Thread

Tweet 1

@eriklaes Substack doesn't have ads right? It has the ability to (roughly) tell who opened e-mails by tracking image loads. Is that such a bad thing? To me it seems benign. It seems like the sort of thing that should have been in e-mail originally.

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Tweet 2

@eriklaes Isn't monetization a good thing? It's not the right order of magnitude to solve the local news problem as you lay it out but why shouldn't it be a part of a solution? Nothings stopping people from starting a substack and covering local news. Why shouldn't they ask readers to pay?

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Tweet 3

@eriklaes The poaching thing is a little strange. They're not really making a market for writing so much as making writers aware that there is a market for their writing. Substack makes a profit on their advances. Writers like Yglesias already could have made 6+ figures on their writing.

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Tweet 4

@eriklaes It feels all substack did is give the writers permission to ask for money and readers permission to pay? It's weird to put a buymeacoffee or patreon at the top of your medium or blogger but not weird to ask people to pay to subscribe to your substack.

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