Notes on Notes and the Emerging Substack Ecosystem

Hey all,

I know the majority of subscribers interact with Episodic Medium through the emails you receive in your inboxes, but part of what Substack is aiming to achieve as it grows is creating more opportunities for writers to connect with their readers. This was something that was at the heart of starting this newsletter in the first place, and so I’m excited to see the arrival of Substack Notes, which effectively gives writers of newsletters opportunities to share links, offers thoughts, and start conversations…well, pretty much exactly like they’d do on Twitter.

In terms of what I’ll use it for, that’s a great question—inherently, these Notes are likely to go to the most-engaged readers of the site, and so the best way to think of it is as an internal dialogue about the site. For example, I could use a Note to announce that I’m traveling this week and unable to watch Survivor live, so I’ll be posting a discussion post and filling it in at a later date. But Notes are also an opportunity to find others within the Substack network interested in discussing the shows we’re covering, so there’s a range of different functions to take into account.

How to join

Head to substack.com/notes or find the “Notes” tab in the Substack app. As a subscriber to Episodic Medium, you’ll automatically see my notes, along with any other Substacks you subscribe to. Obviously, liking/sharing/etc. is preferred engagement, but you know your level of participation better than anyone else.

You can also share notes of your own, although I would argue that our Chat area remains the best space in which to raise questions and have other conversations—this is just the version of the discussion that Substack hopes will pull in new users to the Substack ecosystem, compared to chat’s more isolated impact.

If you encounter any issues, you can always refer to the Notes FAQ for assistance. In the meantime, thank you as always for your engagement with the site and its content, and I look forward to seeing how this continues to build our conversations in the months to come.