Mar 24, 2021
https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/adding-my-data-point-to-the-discussion
[warning: boring inside baseball post]
From The Hypothesis: Here's
Why Substack's Scam Worked So Well. It summarizes a common
Twitter argument that Substack is doing something sinister by
offering some writers big advances. The sinister thing differs
depending on who's making the argument - in this case, it's making
people think they could organically make lots of money on Substack
(because they see other writers doing the same) when really the big
money comes from Substack paying a pre-selected group money
directly. Other people have said it's Substack exercising editorial
policy to attract a certain type of person to their site, usually
coupled with the theory that the people they choose are
problematic.
I'm one of the writers Substack paid, which gives me some extra
information on how this went down. Here's a stylized interpretation
of the email conversation that got it started:
SUBSTACK: You should join our new blogging
thing!
ME: No.
SUBSTACK: It's really good!