and platform reliability.

Deep dives

Substack Notes Feature and Its Impact

Substack introduced the Substack Notes feature, allowing authors to post short text snippets, link sharing, and discussions akin to Twitter. The feature faced backlash when Twitter, led by Elon Musk, took aggressive actions against Substack, affecting writers. While Substack has historically been more of an enterprise software for paid emails, the addition of Substack Notes pits it against social networks like Twitter, raising concerns about content moderation and readiness for consumer-focused products.

Introduction

4min

Chris Best: CEO of Substack

2min

Sub-Stack: A New Economic Engine for Culture

4min

The Importance of Vertical Integration in Substack

2min

The Difference Between Sub-Stack and a Social Network

2min

The Importance of Paid Sub-Stack Notes

3min

The Fear of a New Twitter Network

3min

Twitter's Relationship to Substack

3min

Elon Musk's Twitter Clone Turns Off Links and Throttles

2min

10.

Twitter's Unfixable API Switch

2min

11.

The Power of Negative Thinking

2min

12.

The Problem With Twitter Throttling

2min

13.

The Future of Social Networks

4min

14.

The Power of a Closed Platform

2min

15.

How to Be a Reliable Trustworthy Partner for Writers

2min

16.

How to Follow People Without Subscribing to Your Newsletter

4min

17.

Substack's Content Moderation Guidelines

5min

18.

The Importance of Content Moderation

2min

19.

The Future of Social Media

2min

20.

The Importance of Moderation Rules in Email Service Providers

2min

21.

The Importance of Freedom of Speech

2min

22.

The Future of Sub Stack

2min

23.

How to Modify Sub Stack Notes

2min

24.

How to Scale a Social Network

3min

25.

The Negative Revenue of Substack

2min

26.

The Costs of Substack Pro Deals

2min

27.

The Future of Substack

2min

28.

Decoder: A New Network for Writers

2min

It is fair to say that Substack has had a dramatic week and a half or so, and I talked to their CEO Chris Best about it. The company announced a new feature called Substack Notes, which looks quite a bit like Twitter — Substack authors can post short bits of text to share links and kick off discussions, and people can reply to them, like the posts, the whole thing. Like I said, Twitter.

Twitter, under the direction of Elon Musk, did not like the prospect of this competition, and for several days last week, Twitter was taking aggressive actions against Substack. At one point you couldn’t even like tweets with Substack links in them. At another point, clicking on a Substack link resulted in a warning message about the platform being unsafe. And finally, Twitter redirected all searches for the word Substack to “newsletter.” Musk claimed Substack was somehow downloading the Twitter database to bootstrap Substack Notes, which, well, I’m still not sure what that means, but I at least asked Chris what he thought that meant and whether he was doing it.

It’s tempting to think of Substack like a rival platform to Twitter, but until the arrival of Substack Notes, it was much more like enterprise software. With Substack Notes, the company is in direct competition with social networks like Twitter. It’s shipping a consumer product that’s designed to be used by Substack readers. It is no longer just a software vendor; it’s a consumer product company. And that carries with it another set of content moderation concerns, that, after talking to Chris, I’m just not sure Substack is ready for. Like, I really don’t know. You’ll just have to listen to his answers — or really, non-answers — for yourself.

This is a wild one. I’m still processing it. Let me know what you think. Okay, Chris Best, CEO of Substack. Here we go.

Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/23445916

Links:

Can Substack CEO Chris Best build a new model for journalism? - The Verge

Now live for all: Substack Notes

Substack Content Guidelines

Welcome to the new Verge (re Quick Posts)

Can Mastodon seize the moment from Twitter? - The Verge

Twitter’s newsletter tool is shutting down in less than a month - The Verge

Elon Musk on Twitter: "@BretWeinstein 1. Substack links were never blocked..."

Casey Newton - Substack Notes

Platformer on Substack