We need to talk (yet again): Join me on Notes!
Let me tell you about Substack Notes ... one more new place for us to hang out
One of my favorite things about Substack since I entered this universe: There is no shortage of mechanisms offered by this platform for all of us to connect.
And now there's yet another new venue for us to do just that on top of Substack Chat and the regular meet-ups for denizens of The Stein Line community that we've been having in the comment section beneath stories.
This week marked the launch of Substack Notes. It's a social media feed that has been likened to Twitter and frankly does have a lot of similarities with the NBA’s favorite app, which inspired Elon Musk to take measures last week to throttle links to Substack pieces and complicate other interactions between this platform and his. He apparently wasn’t looking forward to Substack Notes.
Me? Into it already. (No character limit, for starters, has been a plus.)
If you want to give Substack Notes a whirl to interact directly with countless Substack writers and readers, click the orange button to check it out. Enclosed as well is an FAQ to help guide you.
I'm still learning the ins and outs myself. And let’s be clear: NBA Twitter is sure to remain the preeminent social media space for inhabitants of every corner of the ecosystem in #thisleague until players start launching their own Substacks. Yet it's sure nice to have alternatives in these times — especially when things sadly can get toxic too quickly. So ...
If you want to try something else out to get your social fix, this social feed within a subscription network is a very easy-to-use alternative. Word is up to six pictures and/or GIFs can be added to your posts — no video yet — and I'm quite confident that you'll take to it naturally.
An example of a Note from yours truly:
Also handy: It's never been simpler to subscribe to an enticing Substack within each Note because an orange invite to subscribe to any publisher's publication is right there for you prominently displayed within the Note.
I wish I was technologically savvy enough to invent a NoteDeck companion to rival my preferred display system for tweets. Hopefully someone more capable than me is already working on it while we're all getting the hang of sharing links, photos, quick takes, Substack excerpts and, yes, some inevitable snark here at this new address. You’ll find a Notes tab both online at substack.com and in Substack's mobile apps.
One quick note from the Substack Engineering Team:
This release is an early version of the product that we have been testing with a small group of writers in recent weeks. We expect it to have bumps, bugs and imperfections and for it to evolve rapidly in response to feedback. If you have ideas, please let us know —preferably in Notes!
How to join
Head to substack.com/notes or find the “Notes” tab in the Substack app. As a subscriber to The Stein Line, you’ll automatically see my submissions. Feel free to like, reply or share them around!
You can also share Notes of your own. I hope this becomes a space where every reader of The Stein Line can offer thoughts, ideas and interesting quotes from the things we're reading on Substack and beyond.
We repeat: You can always refer to the Notes FAQ for assistance if you encounter any issues. See you there!