The app for independent voices
Notes is turning Substack into YAESMP (yet another enshittified social media platform). Honestly, the writing-first element was gone the minute the app launched. Writers and lovers of writing — we’ve been played!
But one way we can fight back is to start posting links to your RSS feed — all Substacks have them — so people can get your POSTS (what we all came here for, remember?) where and how they want to, without relying on email or the Substack App.
I’m using an RSS reader app called Inoreader, the free version. It’s far from perfect, but…
1) it has no Notes!
2) it allows me to easily see the content of each feed I belong to, separately, much faster and better than you can do this in your Substack App inbox.
Here’s the three RSS feed urls that cover the author chain of this restacked note:
If we all posted a few feed links in our writing (or even here, in Notes, to get started), we’d have done what Notes is good for — finding the writing of other writers — without succumbing to what sucks about it — endless, stupid scroll past stuff that has nothing to do with writing on the platform.
Let’s stop scrolling (or stop scrolling as much, I’ll be honest) and read.
ALSO: If you have a favorite RSS reader app, chime in! (Maybe some awesome nerd out there wants to make one centered on Substack? Or already has?)