Substack Platform Audit
Substack, as an online publishing platform, provides writers with many pages and features. With those features comes a variety of affordances that writers on the site can use to their advantage.
Substack offers a 'Share this post' button, which allows readers to engage with published material by either copying the link, reposting it on twitter/Facebook, or sending as an email. The share feature provides a specific purpose with the intention of sharing the post. The affordance is visibility. The share button allows published work to gain visibility across larger audiences. When articles are shared, it increases views, thus increasing the blog's attraction. Further, as we learned in class, a single feature may offer multiple affordances. Another affordance that the 'share this post' button provides is monetary gain. Increased viewership will create more views, which will convert into more money made if the writer has chosen to make their content paid. These affordances go beyond the features' immediate action of copying a link and allow increased work visibility and monetary gain.
Building upon the affordance of monetary gain. Substack as a platform aims to influence and shape their users by encouraging the publication of content on a paid-for basis. On the writer's side, there is a feature where content can be placed below a 'paywall.' Under this paywall, the content is only available to those who have paid or are already subscribed. This feature offers an affordance of exclusivity of content and branding. Offering exclusive content to an audience can help create a stronger and more loyal relationship with your reader and filter out possible audiences who may not relate to your articles. Establishing your brand as 'exclusive' also increases curiosity about content and the desire to see what is beyond the paywall.
Lastly, SubstackSubstack encourages writers to use the platform not only as a place to publish work but as a hub for brainstorming and drafting future articles. The 'version history' feature saves work as the writer goes and works as a location to return to previous ideas. This feature allows writers to use SubstackSubstack as they would google docs, for example, providing an affordance of editability. SubstackSubstack is a platform that provides features that can offer users multiple affordances that shape how writers interact with the platform. Writers can use specific Substack specific features that will provide them with increased visibility, monetary gain, the exclusivity of content, branding, and editability.