Twitter Meltdown part 2: Don't fall in love with a platform

They can change on you. Even Substack. It's time to get control over your access to communities and networks.

[Part 1]

This morning, I read

Written Ward

and found out that Substack will be rolling out a “bestseller badge” to highlight Substackers with paid subscribers. Perhaps this was Substack’s attempt to show up Twitter after their #TwitterBlue disaster, but they will be rolling out not one, but three checkmarks:

• Purple: tens of thousands of paid subscribers

• Orange: thousands of paid subscribers

• White: hundreds of paid subscribers.

Basically, accounts with, say, hundreds of paid subscribers will receive a white checkmark and so on. I already see it on some people’s profiles.

At the time of this writing, the reaction is mostly negative. Most of the 500+ comments in the article slammed the move.

I’m one of them. It’s a dispiriting, short-sighted move that will rob the platform of its current vibrancy and uniqueness, turning it into yet another social media platform where one needs to compete to be seen. The people who stand to benefit from these will be the high producers, the good marketers, the ones with already large audiences.

Substacks with small audiences will be the most affected.