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PaperclipPerfector  21hr ago (text post)   637 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for May 23, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Why are Substack comments universally so stupid and so worshipful? Where do these ball-washers hide out all the time? It might be the worst comment section on the internet, I just don't know where these people come from. I mostly read substacks that are from weird, pseudo-hyper-masc, heterodox writers; and then the comments are all "WOW DUDE WHAT AN AMAZING ARTICLE IT'S ALMOST AS GOOD AS YOUR LAST ARTICLE!"

Maybe I'm just used to here where the comment that starts out "great post" normally moves on to "In paragraph three I think that you misphrased the way Churchill thought..."

But like, is everyone paying for fake AI comments? Is there just a vast reserve of ball-washers on the internet? Are these guys just Soundcloud-tier substack writers hoping that if they're positive about a popular writer someone will notice them?

There's a pretty large contingent of dumb-right people lurking around especially on the heterodox, there's the Hinkle crowd. I don't understand the mind of anyone who's super into multilateral world order or BRICS content today but they are around and people are catering to them. It's a big mistake to discredit ideas simply because some dumb or cringe people are also following them IMO, ideas should be judged on their own merit.

Also could you give an example of the substacks you're talking about, there are many genres of this stuff.

Back when I got the paper every day, I'd always read the op-eds, and there were some writers I agreed with regularly, some I disagreed with regularly, and some where there was no clear tendency. The thing was, though, that I wasn't getting the paper for the op-eds, let alone one person's thrice-weekly column. Substacks are necessarily limited to the kind of people who are not only willing to seek out one columnist but pay money for a subscription to a service that provides nothing but material from that columnist, so the comments sections are going to be hopeless fanboys rather than a broad segment of the public.

Seriously, though, who pays for these things anyway? I mean, I like Matt Taibbi, but if I spent $7/month on every writer I liked as much as Taibbi I'd be shelling out hundreds just for Substack subscriptions.

To be "hundreds" there would have to be at least ~25 writers you like as much as Taibbi. Which is definitely plausible, especially if they're less prolific, but I bet that means you have good recommendations. Would you be up for sharing a list of 10 or so writers you like as much as Taibbi, with like a sentence about why you like them?

I've got nothing but good impression's of Scott's comment section. I'd comment more, but I'm intimidated by the sheer speed with which people come up with high quality comments and insightful thoughts mere minutes after a post. I confess I never really check out other Substack comments, but I have a neutral opinion from what I've seen.

When you pay $5 a month not just for a newspaper but for a specific person’s article you are very likely to develop a milder version of the sort of parasocial relationship people have with their favorite YouTuber or streamer.

I really want a pretty print magazine.

I know someone who works in niche print magazine publishing who says they do pretty well. It’s all niche fashion, literature, photography, food, travel magazines where each copy is like $20 sold through specialist stores (mostly retail), so the number of copies you need to sell is actually quite modest. Depending on where you live I’m sure there’s some hip print stores that stock them.

"Substack is just OnlyFans for intellectuals"?

Is there just a vast reserve of ball-washers on the internet?

Yes, and as more people get online the worse it gets. This is further magnified by negative comments increasingly getting filtered (often automatically) and positive ones getting boosted.

Its in general not in a content creator's interest to have their comment section not being positive, regardless of actual audience reaction.

It might be the worst comment section on the internet

How can you say that when YouTube exists?

Pick a song that came out earlier than this year. The top comment on that song will be "Anyone in 2025?" It's the most retarded thing ever.

That's a kind of inoffensive stupidity though. Overt obsequiousness is just unpleasant.

like, is everyone paying for fake AI comments?

I fear there’s every chance of this.

I haven’t noticed many good comment sections.

Scott Alexander (Astral Codex Ten) has a mature type of commenter, which is probably to be expected.

George Saunders (Story Club) has a very committed and engaged community, definitely more rounded than your tongue-in-cheek example.

Paul Kingsnorth (Abbey of Misrule) has a very good community who engages reliably.

Even these top 1% are often characterised by positivity towards the poster. It’s very much a leader-follower dynamic.

I haven't read a ton of ACT and even less of the comments (due to tech issues with substack comments) but are they better than the SSC blog comments? Things were getting pretty dire towards the end there.

I'd say not as good as 2014 era commentariat but better than 2019 era commentariat.

It’s been a while since I checked but in general comments there are (a) plentiful and (b) quite long. Those two put it in the top 0.001% of Substack blogs. That’s a different measure than: “are they objectively good comments?” I’m not sure there’s much on the internet that’s objectively good anymore. Enshittification effect, borne out of generalised ADHD-like behaviour created by algorithms.

I meant more in the sense of the percentage of people glazing Scott.

I understand. And you’re probably right.

I haven't really noticed that. Most of the time I just see a complete lack of comments. I think the writers are pained by that. I see some of them on discord and x, subtly or not subtly longing for more engagement. It could be that some of them go the route of paying for engagement in the same way that e.g. a restaurant can pay for fake reviews. I assume they probably figure that 'it'll get the show started, and then the real organic engagement starts and snowballs!'

Honestly, I've never posted a reply on substack as far as I can remember, but I was considering doing it one of these days, and I was gonna just straight up praise and gush... I'd be one of the ball-washers you describe. Because the blog in question is a very very good one. When I see strongly coherent and inspiring writing that speaks to me from start to finish, I'm genuinely impressed. Because it's pretty rare and not that easy to accomplish. It takes time and practice and skill to consistently write well. And to do it for several pages on end? Takes energy and commitment too.

I've never been good at writing long texts myself. I didn't really learn how to do it in school, and didn't have a supportive home environment to cultivate skills. Despite being a pretty good wordcel by nature (at least the receptive/decoding part), I wrote as little as I could get away with in school for various reasons: bad teachers, depression and anxiety, difficulty with identifying and putting feelings and thoughts into words because of alexithymia and low confidence, and so on. When I had to do it in university it was a pain and a stressful chore on which to procrastinate and agonize. It still doesn't come naturally. There's probably some critical/sensitive zones involved in the developmental psychology of a good writer. Then there's the part of self-construal: do you believe others have any interest and approval of what you might write? Would it be 'legit' in front of a public audience, etc.

Perhaps I'm not the only one who's secretly a bit worshipful of the people who quickly produce great texts without straining the shit out of their brain muscles, somewhat like how a tech-illiterate might ooh and aah at the wizardry when you press ctrl+alt+del and shut down a frozen task, heh.

Complete lack of comments is probably 99% of substacks. Including mine, disappointingly. (I’m as prone to dopamine attraction as the next man…)

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