Dear Substack,

Turn off your unsubscribe notifications. Subscriber numbers are overrated. I deleted over a hundred subscribers a few weeks ago and my views haven't changed but my open rates improved.

Sure, paid subscribers get you in the rankings which gets you both money and visibility, but you only need a couple of those to do the trick. Otherwise your subscriber count is probably dragging you down if only a fraction open your damn emails.

Fuck subscribers, I want readers. If you want to be notified by email when a post drops, or I guess participate in some chat thing, then subscribe, otherwise you're just a follower with benefits.

Likes raise notes and posts into the feed, which extends reach, but you need a lot of them to matter. Restacks are cool too but who knows which is better for reach?

And do it for your mentals, man. Knowing exactly how many people unsubscribed during a certain period of time after you post something ain't healthy. That's unnecessary information that Suckstack puts on you to make you pedal their money machine a little faster.

This isn't Facebook. Subscribers aren't your “friends”, or your “connections”, and they sure as hell ain't your “family”. They're people who wanted to read your shit and then they got tired of it and moved on.

Keep writing, keep posting, but don't let Substack’s bullshit mind fuck run your emotional hamster wheel.