Substack Introduces Follows

Cheat code for following the right people! LMAO

Friends,

Are you ready for the great flurry of following in the microcosm of Notes? Where which writer are nuding elbows with whom, might matter? Did you know all of this social graph is visible for all to see?

Each new small feature on Substack is now a sign of the totalitarian world to come and picked apart by the various mobs Substack has inherited from Twitter (apparently!). I was aghast when I saw the comments on this post.

• What is “Following” on Substack primer.

Now it seems on the app there is some forced nudges of sharing of contacts via Google/Facebook (I would not know I don’t use the app).

But I’ve noticed also the Follows are public, so I can see who important people on Substack are following and maybe follow them and maybe get in on some of their Notes with a comment.

Substack’s Social Graph Unhinged and Unveiled

You just need to add “/following” to someone’s ID to see publically who they follow, and gamified and curious as I am it’s sort of amusing as a mini-game:

It’s a bit of a cheat code you see, let’s say I wanted to follow more people from Investing corners of Substack, the former FinTwit gang, well I’d look up Linda who works with them and see who she follows:

https://substack.com/@linda/following

And voila! I have instant access to some of the most important people on Substack in Finance (actually Investing)! Now you get where I am going with this.

1. Our own Notes are not getting much traction

2. What about inserting ourselves into the conversions with bigger writers and Sub-celebrities?

3. What about category discovery? Simply find someone who works in a category or is a big-wig in a category and see who they are following.

Now let me talk to you about what I really discovered here, and sort of ramble a bit.