Substack's company blog explains its product changes, writer payments, content moderation approach, and its relationship with platforms and media.
Commenters cite it for Substack's hands-off moderation stance and its discovery plans, and some hope funding won't bring pressure to censor content.
I really hope this injection of funding does not come with requirements or pressures to censor content on Substack. Thus far, they've been doing a great job being hands off with their moderation for the most part (https://blog.substack.com/p/how-we-approach-moderation-decisions). However, anti-free-speech/pro-censorship activists have been stepping up their usual tactics to pressure Substack into deplatforming authors. Many news outlets have also been running stories attacking Substack for hosting reasonable, legal discourse that runs against their ideological biases.
I am very glad to subscribe and pay for authors I follow on Substack. If Substack ever implements a censorship regime that goes much beyond blocking spam or removing illegal content, I will move on. I simply see no differentiation for such a product if it ends up being another Twitter/Facebook/Medium/whatever with the same old content that repeats progressive worldviews and disallows everything else.
They're going to get that anyway for hosting people. And if you read their writing on the subject they do want to improve discovery as well as giving direct support to specific writers:
https://blog.substack.com/p/substacks-view-of-content-moderation
"At the same time, while we take a hands-off approach with who may use the platform, we will continue to take an active approach in helping and promoting promising writers. We are doing this by improving discovery on the platform and building programs, such as fellowships, grants, and mentorship, to support writers. Our partnerships team will also continue to work with high-revenue and high-potential writers."
So I'm not sure this claim about avoiding recommendations is actually true.
Guessing…
Being a YC company¹, presumably the overlap with people who are aware of both is quite high. They also pay some "big names" an advance to write², and again the overlap of chosen people/interests seems likely to align to some extent.
FWIW, there was a time when the front page basically felt like a Medium indexer, and I imagine this cycle will eventually be the same as the platform changes/dilutes/grows(delete as appropriate).
¹ https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/substack
² https://blog.substack.com/p/why-we-pay-writers
Reading this made me wonder if one could use Substack in a similar way, and it appears that they do have a 'private' option that is available for free or paid authors. [1]
I imagine that limits what you can do with layout/formatting, but eliminates some of the complexity around helping grandma log in (since she could get emails with the content and also with a login link).
Disclosure: I am not affiliated with Substack; I don't even have an account.
1: https://blog.substack.com/p/new-private-substacks