Tara, thank you for sharing your insights & thoughtful decision process.. it's so disheartening the rate at which platforms morph from what you 'signed up for' into something else. It caused extra decision fatigue & shame when you feel the need to make another change that leaves everyone following your work with the labor of keeping up. It's f'ing exhausted & like you, I've pulled back from most except for my professional presence on my blog (on my website). But in an effort to branch out into some tangential but not directly related business content, I started writing here but I to feel the need to jump ship. Grrrrr... all the best to you. Enjoy the holidays and the time off!
I understand, and you will be missed here. Really appreciate the quality of your thinking and writing. There’s certainly lots of food for thought in this post which taking it into consideration for myself as well.
Thanks as always for your thoughtfulness, Tara. For over a year, I've been steadily, slowly researching and analyzing Substack to see if we'd move Tracking Wonder's Dispatch and content here. I'm always a slow adopter, wary of trends. You were one of my inspirations for moving forward with plans in 2025 :-) - but the last few months have given me pause. #headscratch
I've certainly seen more subscriber growth here—and heard from others who have left that subscriber growth wanes after the move. But I don't think the discovery benefits are keeping up with the continued enshittification of this product. And I'm not sure how much of the growth I've seen is quality growth...
Sending all the support your way for this decision and the associated changes you're planning. Happy to follow along on your own platform wherever it may be.
I've been using RSS to read substacks I like for a few months and have found it refreshing not to need to login. In a way, it reminds me of the old internet when we weren't so "platform pilled" even as readers.
Recently I've decided to read social media via RSS instead of platforms – simply because there are too many platforms out there and I don't want to manually check every single one of them.
Sadly, some of these platforms have become nearly unusable. A few days ago I've visited one of them to discover that my desktop browser couldn't even load the site. I also had a short conversation with a disabled creator who depends on the revenue from this platform & can't afford their own website – it was extremely heartbreaking.
I wrote my I’m leaving Substack post last week and published it last night, I heard that Substack did something and I didn’t know what it was but it reminded me I was in the process of leaving. I don’t want my work to live here, I don’t want to find ways to deal with all the things I’m not looking for when it comes to being in community online.
Looking forward to continuing to support your fantastic work. I’m always delighted when I see a new something from you. My brain waters! lol 😂
I am also leaving Substack in the new year, and I couldn't BE more excited. It's longform social media, and it will continue to enshittify, in ways we can probably predict.
Bari Weiss isn't as bad as the nazis, but I do think she's become fanatical about her agenda. I like the Churchill quote: "A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject."
Generally, I choose to refrain from using Substack's platform to criticize Substack. So take this more as an accolade for you, Tara, rather than a put-down of the platform: You deserve better than Substack.
Also, you've got me thinking about what to do with the remnants of my own newsletter. I never did buy into the "it's so great here" hype. I don't even understand why people thought there was a "here" here.
Love it! I enjoy your thoughts wherever you choose to be. I actually much prefer the podcast format for your work in particular, since I can listen while I work.
Really appreciate you sharing all this and making the decision to leave Substack! Ironically, I believe this is my first time commenting here, but I am not at all mad about you leaving this platform. I was just musing to myself yesterday about how we can claim media itself is neutral as the method of delivery, but, as you pointed out, it's the decisions made by the people/orgs/businesses behind the media/messages that make it very much not neutral in execution. Grateful for your explorations and looking forward to what you do next year!
I realised the other day that instead of making it my "job" to learn all these social media platforms (and all the mini-platforms within the platforms, like Notes in Substack, or Reels in Instagram) I should just do what I've always done; use whatever limited reach they give me to get people OFF social media and on to my own site. I built my entire business on... "Like this? Sign up to my newsletter". I sold 6 figures worth of pottery that way. While the landscape has changed a lot since I started, I still believe that quality work will find its audience. Consistency over complexity is my new motto. I'm going to work on curbing my tendency to think I need to become a videographer, a writer, a TikTok whiz - just to rebuild my business to what it was. [I took a break during the pandemic]. So I'm going to focus on bringing highly engaged people over to me, instead of slaving away for social media likes. They don't call it "vanity" metrics for nothing. Thank you for opening up this conversation, Tara.
Tara, thank you for sharing your insights & thoughtful decision process.. it's so disheartening the rate at which platforms morph from what you 'signed up for' into something else. It caused extra decision fatigue & shame when you feel the need to make another change that leaves everyone following your work with the labor of keeping up. It's f'ing exhausted & like you, I've pulled back from most except for my professional presence on my blog (on my website). But in an effort to branch out into some tangential but not directly related business content, I started writing here but I to feel the need to jump ship. Grrrrr... all the best to you. Enjoy the holidays and the time off!
