Thank you, gentlemen, for an illuminating conversation and for the valiant attempt to de-mystify the algorithmic mysteries of Substack. As Simon alluded to a couple of times, it's great that Substack is interested in offering us a peek behind the curtain so we can all get some idea about what's going on back there.
I find the algorithm mysterious, not in a 'I'm trying to crack the code' type of way but out of pure curiosity. Even though I started my newsletter in July 2023, I didn't start hanging out actively in Notes until Sept 2024. From then till now, I've preferred not to change my setting to 'Following', instead getting a variety of new and diverse voices. I spread myself pretty thin and try as much as I can to mess with the algorithm (in a nice way, of course) so I get a rich range of ideas. That said, I still find it odd that I see some of the same people again and again (who I don't follow) posting stuff that hardly relates to my interests or the types of posts I click on and engage with. And I see a lot of newer people without any followers popping up, and I suspect that's because I engage with a lot these newbies - I guess I'm trying to spread the love and show them the ropes? Maybe that's why I see so many new people?
I posted about this earlier, but thankfully I've seen far fewer of those classic 'subscribe to me and I'll subscribe to you' notes, which drove us all mad. I used to restack these with snarky comments to embarrass them and publicly shame them into not doing it again and I thought 'wow, perhaps I made a difference!' How naive of me - I was told that these notes are still finding their way through, but perhaps all of my pranking got rid of them from my timeline.
Simon, as someone about to start serialising fiction and who has been getting into serialised fiction, I appreciated your insights on what's going on there.
Thank you, gentlemen, for an illuminating conversation and for the valiant attempt to de-mystify the algorithmic mysteries of Substack. As Simon alluded to a couple of times, it's great that Substack is interested in offering us a peek behind the curtain so we can all get some idea about what's going on back there.
I find the algorithm mysterious, not in a 'I'm trying to crack the code' type of way but out of pure curiosity. Even though I started my newsletter in July 2023, I didn't start hanging out actively in Notes until Sept 2024. From then till now, I've preferred not to change my setting to 'Following', instead getting a variety of new and diverse voices. I spread myself pretty thin and try as much as I can to mess with the algorithm (in a nice way, of course) so I get a rich range of ideas. That said, I still find it odd that I see some of the same people again and again (who I don't follow) posting stuff that hardly relates to my interests or the types of posts I click on and engage with. And I see a lot of newer people without any followers popping up, and I suspect that's because I engage with a lot these newbies - I guess I'm trying to spread the love and show them the ropes? Maybe that's why I see so many new people?
I posted about this earlier, but thankfully I've seen far fewer of those classic 'subscribe to me and I'll subscribe to you' notes, which drove us all mad. I used to restack these with snarky comments to embarrass them and publicly shame them into not doing it again and I thought 'wow, perhaps I made a difference!' How naive of me - I was told that these notes are still finding their way through, but perhaps all of my pranking got rid of them from my timeline.
Simon, as someone about to start serialising fiction and who has been getting into serialised fiction, I appreciated your insights on what's going on there.