I found you on Reddit. I go back and forth between trying to connect with people there and hoping the Substack algorithm works in my favor. But the leaderboard system and algorithmic feed incite doomful competition, and as soon as I see it, I log out. It buries excellent writers. Why am I seeing the top 100 when I want to see the middle or bottom 1000?
Your post reminded me why I miss the internet of the '90s. I loved spending a night in and old-school chatroom or on ICQ with friends from the next district over. Now, everything is polished and everyone needs to be seen and validated. It’s depressing, especially when you just want to create but need to fight an algorithm to connect.
Hey, thanks for commenting. I know exactly what you mean, re: that feeling of needing to fight an algorithm to simply find and connect with people. I miss blogrolls, I miss hobby forums, I miss goofing off in chat rooms, I miss being able to use a search engine and NOT having to sift through bland, soulless websites that exist solely to serve ads ... Algorithmic content delivery has more or less ruined the internet for me.
I do think, though, that we still have *some* power to fight back against algorithmic feeds that are designed to turn us into nice little passive consumers -- even here on Substack. While the search results and category tabs are obviously still affected by the algorithm, you may find (as I do) that you enjoy Substack more if you ignore your Notes homepage completely. I've found most of the authors I follow here by taking an old school approach to it and manually seeking out new stuff to read. Reddit helps on occasion, too!
I found you on Reddit. I go back and forth between trying to connect with people there and hoping the Substack algorithm works in my favor. But the leaderboard system and algorithmic feed incite doomful competition, and as soon as I see it, I log out. It buries excellent writers. Why am I seeing the top 100 when I want to see the middle or bottom 1000?
Your post reminded me why I miss the internet of the '90s. I loved spending a night in and old-school chatroom or on ICQ with friends from the next district over. Now, everything is polished and everyone needs to be seen and validated. It’s depressing, especially when you just want to create but need to fight an algorithm to connect.
Hey, thanks for commenting. I know exactly what you mean, re: that feeling of needing to fight an algorithm to simply find and connect with people. I miss blogrolls, I miss hobby forums, I miss goofing off in chat rooms, I miss being able to use a search engine and NOT having to sift through bland, soulless websites that exist solely to serve ads ... Algorithmic content delivery has more or less ruined the internet for me.
I do think, though, that we still have *some* power to fight back against algorithmic feeds that are designed to turn us into nice little passive consumers -- even here on Substack. While the search results and category tabs are obviously still affected by the algorithm, you may find (as I do) that you enjoy Substack more if you ignore your Notes homepage completely. I've found most of the authors I follow here by taking an old school approach to it and manually seeking out new stuff to read. Reddit helps on occasion, too!
Welcome, Stephanie 😊