Really appreciated how clearly you articulated something many readers and writers have probably felt but not fully named: the frustration is not simply that Notes exist, but that they increasingly mediate discovery on a platform people originally came to for substantive long-form writing. Your argument was especially strong when you contrasted engagement-driven visibility with writing-driven discovery. The Spotify analogy worked well, and your idea that Substack should surface the work through the work itself via excerpts, semantic matching, and actual reading behavior felt both persuasive and practical. 
What stood out to me most was that it was really a defense of medium integrity. You are not arguing against conversation, but against a recommendation architecture that risks rewarding performance over depth. I also thought the essay captured an important tension in the current creator economy: platforms often attract serious work by promising substance, then gradually incentivize the habits of social media once scale and engagement become the priority. That is a real structural problem, and you described it with clarity and restraint!
If I had one quick suggestion, it might be to push even further on what a healthier middle ground could look like for writers who do want discovery without feeling conscripted into feed behavior. For example, a few concrete product ideas around reader-controlled filters, long-form-only discovery modes, or “show me posts, not notes” settings could make an already strong critique even more constructive. But even as it stands, the piece succeeds because it names the tradeoff so directly.
Overall, this was an excellent publication. Thank you for defending the value of depth in an ecosystem that too often confuses activity with substance. It reminds both writers and platforms what made long-form publishing worth protecting in the first place!
As I see it, it isn't the notes that's the problem it's the algorithm programing/training. It goes by what the current trends are, the current public narrative is and it has created a echo chamber of those things.
I came to substack back around November 2025, to promote my new theory and generational models and make some money doing it. I figured I would have to do a little outside promoting at 1st to generate viewers, but figured After a month maybe 2 the substack system would take over. but that didn't happen.
Instead my site is ghosted, because my stuff doesn't fit the public narratives or consensus. Even my notes are ghosted.
So glad somebody said this. I suspect a lot of writers feel the same way, but there's been so much hype about the need to post, post, post to Notes that people are reluctant to back away from that. When you're expected to do three, five, hell even ten things on Notes every day, that can take away precious time from the very thing you came to Substack for -- the writing. And the pressure to keep posting Notes is so great that there are even templates, kits and AI tools out there to help people do it.
It appears that you're writing this primarily with nonfiction in mind, but the issue is the same for us fiction types. If you have limited time to write and that time has to go to Notes, the quality of the work is going to suffer. I like your idea of restacking your own work rather than trying to come up with something to say (multiple times a day) on Notes that's actually useful and interesting. After all, the work is the reason we're here.
And even that strategy is useless. Twice I experimented with only publishing articles and sharing them on notes afterward. I did this for close to 4 months. Results? ZERO subscribers and reads. And it's not that my content isn't good (see for yourself), its that Substack is all about the notes if you want to survive. Forget being a good writer.
Furthermore, Substack is like the Facebook for writers. You could have 5000 substcribers and most of them are writers wanting you to follow back. Ive exprienced that by looking at an influx of subs on my last Substack and checking the stats over time. Most read nothing from the emails.
Im only on Substak now so I have an existing blog if that makes any sense. Medium is just as dead but better for Google SEO.
Keep in mind folks that most of the authors (I think it's safe to assume that over close to 3 years on Substack with several blogs)m are there to be read and followed, they are not the reader audience writers and authors are looking for (even though some may read articles). Substack is a packed room full of writers all wanting each other to read and support them so they can grow their brand.
I did the reverse. I never followed back. When the idea of followers was introduced, I figured it didn't mean a thing. Still, they kept coming, and I said whatever.
Now I have a pretty decent amount of "followers", and it seems I was right. Doesn't mean anything. My notes (which was supposed to be the idea behind "followers") get barely any traction.
So I started wondering recently if it was because I wasn't following (except for those who I subscribe to), and followed back some folks. Didn't seem to change anything.
It doesn't effect Greg's complaint that having notes up first on the home page degrades the platform but for those that are unaware, on the left hand side of the screen there's a "Subscriptions" icon (second one down, under "Home') that will take you to a page of only long form posts from writers you've subscribed to. You can also get there from the short "Up Next" list in the upper right corner of the page when you click the "See All" link.