This is so great, Tara. Thank you! I am linking to it in two recent podcast interviews I did with artists about how they use Substack.
Thanks, Alyson! (Nice to see you!)
I understand, and you will be missed here. Really appreciate the quality of your thinking and writing. There’s certainly lots of food for thought in this post which taking it into consideration for myself as well.
Thanks as always for your thoughtfulness, Tara. For over a year, I've been steadily, slowly researching and analyzing Substack to see if we'd move Tracking Wonder's Dispatch and content here. I'm always a slow adopter, wary of trends. You were one of my inspirations for moving forward with plans in 2025 :-) - but the last few months have given me pause. #headscratch
I've certainly seen more subscriber growth here—and heard from others who have left that subscriber growth wanes after the move. But I don't think the discovery benefits are keeping up with the continued enshittification of this product. And I'm not sure how much of the growth I've seen is quality growth...
THANK YOU TARA for sharing this. I felt this coming with SUBSTACK a few months back ~
This has been on my mind all morning, thanks for sharing your thoughts here today …
Quite welcome <3
Sending all the support your way for this decision and the associated changes you're planning. Happy to follow along on your own platform wherever it may be.
I've been using RSS to read substacks I like for a few months and have found it refreshing not to need to login. In a way, it reminds me of the old internet when we weren't so "platform pilled" even as readers.
Thank you for this essay!
Recently I've decided to read social media via RSS instead of platforms – simply because there are too many platforms out there and I don't want to manually check every single one of them.
Sadly, some of these platforms have become nearly unusable. A few days ago I've visited one of them to discover that my desktop browser couldn't even load the site. I also had a short conversation with a disabled creator who depends on the revenue from this platform & can't afford their own website – it was extremely heartbreaking.
I wrote my I’m leaving Substack post last week and published it last night, I heard that Substack did something and I didn’t know what it was but it reminded me I was in the process of leaving. I don’t want my work to live here, I don’t want to find ways to deal with all the things I’m not looking for when it comes to being in community online.
Looking forward to continuing to support your fantastic work. I’m always delighted when I see a new something from you. My brain waters! lol 😂
I am also leaving Substack in the new year, and I couldn't BE more excited. It's longform social media, and it will continue to enshittify, in ways we can probably predict.
Bari Weiss isn't as bad as the nazis, but I do think she's become fanatical about her agenda. I like the Churchill quote: "A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject."
Generally, I choose to refrain from using Substack's platform to criticize Substack. So take this more as an accolade for you, Tara, rather than a put-down of the platform: You deserve better than Substack.
Also, you've got me thinking about what to do with the remnants of my own newsletter. I never did buy into the "it's so great here" hype. I don't even understand why people thought there was a "here" here.
Thank you for sharing this, Tara. I look forward to what’s next (and listening to your podcast more frequently again).
I’m here for this and will follow you to your new thought space, wherever that is. ❤️
Love it! I enjoy your thoughts wherever you choose to be. I actually much prefer the podcast format for your work in particular, since I can listen while I work.
Really appreciate you sharing all this and making the decision to leave Substack! Ironically, I believe this is my first time commenting here, but I am not at all mad about you leaving this platform. I was just musing to myself yesterday about how we can claim media itself is neutral as the method of delivery, but, as you pointed out, it's the decisions made by the people/orgs/businesses behind the media/messages that make it very much not neutral in execution. Grateful for your explorations and looking forward to what you do next year!
I realised the other day that instead of making it my "job" to learn all these social media platforms (and all the mini-platforms within the platforms, like Notes in Substack, or Reels in Instagram) I should just do what I've always done; use whatever limited reach they give me to get people OFF social media and on to my own site. I built my entire business on... "Like this? Sign up to my newsletter". I sold 6 figures worth of pottery that way. While the landscape has changed a lot since I started, I still believe that quality work will find its audience. Consistency over complexity is my new motto. I'm going to work on curbing my tendency to think I need to become a videographer, a writer, a TikTok whiz - just to rebuild my business to what it was. [I took a break during the pandemic]. So I'm going to focus on bringing highly engaged people over to me, instead of slaving away for social media likes. They don't call it "vanity" metrics for nothing. Thank you for opening up this conversation, Tara.