Yup, every time you post, I get a notification on my phone, and if I can I usually start reading. Before I’d have to remind myself once a week or so to go to your blog.
The switch makes no difference to me. I don’t need nor want an email reminder about your posts. It is acceptable to me to read them when I have time and I don’t understand Richard Hanania’s “friction” comment at all. I generally find what you post interesting, but I don’t need to read your posts right after you make them. They’ll wait for me.
The one issue I had re: substack is that Gmail classified your posts as "Promotions" and so put them in the same semi-hidden bucket with spamming stuff like a t-shirt company saying they're offering 20% off. I had to manually move the post to "Primary" and confirm that I wanted all future posts of yours to go to Primary. Not sure if there is something you can do on your end or if people need a warning, etc.
Glad you're here. I know that the tradition of bloggers has been to all use "whatever platform works" but the more people on one platform the more legitimacy it has, the more familiarity readers have with its mechanisms and layout, and the larger its network. For readers there is an aura of professionalism that's a halo effect from the bigger more well-known Substacks, which especially helps earlier on.
Although not a, "Every post needs a graph or a chart," kind of guy, Substack makes it so easy to integrate visualizations--charts, graphs, tables--that you might think about adding some stuff and images (liked the Europe trip images).
My one request is that you interact more in the comment section. I have seen some insightful critiques of your posts on your econlog, but I have no idea if you've read them or not and considered them. I would love if you offered long replies addressing them, but even a like or a short reply to the best critiques/comments of your Substack article would be nice. Sometimes I think you would change your mind, update your position, etc. if you would just consider the comment.
Yep, I'm all of a sudden reading most of your posts, instead of a minority. Which was odd because I've been a big fan of your for years. Richard was right -- that tiny friction is a nontrivial factor in what actually happens.
I find substack much less efficient than my Feedly aggregator. I have dozens of blogs on Feedley and can move from one to another with one or two clicks. I find Substack awkward and much in need of improvement. Navigating from one article or one subscription to another, and then back to the home page is absurdly inefficient.
Welcome to Substack and nice to read you here as well. I would like to contact you later regarding a proposal for safer, easier, and freer migration to Europe
I wasn't following you on Econlog, but I'm following you now (via email) and enjoyed some of your recent posts, so I guess I'm part of the success story here. I was following you on Twitter for a few years, I think, but honestly didn't realize you were an active blogger (I was aware of some of your older Econlog material, though).
I don't mind that all Substacks look similar. The clean Substack interface cues my brain to focus on text, which is the important part.
Yup, every time you post, I get a notification on my phone, and if I can I usually start reading. Before I’d have to remind myself once a week or so to go to your blog.
I used to read what you blogged only when Tyler linked to it. Now I read it every time you post something new.
It's fine, but I'm also a Twitter follower and I could do without the dozen-tweet summaries of your blog posts.
Yes; I'd be happier if Bryan just put all the tweets about a blogpost in one Twitter thread.
Works fine for me - I use feedly rss feeds so it works fine on either platform.
The switch makes no difference to me. I don’t need nor want an email reminder about your posts. It is acceptable to me to read them when I have time and I don’t understand Richard Hanania’s “friction” comment at all. I generally find what you post interesting, but I don’t need to read your posts right after you make them. They’ll wait for me.
The one issue I had re: substack is that Gmail classified your posts as "Promotions" and so put them in the same semi-hidden bucket with spamming stuff like a t-shirt company saying they're offering 20% off. I had to manually move the post to "Primary" and confirm that I wanted all future posts of yours to go to Primary. Not sure if there is something you can do on your end or if people need a warning, etc.
I also drag all substack emails from "promotions" to my new tab "forums", and that stays semi-hidden but easier to track.
That's a common issue. You can solve it by creating a filter in Gmail to always move Bryan's emails to the Primary folder.
We also have an iOS app and https://substack.com/inbox where you can read both Substack publications and RSS feeds
Instructions on the filter are here - https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6579?hl=en#zippy=%2Ccreate-a-filter and then you need to check the Categorize as checkbox and select Primary as the folder
Glad you're here. I know that the tradition of bloggers has been to all use "whatever platform works" but the more people on one platform the more legitimacy it has, the more familiarity readers have with its mechanisms and layout, and the larger its network. For readers there is an aura of professionalism that's a halo effect from the bigger more well-known Substacks, which especially helps earlier on.
Substack is perfect!
I often just read your posts directly in my email inbox, so I don't need a new browser tab.
Have liked it.
Although not a, "Every post needs a graph or a chart," kind of guy, Substack makes it so easy to integrate visualizations--charts, graphs, tables--that you might think about adding some stuff and images (liked the Europe trip images).
My one request is that you interact more in the comment section. I have seen some insightful critiques of your posts on your econlog, but I have no idea if you've read them or not and considered them. I would love if you offered long replies addressing them, but even a like or a short reply to the best critiques/comments of your Substack article would be nice. Sometimes I think you would change your mind, update your position, etc. if you would just consider the comment.
Yep, I'm all of a sudden reading most of your posts, instead of a minority. Which was odd because I've been a big fan of your for years. Richard was right -- that tiny friction is a nontrivial factor in what actually happens.
As a reader, I find it substantially worse: https://setharielgreen.com/blog/substack-sucks/
More pop-ups, more grayed-out text, more pressure to subscribe -- all things that get in between me and the words I want to read.
I find substack much less efficient than my Feedly aggregator. I have dozens of blogs on Feedley and can move from one to another with one or two clicks. I find Substack awkward and much in need of improvement. Navigating from one article or one subscription to another, and then back to the home page is absurdly inefficient.
Welcome to Substack and nice to read you here as well. I would like to contact you later regarding a proposal for safer, easier, and freer migration to Europe
I wasn't following you on Econlog, but I'm following you now (via email) and enjoyed some of your recent posts, so I guess I'm part of the success story here. I was following you on Twitter for a few years, I think, but honestly didn't realize you were an active blogger (I was aware of some of your older Econlog material, though).
I don't mind that all Substacks look similar. The clean Substack interface cues my brain to focus on text, which is the important part.
I read the blog through RSS so i felt no difference at all. Not that I have anything against it, just thought that it might be a useful data point.