Public Announcement...
... about the difference between Being a Subscriber and a Follower
No, not both of them necessarily love the author
Until now, I thought there was no difference, but today, as I sometimes do it, sent out an e-mail to everyone about an important addition to my previous article, and I was able to send it only to subscribers.
I may have been one of the last ones to notice this, but I doubt too many readers know the difference. Basically, it looks like a subscriber also supports the site, at least in spirit, while a follower remains an observer without the inspiration to contribute (still, all features, including comments, are free on my site). The latter are missing out on e-mail messages that I append to previous posts or in which I send out pieces of important information that are not in any of my articles.
Substack has been making things more complicated by adding all this "new" stuff. It may be a component of something else they plan to add later. Perhaps with "Chat," they may try to connect "Following" so there is a continuous feed. I haven't really used it since it was introduced.
Simple is better, Less stuff is more quality, usually.
I rarely just follow. If I am interested at all, I sub. Thanks for pointing out the difference!