So yeah, I don't think that Substack is solving the "rage" problem. It could be, as this article says, that major authors need to cultivate rage to get new subscriptions. But it may simply be the case that people are happy to pay for rage, which would directly undercut the point Substack is trying to make in https://on.substack.com/p/breaking-off-the-engagement , the article that TFA is responding to:
> While platforms that depend on ad sales must harvest attention any way they can, platforms that depend on people’s willingness to pay must foster trust and satisfaction. Writers succeed only if readers are happy, and in turn platforms succeed only if writers are happy. In this world, users are finally at the table rather than on the menu.
"Happy" is a funny word. Regardless of whether you agree with him, it should be pretty clear that most of Greenwald's Substack isn't things he intends the reader to be happy about. What's probably true is that paying readers want to see the information and are happy that they are receiving the information, but that's very different from saying that the readers are paying to be happy.
So yeah, I don't think that Substack is solving the "rage" problem. It could be, as this article says, that major authors need to cultivate rage to get new subscriptions. But it may simply be the case that people are happy to pay for rage, which would directly undercut the point Substack is trying to make in https://on.substack.com/p/breaking-off-the-engagement , the article that TFA is responding to:
> While platforms that depend on ad sales must harvest attention any way they can, platforms that depend on people’s willingness to pay must foster trust and satisfaction. Writers succeed only if readers are happy, and in turn platforms succeed only if writers are happy. In this world, users are finally at the table rather than on the menu.
"Happy" is a funny word. Regardless of whether you agree with him, it should be pretty clear that most of Greenwald's Substack isn't things he intends the reader to be happy about. What's probably true is that paying readers want to see the information and are happy that they are receiving the information, but that's very different from saying that the readers are paying to be happy.