Why Substack Notes is nothing like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or TikTok

Everybody's saying Substack built a Twitter clone. Sure, it's like Twitter — but without the lock-in, trolls, haters, bots, idiots and Elon Musk.

Substack this week publicly launched something called “Notes,” which is being described as “Twitter-like,” a “Twitter clone” and “Twitter-esque.”

And, in fact, Notes is like Twitter in the sense that you post things, re-post things, and you can add links, pictures and videos — you know, like all social networks except Instagram (where you can’t post links or re-post to followers).

“Tweets” are called “notes.” “Retweets” are called “restacks.”

And you can edit “notes” after they’re posted. Or noted. Or whatever.

A “Home” button gives you something akin to Twitter’s “For You” feature, containing the “notes” posted by writers you subscribe to on Substack, plus the people they recommend. A “Subscribed” tab shows you only the writers you subscribe to.

Mike’s List of reasons why Notes is way better than Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok

1. Ultra high signal-to-noise ratio

Twitter is being destroyed by Elon Musk, blunder by blunder, and matters less with each passing day. Musk is driving away the active users who produce the content that used to attract everyone else to the platform. And he’s removing verification next week, leaving in its place an ill-advised paid-priority scheme that uses the old badge from verification.

In fact, 10% of users used to produce 92% of all tweets from U.S. adults. This hyperactive minority, called the “Twitterati,” were journalists, thought leaders, prolific writers — the kind of people who use Substack.

While 10% of Twitter users produced 92% of the content, I would guess that 92% of Substack users produce 100% of the content. And these people are the new “Noterati” you’ll find using Notes.

2. Ultra-high attention span users

When Twitter launched with its original 140-character tweets and everyone called its use “microblogging,” people complained that it was all fluff for people with short attention spans. Even after conversation evolved from “this is what I had for lunch” to society-dividing political bickering, Twitter has always attracted people with no patience for long-form written content and complex ideas or arguments.

And TikTok? Forget it. TikTok both attracts and creates history’s shortest attention spans. Millions of TikTok’s post-literate users can’t even wait for 5-second videos to finish before swiping to the next, then the next, like crack-addicted rats in a lab experiment: Gimme a pellet! Gimme a pellet! Gimme a pellet!

At the far end of the attention-span spectrum you’ll find Substack users. Notes is a quick, short-form social network for people who love long-form content so much they pay for it.

3. You own your subscriber list

When I praised Substack Notes, my friends on Mastodon gave me chapter and fediverse on the folly of “embracing another corporate owned ecosystem.”

They have a great point when it comes to social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. But they miss the point on Substack.

Normal “corporate owned” social networks profit from controlling your interactions. The list of people who follow you is owned by the corporation, not you.

When Facebook banned me for criticizing Facebook, they kept the list of people who followed me. They took away my Facebook community.

When Google killed Google+, they deleted the list of people who followed me. They took away my Google+ community.

But if Substack were to ban me or close up shop, I take my community with me. (Just like on Mastodon.)

In fact I’ve published this newsletter, Mike’s List, on six different newsletter platforms in the 23 years of its existence.

Mike’s List is independent of Substack, and Substack can’t take away my Mike’s List community.

Everyone who “follows” me on Notes is on my downloadable subscriber list. And so the fediverse fears of corporate owned and corporate controlled ecosystems don’t apply to Substack.

4. No algorithmic filtering or sorting

The business model of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and especially TikTok is to use algorithmic filtering and sorting to addict you with outrage, anger, sex and cats. Notes shows you the posts of the people you follow. Period! (Or, in the case of Notes’ “Home” tab, it’s all the notes from the people you follow plus the people those people recommend.)

5. Almost no trolls, celebrities, bots or disinformation campaigns

Notes has close to none of the bad things everyone complains about with Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Close to no trolls, no celebrity airheads, no bots, no disinformation campaigns, no hate speech. Just quality conversation with smart people.

6. It’s the coolest place online right now

At any given moment, the menu of social sites includes an elitist one where users tend to be well educated, smart, substantive and often technologically literate. Back in the late 20th Century, when the Great Unwashed were discovering AOL, Prodigy and Compuserve, the brainy bunch congregated on The Well. In 1997, WIRED Magazine called The Well ”The world's most influential online community,” even though it had only around 10,000 users.

Ten years later, Twitter was presented at the 2007 South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) conference, and blew up — tripling the number of Tweets and exploding in users during the event. Between 2007 and 2010, Twitter was the cool and elite social site — when first tech journalists, then mainstream journalists, predominated but before the celebrities, politicians, trolls and Chinese disinformation bots took over.

Between 2011 and 2014, when Twitter joined Facebook and Instagram as a mainstream social network for the masses, Google+ became the cool elite social site for smart people except the Twitter-addicted journalists, who mostly hated Google+. Despite the media’s displeasure, Google+ was the best site for intelligent conversations. (As Google+ grew and platform chief Vic Gundotra lost control, Google inevitably did what Google does — they let it fall into a ruinous mess before killing it off.)

And so we find ourselves in 2023 with a new social salon for the smartest few: Substack Notes — The Well of our time.

While the knee-jerk take on Notes is that it’s a Twitter clone, the truth is that it’s a lot more like Mastodon (or, more accurately, more like the connected social sites based on the ActivityPub standard). While Notes is neither federated nor part of the fediverse, it shares the first five attributes on my list above about why Notes is way better than Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Notes differs from Mastodon mainly in that it’s a place where serious writers can make a living, and therefore a place that incentivizes committed engagement from brilliant writers.

Twitter is dying. The fediverse is the new public square. And Notes is a New York City cocktail party full of intellectuals, artists and brainy nerds. And YOU’RE invited!

Please join me for great conversations on Notes! (You can find my notes on my Substack profile page.)

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Mike’s List of Shameless Self Promotions

1. Amazon’s Sidewalk could be a big boon to business

2. Can’t hire? Can’t get hired? How to avoid the “Great Mismatch” trap!

3. Prediction: In the future, nearly everyone will believe that AI is sentient and conscious

4. Check out my travels, observations and ideas on my ELGAN.COM blog!

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Mike’s Location: Oaxaca, Mexico!

Seated from left to right, Chef Rodrigo Martinez, food super-influencer Salt Hank, my wife Amira Elgan, me, Chef Alex Ruiz, another chef and Jesus Ruiz at Oaxaca’s Las Barbacoas de Mexico, owned by the Ruiz family.