"When the gods wish to punish us they merely answer our prayers."
I hit it 15 times and 13 of them were spam or abandoned single posts. I suspect in the current age in which everyone writes and no one reads curation is where the real demand is.
I've asked someone at Substack about the issue of abandoned newsletters. I should also mention the spam.
I think this is also the curse of new features on websites. The feature needs to be tested, found somewhat wanting, and then improved.
I agree that curation has significant value. But overall I'm fairly impressed with the quality of Substack newsletters that aren't abandoned or spam. I'll be visiting random newsletters frequently.
I share your goal of finding new interesting Substacks and it was cool of them to make it. Perhaps I shouldn't have speculated on the market and just left it at that I'm disappointed.
It's possible that the current database for this random link only includes newsletters at *.substack.com, rather than a separate domain. I've asked someone at Substack about this issue as well.
I hit the random button seven times and found nothing of any interest to me. Four of them took me to a page that hasn't even started yet. One was a sports page and I'm so not into sports. Right now punching the 'random' button feels like a complete waste of time.
Unless they can create a button that will take me to pages I might actually be interested in, based on my own page or reading history, I'll pass.
My next post should be called "Substack Needs a Better Random Button." 🙏 Or, more to your point, "Substack Needs a Related Pages Feature."
The idea that Substack might suggest pages related to a post or newsletter had crossed my mind. I'm not sure about pages related to reading history, since that will indicate to users that Substack is compiling their reading history.
I think I read somewhere that Substack isn't into algorithms and that's a good thing, but 'random' may end up being a nightmare for them unless they can figure out a way to make it useful. Thanks for this. I hope it sparks some discussion.
I love this! Although it might take quite a few clicks to find something you like - Ramona makes a good point that it would be better if you could filter your choices by subject matter. Think I'll steal your idea for a 'random' button in one of my newsletters 😉
an actual randomized link would eventually only produce garbage links. Because as the amount of substacks that gets created goes up, so does the amount of dead substacks. Enjoy the button now if it even gives 1 out of 10 active engaged substacks.
Right, all substack are mortals, therefore Aristotle is a cat or something. But it's worse than that actually, 90% of random substacks I've encountered are not just dead, they are empty. Maybe a short description but no posts at all. Maybe there would be a way to exclude just these? I still find random substacking quite enjoyable I must say. The one substack in ten that has something in it is not necessarily a subscription, but it's still a nice feeling, like meeting a stranger and exchanging a few words.
"When the gods wish to punish us they merely answer our prayers."
I hit it 15 times and 13 of them were spam or abandoned single posts. I suspect in the current age in which everyone writes and no one reads curation is where the real demand is.
I've asked someone at Substack about the issue of abandoned newsletters. I should also mention the spam.
I think this is also the curse of new features on websites. The feature needs to be tested, found somewhat wanting, and then improved.
I agree that curation has significant value. But overall I'm fairly impressed with the quality of Substack newsletters that aren't abandoned or spam. I'll be visiting random newsletters frequently.
I share your goal of finding new interesting Substacks and it was cool of them to make it. Perhaps I shouldn't have speculated on the market and just left it at that I'm disappointed.
It's possible that the current database for this random link only includes newsletters at *.substack.com, rather than a separate domain. I've asked someone at Substack about this issue as well.
I hit the random button seven times and found nothing of any interest to me. Four of them took me to a page that hasn't even started yet. One was a sports page and I'm so not into sports. Right now punching the 'random' button feels like a complete waste of time.
Unless they can create a button that will take me to pages I might actually be interested in, based on my own page or reading history, I'll pass.
My next post should be called "Substack Needs a Better Random Button." 🙏 Or, more to your point, "Substack Needs a Related Pages Feature."
The idea that Substack might suggest pages related to a post or newsletter had crossed my mind. I'm not sure about pages related to reading history, since that will indicate to users that Substack is compiling their reading history.
I think I read somewhere that Substack isn't into algorithms and that's a good thing, but 'random' may end up being a nightmare for them unless they can figure out a way to make it useful. Thanks for this. I hope it sparks some discussion.
I love this! Although it might take quite a few clicks to find something you like - Ramona makes a good point that it would be better if you could filter your choices by subject matter. Think I'll steal your idea for a 'random' button in one of my newsletters 😉
an actual randomized link would eventually only produce garbage links. Because as the amount of substacks that gets created goes up, so does the amount of dead substacks. Enjoy the button now if it even gives 1 out of 10 active engaged substacks.
Right, all substack are mortals, therefore Aristotle is a cat or something. But it's worse than that actually, 90% of random substacks I've encountered are not just dead, they are empty. Maybe a short description but no posts at all. Maybe there would be a way to exclude just these? I still find random substacking quite enjoyable I must say. The one substack in ten that has something in it is not necessarily a subscription, but it's still a nice feeling, like meeting a stranger and exchanging a few words.