Taibbi leaves Twitter
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wrote on 7 Apr 2023, 21:50 last edited by
Matt Taibbi, a journalist who worked on the “Twitter Files” series of articles about old business decisions at Twitter, has said he’ll no longer use the social media platform. Taibbi is apparently frustrated by Twitter’s recent decision to heavily restrict all links and tweets about Substack following that company’s announcement it would be launching Substack Notes, a short form social network and potential competitor to Twitter.
Any Twitter user who even tries to retweet a post from Substack is met with a notification, “some actions on this Tweet have been disabled by Twitter,” a move that has angered many users, including Taibbi.
“Earlier this afternoon, I learned Substack links were being blocked on Twitter. Since being able to share my articles is a primary reason I use Twitter, I was alarmed and asked what was going on,” Taibbi wrote at his Substack on Friday afternoon.
“It turns out Twitter is upset about the new Substack Notes feature, which they see as a hostile rival. When I asked how I was supposed to market my work, I was given the option of posting my articles on Twitter instead of Substack,” Taibbi continued.
Taibbi decided it simply wasn’t worth it to stick around at Twitter if he can’t post links to his work at Substack and announced “early next week I’ll be using the new Substack Notes feature” instead of Twitter.
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wrote on 8 Apr 2023, 01:06 last edited by
That has been Twitter's fate for a long time -- a tool used to promote contents hosted somewhere else where revenues are generated.
Maybe Elon will succeed at changing it, maybe not. We shall see.
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wrote on 8 Apr 2023, 01:16 last edited by
Elon will backtrack for a while, create a long-form product with a subscription model, and reimpose the restriction, this time having a substack alternative. It could easily work - it’s a lot easier to create substack than to create Twitter.
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Elon will backtrack for a while, create a long-form product with a subscription model, and reimpose the restriction, this time having a substack alternative. It could easily work - it’s a lot easier to create substack than to create Twitter.
wrote on 8 Apr 2023, 01:26 last edited by@jon-nyc said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:
it’s a lot easier to create substack than to create Twitter
Substack is basically this year's version of blogger or any other platform for long-term essays, right?
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@jon-nyc said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:
it’s a lot easier to create substack than to create Twitter
Substack is basically this year's version of blogger or any other platform for long-term essays, right?
wrote on 8 Apr 2023, 01:36 last edited by@George-K , that's certainly a good way to look at it. The revenue models are different though. Substack takes a cut off subscriptions. Blogger does affiliated marketing (make money through displaying ads). I get the impression that Substack articles are usually longer than blog posts.
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@jon-nyc said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:
it’s a lot easier to create substack than to create Twitter
Substack is basically this year's version of blogger or any other platform for long-term essays, right?
wrote on 8 Apr 2023, 01:53 last edited by@George-K said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:
@jon-nyc said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:
it’s a lot easier to create substack than to create Twitter
Substack is basically this year's version of blogger or any other platform for long-term essays, right?
Exactly. No network effect, no social graph. They may have played with implementing these things but to no avail. Writers like it for the subscription model and generous early deals.
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wrote on 8 Apr 2023, 02:06 last edited by
Oh my, I just clicked on a substack link on Twitter and Elon gave me this:
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wrote on 8 Apr 2023, 13:37 last edited by
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wrote on 8 Apr 2023, 13:38 last edited by
My prediction is Elon will reverse this by tomorrow, latest,
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@jon-nyc i agree.
Wasn't there a time, shortly after Musk's takeover, that you couldn't link to outside sources?
Perhaps this is a bug, and not a feature, after all.
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@George-K said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:
@jon-nyc said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:
it’s a lot easier to create substack than to create Twitter
Substack is basically this year's version of blogger or any other platform for long-term essays, right?
Exactly. No network effect, no social graph. They may have played with implementing these things but to no avail. Writers like it for the subscription model and generous early deals.
wrote on 8 Apr 2023, 15:06 last edited by@jon-nyc said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:
@George-K said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:
@jon-nyc said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:
it’s a lot easier to create substack than to create Twitter
Substack is basically this year's version of blogger or any other platform for long-term essays, right?
Exactly. No network effect, no social graph. They may have played with implementing these things but to no avail.
They're still experimenting with this. The numbers are gradually tipping to discovery rather than referrals.
They also have a podcasting and chat function that's getting interesting.
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wrote on 8 Apr 2023, 19:19 last edited by
Josh Barro brings up the Streisand effect of this move.
You may have heard that Substack will soon be launching a feature called Notes, which will be a place to “post short-form content and share ideas… including posts, quotes, comments, images, and links.” In other words, the feature will be very similar to Twitter. You will even be able to “restack” another writer’s note.
The reason you may have heard is probably not that you saw Substack’s Wednesday announcement that Notes is coming. I mean, maybe you did — maybe it came to your inbox because you’re a big fan of Substack qua Substack and so you subscribe to Substack’s substack about Substack, On Substack. But probably not. I’m guessing if you heard, it’s because Substack’s announcement made Elon Musk mad, and he used Twitter to retaliate.
I suspect that’s true for everyone here.
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wrote on 8 Apr 2023, 19:41 last edited by
Anybody have a subscription? I’m thinking about it.
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wrote on 8 Apr 2023, 19:55 last edited by
I subscribe to a few folks on substack
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wrote on 8 Apr 2023, 20:07 last edited by
I subscribe to Glenn Loury there but I end up consuming his stuff through youtube.
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wrote on 9 Apr 2023, 00:05 last edited by
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Josh Barro brings up the Streisand effect of this move.
You may have heard that Substack will soon be launching a feature called Notes, which will be a place to “post short-form content and share ideas… including posts, quotes, comments, images, and links.” In other words, the feature will be very similar to Twitter. You will even be able to “restack” another writer’s note.
The reason you may have heard is probably not that you saw Substack’s Wednesday announcement that Notes is coming. I mean, maybe you did — maybe it came to your inbox because you’re a big fan of Substack qua Substack and so you subscribe to Substack’s substack about Substack, On Substack. But probably not. I’m guessing if you heard, it’s because Substack’s announcement made Elon Musk mad, and he used Twitter to retaliate.
I suspect that’s true for everyone here.
wrote on 9 Apr 2023, 00:35 last edited by@jon-nyc said in Taibbi leaves Twitter:
Josh Barro brings up the Streisand effect of this move.
You may have heard that Substack will soon be launching a feature called Notes, which will be a place to “post short-form content and share ideas… including posts, quotes, comments, images, and links.” In other words, the feature will be very similar to Twitter. You will even be able to “restack” another writer’s note.
The reason you may have heard is probably not that you saw Substack’s Wednesday announcement that Notes is coming. I mean, maybe you did — maybe it came to your inbox because you’re a big fan of Substack qua Substack and so you subscribe to Substack’s substack about Substack, On Substack. But probably not. I’m guessing if you heard, it’s because Substack’s announcement made Elon Musk mad, and he used Twitter to retaliate.
I suspect that’s true for everyone here.
I had literally never heard of Substack until Elon did this.
