Is Substack Now Turning Completely Fake?
Cross-Publishing on Substack? -- Warning: You might earn a few more bucks, but you are only losing your credibility...
Are you a frog in the fish?
Substack made cross-publishing available about 10 days ago. However, only a few days ago, I noticed that small “authors” started to cross-publish sources of questionable value.
That can mean three things:
The “small” author, who has been authentic until now, is now linked to a source, whose credibility hampers that of the small authors;
The “small” author wants to receive more visitors (#1 doesn’t exclude #2), either for traffic or for an increase of paying “subscribers.”
It is a lure that small an authentic authors set up in order to attract attention, which will spread their good contents over the place to a lot larger audience than they have been receiving before.
Either way, the game is clear for all sides.
At the beginning, I warned my fellow authors that combining sources would be a good idea, but cross-publishing would only attract unnecessary attention, so we should simply place links to each other’s articles in our articles or in comment sections.
However, the contradiction that small-timers cross-publish questionable sources presents, prevails.
Is it possible that even small authors’ sites have been mirrored by now? I did notice a substantial decrease in the number of commenters about two weeks ago, which has been followed by a number of “glitches” on a daily basis. Based on what I have known about my fellow authors, it is highly possible that the whole site has not been turned into something absolutely fake…
The cross publishing implies that the Substack author agrees with everything that they have cross published.
Would be better if they did a critique of the other's work or said which parts they thought were spot on.
It surely is aligning themselves with a *greater* authority. Joining some one else's club.
I don't see how it gets them more subscribers, it's only their initial subscribers who will see the cross publishing.
I sometimes wonder Ray at your giving unequivocal praise for another's Substack.
You know me, I only gift myself monthly subs, because I might change my outlook, and the person whom I thought smart, might have only been a one trick pony, who hasn't kept up.
I suspect cross posting is used by those who cant offer any original content or who are too busy but want to keep their paid subscribers. Or maybe they hope a big fish will reciprocate and help them (little fish) grow.
I don't care. I enjoy my solitude. I do fear Substack is looking more like Twitter, and will soon resort to shadowbanning.
I actually got more subscribers before I started emailing my posts in March, and wonder if that's how it will be done. Now they have to work with Apple and Google for their app, and they seem pretty tight with Twitter, so it seems inevitable. As Elon says, Freedom of Speech, no Freedom of Reach unless you say something they want amplified