I use a browser for Substack. When they changed the default landing to Home, where the notes are, I changed my bookmark to substack.com/inbox so that when I want to arrive here, I land straight on my list of posts from writers I subscribe to.
Oh this is really helpful! i would love to get away from being sucked into Notes. I want to read the people I subscribe to and it seems harder and harder to get them through the undergrowth.
I find this note touches some of my own feelings about Notes.
I agree with you that I like/prefer the long form of actual “Posts” more than Notes because I like engaging with a thought or the presentation of a train of thought and grasping it securely.
But because I also love **word humor** like puns, spoonerisms, and silly rhymes, I enjoy casting my bread on those waters from time to time.
I have *finally* learned how to produce each and know before I publish which one I am about to unleash on the world. That took me a minute.
I hope you also tolerate long comments made just to say hello. And thanks for making me think.
I'm here for the long form content, and I too dislike what Notes has done to the platform. I've been here since before Notes. I came here because I saw a new vision emerging that I really liked. Unfortunately, it seems that vision has been diluted, or even abandoned.
For a long time, I had nothing to do with Notes. But lately, I've looked into more, and what I see doesn't make me hopeful. I post a shorter thought from time to time, but it hardly seems worth it. The platform rewards the clever quips and the so-carefully engineered "engagement voice." I have muted in the hope of getting my feed to resemble something I would actually be interested in, but there seems to be an endless supply of the inane.
However, that said, I do find things I'm interested in among the noise. Like this article. I think you really made a great case for how discovery could be changed to reflect what people really want to see. Will they do that? Who knows, but I have my doubts.
Sometimes I really feel like I'm overdosing on all the "uplifting," "helpful," "inspirational" Notes I see. It's like eating too many sweets at one sitting.
LIke your suggestions. I write long-form journalism. Actual reporting, based on real interviews, field research. Deep dives every week about fighting autocracy, including a global series, vs. short content. Doing here what I did and do for magazines. I repost when something really calls to be highlighted. That’s the journalism I offer. Readers who like that subscribe. I like and use notes as a quick, easy way to provide a short comment or highlight the excellent work of others. I appreciate this platform for the range. Hoping Substack developers hear your ideas… many very good. — AC, Resisting Project 2025
It’s interesting because I found Substack due to something personal I was going through without having any real idea what it was. I still don’t. Unfortunately I think everything eventually turns in the direction you see. I’m sure you are absolutely right about what you see but that seems to be the American trend. Take something really good, pure and helpful and then monetize and exploit it for all it’s worth, an all too familiar theme.
"My time is better spent writing something worth reading than generating social content to promote the idea that I write things worth reading." With you on this 100% The amount of time I waste on Notes is stolen from my main writing projects. But it feels like there's a stagnation throughout Substack right now, and Notes are the only way to remind readers we're here. It's insane, and I like your recommendations to only post our posts. I'm just not sure this approach can work to build the vaunted community that this platform requires for growth.
I would love to create videos. I see Paul Krugman has started doing it in the Heather Cox Richardson style, but it's another task that takes me away from writing. Video can be a huge time suck. Also, like you, I'm a reader. I can only watch videos on double speed.
Absolutely! Great advice. Social media is based on free. It encourages superficial writing and passive skimming. Subscription is based on paid. It encourages long form writing and engaged , committed reading. I get why the two were combined here but it isn’t working well at all and will probably ruin the platform if not addressed.
Use notes to highlight the writers you came here to read. Attach a link to their publication and perhaps a line or two from a story they’ve published to draw the reader in.
Do that as either a daily note or make it a long-form note with many entries, including links to your stories.
Use the note system to your advantage. There may be many others who feel the way you do, myself included.
Lisa, Substack is vast and notes are anything you want them to be? I suggest people use notes to their benefit and to Post link to their work, or write a short story, or anything that you think would help your publication. I’m still learning too, but I’ve read a lot and I see what people are doing so I’m reworking my publication as well
Good points. I'll make a note of it.
What’s sad, is that Notes isn’t advanced enough for me to leave a laughing face instead of a like!
😊like this?
🤣
Really appreciated how clearly you articulated something many readers and writers have probably felt but not fully named: the frustration is not simply that Notes exist, but that they increasingly mediate discovery on a platform people originally came to for substantive long-form writing. Your argument was especially strong when you contrasted engagement-driven visibility with writing-driven discovery. The Spotify analogy worked well, and your idea that Substack should surface the work through the work itself via excerpts, semantic matching, and actual reading behavior felt both persuasive and practical. 
