I have a bunch to say about Notes in today’s Triad. But I want to add a couple thoughts about how important the U/X is in terms of not incentivizing bad behaviors.

1) Probably a good idea to hide follower counts from users. Don’t make Notes an arms race for clout.

2) Eventually there will be an algo to surface Notes for users. Algo should be designed to disincentivize shit-posting / conflict.

3) There will eventually be two feeds: An algo feed individually tailored; and a chrono feed based on follows. U/X should prioritize the chrono follow feed.

4) The best incentive for healthy behavior is probably money. Substack lets creators monetize their work. People tend to pay for value, not lulz. Continue to make it easy for readers to subscribe to newsletters. But also: Make it easy for someone who doesn’t have a newsletter, but gains a big following on Notes, to stand up his/her own newsletter in order to make $$$.

Culture is driven by people, but also by the design choices of the platform.