Notes needs to quickly evolve and improve to attract a critical mass of readers.
Right now, it's all of us (i.e., writers) talking to each other. That's fun, but it doesn't scale. Most people are consumers, not creators.
However, Notes could be a more approachable on-ramp for people who are interested in publishing a newsletter, but feel intimidated by creating longer-form content and managing the whole thing.
So, I'd love to see:
- Easier ways to follow people and see their Notes without subscribing to hundreds of new newsletters. It's possible, but clumsy now.
- A way for people to join Substack Notes without committing to creating a publication so they can test the waters with quick shares (like people do on Twitter). I haven't tested the flow myself, so what's it like to encounter Notes and create an account to just be able to write Notes and respond?
- I think we're going to need a better way to filter the Notes stream by topics. I don't want this to become a tag jungle, but it's already overwhelming.
One thing I'd push back on re: Twitter having almost half a billion users -- very, very few of the accounts on Twitter ever actually post anything. (No one -- and I mean no one -- I know in real life, aside from one other person, ever posts anything on Twitter.) There's a good chance that Pinterest has a larger and more active user base than Twitter, but we never hear anything about it, because reporters don't use it.
I'm not a creator, but thus far, I'm enjoying Notes. I've interacted with writers and other users quite easily. I've also discovered new voices and topics.
I don't miss Twitter in the slightest, but I've been off the site for months.
There is significant room for improvement of Notes, and it's nowhere near the critical mass of non-writers required to remain engaging and topical, as others have noted, but it shows promise 3 days in.
On the latest episode of Dithering, Ben and John brought up a good point about Notes and its space in the customer journey with what Substack has already established. Ben’s articulation that Substack has always naturally been the destination of a tweet, and that Twitter was always playing a discovery role brings up a good consideration. It makes me beg the question, does @Hamish McKenzie and the Substack team have a product roadmap in which Notes will be able to amplify the core value proposition of Substack? Or did they decide to rush this out because Elon’s ruined Twitter so much? I can’t wait to find out. Dithering
right now notes feels like being in a mostly empty auditorium with a handful of vanity-press-published authors desperate to sell you a copy of their book
Notes needs to quickly evolve and improve to attract a critical mass of readers.
Right now, it's all of us (i.e., writers) talking to each other. That's fun, but it doesn't scale. Most people are consumers, not creators.
However, Notes could be a more approachable on-ramp for people who are interested in publishing a newsletter, but feel intimidated by creating longer-form content and managing the whole thing.
So, I'd love to see:
- Easier ways to follow people and see their Notes without subscribing to hundreds of new newsletters. It's possible, but clumsy now.
- A way for people to join Substack Notes without committing to creating a publication so they can test the waters with quick shares (like people do on Twitter). I haven't tested the flow myself, so what's it like to encounter Notes and create an account to just be able to write Notes and respond?
- I think we're going to need a better way to filter the Notes stream by topics. I don't want this to become a tag jungle, but it's already overwhelming.
One thing I'd push back on re: Twitter having almost half a billion users -- very, very few of the accounts on Twitter ever actually post anything. (No one -- and I mean no one -- I know in real life, aside from one other person, ever posts anything on Twitter.) There's a good chance that Pinterest has a larger and more active user base than Twitter, but we never hear anything about it, because reporters don't use it.
I'm not a creator, but thus far, I'm enjoying Notes. I've interacted with writers and other users quite easily. I've also discovered new voices and topics.
I don't miss Twitter in the slightest, but I've been off the site for months.
There is significant room for improvement of Notes, and it's nowhere near the critical mass of non-writers required to remain engaging and topical, as others have noted, but it shows promise 3 days in.
On the latest episode of Dithering, Ben and John brought up a good point about Notes and its space in the customer journey with what Substack has already established. Ben’s articulation that Substack has always naturally been the destination of a tweet, and that Twitter was always playing a discovery role brings up a good consideration. It makes me beg the question, does @Hamish McKenzie and the Substack team have a product roadmap in which Notes will be able to amplify the core value proposition of Substack? Or did they decide to rush this out because Elon’s ruined Twitter so much? I can’t wait to find out. Dithering
right now notes feels like being in a mostly empty auditorium with a handful of vanity-press-published authors desperate to sell you a copy of their book
lists for Notes would be great
Maybe too bullish but then Elon seems hellbent on destroying twitter so...