What stood out to me most was that it was really a defense of medium integrity. You are not arguing against conversation, but against a recommendation architecture that risks rewarding performance over depth. I also thought the essay captured an important tension in the current creator economy: platforms often attract serious work by promising substance, then gradually incentivize the habits of social media once scale and engagement become the priority. That is a real structural problem, and you described it with clarity and restraint!
If I had one quick suggestion, it might be to push even further on what a healthier middle ground could look like for writers who do want discovery without feeling conscripted into feed behavior. For example, a few concrete product ideas around reader-controlled filters, long-form-only discovery modes, or “show me posts, not notes” settings could make an already strong critique even more constructive. But even as it stands, the piece succeeds because it names the tradeoff so directly.
Overall, this was an excellent publication. Thank you for defending the value of depth in an ecosystem that too often confuses activity with substance. It reminds both writers and platforms what made long-form publishing worth protecting in the first place!
Thank you for the thoughtful reply!
As I see it, it isn't the notes that's the problem it's the algorithm programing/training. It goes by what the current trends are, the current public narrative is and it has created a echo chamber of those things.
I came to substack back around November 2025, to promote my new theory and generational models and make some money doing it. I figured I would have to do a little outside promoting at 1st to generate viewers, but figured After a month maybe 2 the substack system would take over. but that didn't happen.
Instead my site is ghosted, because my stuff doesn't fit the public narratives or consensus. Even my notes are ghosted.
So glad somebody said this. I suspect a lot of writers feel the same way, but there's been so much hype about the need to post, post, post to Notes that people are reluctant to back away from that. When you're expected to do three, five, hell even ten things on Notes every day, that can take away precious time from the very thing you came to Substack for -- the writing. And the pressure to keep posting Notes is so great that there are even templates, kits and AI tools out there to help people do it.
It appears that you're writing this primarily with nonfiction in mind, but the issue is the same for us fiction types. If you have limited time to write and that time has to go to Notes, the quality of the work is going to suffer. I like your idea of restacking your own work rather than trying to come up with something to say (multiple times a day) on Notes that's actually useful and interesting. After all, the work is the reason we're here.
And even that strategy is useless. Twice I experimented with only publishing articles and sharing them on notes afterward. I did this for close to 4 months. Results? ZERO subscribers and reads. And it's not that my content isn't good (see for yourself), its that Substack is all about the notes if you want to survive. Forget being a good writer.
Furthermore, Substack is like the Facebook for writers. You could have 5000 substcribers and most of them are writers wanting you to follow back. Ive exprienced that by looking at an influx of subs on my last Substack and checking the stats over time. Most read nothing from the emails.
Im only on Substak now so I have an existing blog if that makes any sense. Medium is just as dead but better for Google SEO.
Keep in mind folks that most of the authors (I think it's safe to assume that over close to 3 years on Substack with several blogs)m are there to be read and followed, they are not the reader audience writers and authors are looking for (even though some may read articles). Substack is a packed room full of writers all wanting each other to read and support them so they can grow their brand.
I'm certainly guilty of that. Earlier, I followed back anybody who followed me, thinking it would improve engagement. Mostly, it cluttered my feed.
I did the reverse. I never followed back. When the idea of followers was introduced, I figured it didn't mean a thing. Still, they kept coming, and I said whatever.
Now I have a pretty decent amount of "followers", and it seems I was right. Doesn't mean anything. My notes (which was supposed to be the idea behind "followers") get barely any traction.
So I started wondering recently if it was because I wasn't following (except for those who I subscribe to), and followed back some folks. Didn't seem to change anything.
It doesn't effect Greg's complaint that having notes up first on the home page degrades the platform but for those that are unaware, on the left hand side of the screen there's a "Subscriptions" icon (second one down, under "Home') that will take you to a page of only long form posts from writers you've subscribed to. You can also get there from the short "Up Next" list in the upper right corner of the page when you click the "See All" link.
I use a browser for Substack. When they changed the default landing to Home, where the notes are, I changed my bookmark to substack.com/inbox so that when I want to arrive here, I land straight on my list of posts from writers I subscribe to.
