I wasn’t planning on anything today but Substack has made some changes to talk about, I’ve had some poll questions kicking about and, well, it’s Friday so let’s keep our expectations low and and our interest high!
First poll:
On the app there is. Take a look:
Notice how the right photo has a little stack button (some people used to call that a “hamburger” — I wonder if that’s still a thing?). Anyway, the default for Notes appears to be, at least on the app, “Explore.” If it’s on explore, you’ll pretty much never find my pretty flowers or snark or anything. But if you click “Following,” well, hey, there I am, along with all the other people you follow on Substack, not just random people you don’t.
So, that’s the Notes feature on the Substack app on my phone. But you’re thinking, “I don’t have the app.” And I’m thinking, “Exactly; we have arrived at the problem.”
Here’s my argument for making some changes in how you read, illustrating two points at once: Ready? Here we go. 1) Apparently a lot of people only read their Substacks — mine, someone else’s, dozens of others maybe — via email. It’s a newsletter that comes in your email, so sure, I get it. Except that if I were to drop a video of anything into the post, maybe a great scene or trailer from a series or movie, or, even just this 20 second silent clip of my personal Substack home page — which is rather attractive and easy on the eyes and useful, if you ask me — well, then 2) you couldn’t play the video in the email:
Now, a couple of things to consider: If you only read the email then you probably haven’t visited the actual Tim Goodman/Bastard Machine online site (or, I’m guessing, even the link I embedded to it in that very sentence). So your engagement is kind of static, isn’t it?
Let’s choose maybe something more dynamic? Just to shake up the latter half of the year, yes? You’ve done something one way for six months; change is good.
And if you look at that video/picture of the homepage you will indeed see “Notes” on the dashboard. Now, the difference — definitely correct me in the comments if I’m wrong, because as the site manager perhaps my POV is different — is that if you’re at the online site then clicking “Notes” gives you no other option but mine, so you don’t have to opt out of “Explore” to find me and my random posts (more on that in a moment).
First another poll to keep you entertained:
OK, so here’s the thing: I really didn’t like Notes when it first came out. I tried using it and it was as dead (for my purposes) as Threads would next become. The difference is I never did go back to Threads and I’ve barely used Instagram of late, taking a little time out, so I’m thinking about tweaking my usage of Notes, which has undergone some big upgrades of late.
In the beginning, most people were just linking to their own or other people’s Substacks. Then a few would use photos when available, but some weird wing of the Notes world thought that was too Instagram or whatever and complained. But Substack didn’t listen, thankfully, and photos are here to stay in Notes and the platform just introduced video for Notes, which I have yet to use but could imagine learning to love.
No, not just because I could send you a video rather than merely a picture of my dog Pepper, ahem, but because I could also theoretically include video in Notes to illustrate a short scene, a moment, from a series, a pivotal expression that conveyed more than words, or, if you prefer, my partner’s tuxedo cat, Mini.
It has some worth, I’m thinking.
So I wanted to see if you would come on this Not-Twitter/X, Not-Instagram exploration with me. Let’s see if we can’t interact there without a 2,000 word post from me on existentialism. Right? Good to have options. If so, you’d need this, a thing I have been touting and will continue to tout/shout about. Yes, the app:
If you’re app resistant, for whatever reason, you could just go to the Bastard Machine Homepage by clicking here:
Both of those things — app or main site — would necessitate you not just rely on the emails. (Ironically, I would still love for you to OPEN the emails, because that is a much touted metric that Substack shares with creators: the open rate. Higher the better. Mine is very high, probably because you’re reading this on your email only. (So, yeah, I’m being complicated and asking you to do both things, but I think the app certainly enhances the experience of The Bastard Machine, allows you to play any content I post right there in-app without leaving and also handily collects all the other Substacks you may be reading).
Now I’m going to liven things up with a third poll:
Video has also been added to the Chat feature, which has its own merits, and coming soon (Substack has been shockingly great about launching things very quickly after mentioning they are coming) are video responses from you.
Imagine that. (Imagines, freaks out).
That’s a whole other level of things, and I actually think it’s pretty cool, whether you (or I) choose to really use it a bunch or just infrequently. An interesting side feature for paid subscribers is I can make different video chats for you only, which is a nice perk if we start using it to talk about more series/films (which I am planning to do, especially as things slow down in the summer and there’s more time to play around with those bells and whistles rather than, say, devote oneself to watching all the episodes of a show that ends up being a real letdown in the final stretch. Hi, “Bodkin!”
So, videos in Notes and now videos in Chat. Big changes.
Oh, hey, feels like a poll or two three:
Happy Friday everybody. Have a great weekend and embrace some change in your life.
I use the app! I will glance at Notes. I saw some antivaxxers and other awful people early on so I am a little scared of it. But I will try to find you which means yes, toggling over to following. But all of this can be done on a computer so people don’t have to use an app.
This community is great so we should definitely find ways to hang out from time to time!
I dabbled in Notes for a bit, I think even longer than you did, Tim.
My feeling was, meh.
Part of it is that I don't really like the app and using it feels too Twitter, er, X-like for my comfort.
I proudly interact with The Bastard Machine on one of my laptops (whichever one happens to be closest) and I love that experience, probably because I actually comment — and I 'effing hate typing long text on my phone. Another big advantage is that images and video look like a zillion percent better on either one of my new Mac laptop screens (and even better on my 32" 4K monitor that is usually plugged into the MacBook Pro). I don't know if that makes me a luddite or it just means I want to see your beautiful content at it's absolute best...
Mini looks very sweet, she would've loved to have my my, (or rather Uther the Bulldog's) tuxedo cat, Miss Samantha Underfoot. Sadly Sammy and Uther are curled up together in four-legged heaven. How do Mini and Pepper get along?