Oh this is really helpful! i would love to get away from being sucked into Notes. I want to read the people I subscribe to and it seems harder and harder to get them through the undergrowth.
I find this note touches some of my own feelings about Notes.
I agree with you that I like/prefer the long form of actual “Posts” more than Notes because I like engaging with a thought or the presentation of a train of thought and grasping it securely.
But because I also love **word humor** like puns, spoonerisms, and silly rhymes, I enjoy casting my bread on those waters from time to time.
I have *finally* learned how to produce each and know before I publish which one I am about to unleash on the world. That took me a minute.
I hope you also tolerate long comments made just to say hello. And thanks for making me think.
In Joy,
moi
🤓
I make it a point to like my own comments. If not me, who?
If you don't like it, why write it?
Good point. 🤓
I'm here for the long form content, and I too dislike what Notes has done to the platform. I've been here since before Notes. I came here because I saw a new vision emerging that I really liked. Unfortunately, it seems that vision has been diluted, or even abandoned.
For a long time, I had nothing to do with Notes. But lately, I've looked into more, and what I see doesn't make me hopeful. I post a shorter thought from time to time, but it hardly seems worth it. The platform rewards the clever quips and the so-carefully engineered "engagement voice." I have muted in the hope of getting my feed to resemble something I would actually be interested in, but there seems to be an endless supply of the inane.
However, that said, I do find things I'm interested in among the noise. Like this article. I think you really made a great case for how discovery could be changed to reflect what people really want to see. Will they do that? Who knows, but I have my doubts.
I agree.
Sometimes I really feel like I'm overdosing on all the "uplifting," "helpful," "inspirational" Notes I see. It's like eating too many sweets at one sitting.
LIke your suggestions. I write long-form journalism. Actual reporting, based on real interviews, field research. Deep dives every week about fighting autocracy, including a global series, vs. short content. Doing here what I did and do for magazines. I repost when something really calls to be highlighted. That’s the journalism I offer. Readers who like that subscribe. I like and use notes as a quick, easy way to provide a short comment or highlight the excellent work of others. I appreciate this platform for the range. Hoping Substack developers hear your ideas… many very good. — AC, Resisting Project 2025
I think notes should be an option
It’s interesting because I found Substack due to something personal I was going through without having any real idea what it was. I still don’t. Unfortunately I think everything eventually turns in the direction you see. I’m sure you are absolutely right about what you see but that seems to be the American trend. Take something really good, pure and helpful and then monetize and exploit it for all it’s worth, an all too familiar theme.
"My time is better spent writing something worth reading than generating social content to promote the idea that I write things worth reading." With you on this 100% The amount of time I waste on Notes is stolen from my main writing projects. But it feels like there's a stagnation throughout Substack right now, and Notes are the only way to remind readers we're here. It's insane, and I like your recommendations to only post our posts. I'm just not sure this approach can work to build the vaunted community that this platform requires for growth.
Yeah, notes are the bane of the system.
But there's another change coming.
Video. They want to push videos into the feed.
There's a reason why I don't use X or Instagram. I like to read.
I would love to create videos. I see Paul Krugman has started doing it in the Heather Cox Richardson style, but it's another task that takes me away from writing. Video can be a huge time suck. Also, like you, I'm a reader. I can only watch videos on double speed.
Absolutely! Great advice. Social media is based on free. It encourages superficial writing and passive skimming. Subscription is based on paid. It encourages long form writing and engaged , committed reading. I get why the two were combined here but it isn’t working well at all and will probably ruin the platform if not addressed.
Your post gave me an idea.
Use notes to highlight the writers you came here to read. Attach a link to their publication and perhaps a line or two from a story they’ve published to draw the reader in.
Do that as either a daily note or make it a long-form note with many entries, including links to your stories.
Use the note system to your advantage. There may be many others who feel the way you do, myself included.
No charge for the idea : )
That's what I and everyone else in the family history writing community does here on Substack. I thought that was what everybody does!
Lisa, Substack is vast and notes are anything you want them to be? I suggest people use notes to their benefit and to Post link to their work, or write a short story, or anything that you think would help your publication. I’m still learning too, but I’ve read a lot and I see what people are doing so I’m reworking my publication as well