Some in our HIVE community like to think HIVE can be, or shall become, a kinda Reddit.
For a few months, I have been a subscriber to Substack. Pulled in by a podcast duo I've been following for some years already. Two guys I respect for different reasons. Two guys who are serial entrepreneurs. Two guys who try to do things differently. Two guys who want to change the world. Two guys who are on the cutting edge of technology. Two guys who focus on bringing all their knowledge to the general public through, amongst others, Podcasts, TV show appearances, lectures and their Substack channels. Two guys who give a platform to authors through their book publishing company.
The One 1 is a technology enthusiast, an accessible communicator. He co-founded several businesses in the past, including a Spotify for magazines - Blendle - and a platform to bring science to the general public - University of the Netherlands.
The Other 2 is a thoughtful, purposeful and curious thinker with a strong focus on conscious life choices. He was the co-founder of the best digital newspaper my country has, De Correspondent; An advertisement free, independent digital newspaper.
I just finished listening to their last weeks (podcast) in which these guys gave a fantastic idea for HIVE. Nope, not that they are thinking of HIVE. That's yours truly.
That is what both said. We - the world minus the US - need to become more independent from the US. Therefor we shall not promote a US homegrown service; we shall advocate for a 'clone' of said service under European law.
Whatever they said, I say:
Though Substack is around for kinda like 8 years or so, it is gaining traction, not only in my country (the Netherlands), but worldwide.
In the last few months, I have noticed an influx of new Substack channels launched, not only by Dutch TV show hosts and journalists (newspaper/magazines), but also by writers, technologists, opinion makers and many more. Last week, an ex-daily TV show host who was immensely popular for 15 years, launched his own Substack channel. Every single weekday, he posts a top 3 to 5 list. Topics can be anything. Thus far, 8 lists have been posted in the categories of lifestyle, family, comedy, music, poems, and events with his own mother. All brought with a touch of humour.
Anyway: It isn't about this Dutch ex-TV show host, nor about The One and the Other.
It is about the idea of launching a similar service to Substack using the HIVE blockchain as the backend, the database. The more independent from the US it can't get. The more independent from any nation it can't get.
Usually, I go deep into the service, the possibilities, the features, the business case and whatnot, before I openly talk about it. But this time, I simply follow my gut feeling, triggered by these two guys I respect so much.
I am not an expert Substack user, hence I can't just push out all the features it has. But the core of Substack is a platform with a subscription model, facilitating newsletters, both unpaid and paid ones. It has email and other notification types. It has a bunch of social media features such as like, follow, re-stack, share. I suppose, we have much - if not all - the features. We just need a frontend - in various formats - to create such a service.
Call it something like:
more serious
Ah, well, I'm not the marketing guy who can come up with flashy names. Am sure we have people in our community being mucho better with this.
Obviously, I checked Substack's main website. To get a bit of a flavour what Substack is, the...
- ...about page: https://substack.com/about
...and six articles...
I am open to brainstorming, for questions, advice, ...
2 The Other: Ernst-Jan Pfauth - Substack - Instagram - LinkedIn
I think it's a -very- viable idea! PeakD would be in a good position to to develop the ability to create payed subscription blogs. Can anyone convince them ?
And... from a marketing perspective, the name (brand) isn't the most important thing; it's the names of renown, interesting bloggers that give it its value (charge the brand). We'd need to convince some sub-stacker (arme stakkers...😇) to move to HIVE...
PeakD is to complex UI.
Sure they can do it, but UX needs to top notch, including removing all complexities.
Also, it needs 100% native smartphone apps.
It needs ThreeSpeak to work flawlessly.
Those are all things that must be taken care of.
Regarding branding: True, agree with what you said there, mostly. Not taking care of branding at all, is not good as well.
Yeah make sense. Substack model will be much easier to understand. User can subscribe with Hive and the author will earn monthly rewards.
Maybe not replacing what currently exists (blogging platform), more like a blogger on WordPress then expanding the audience via substack.
My thoughts: Allow subscriptions in fiat currencies. Same as Substack does.
Perhaps even hide HIVE rewards. Perhaps present HIVE/HBD rewards to posts as a point system, a bonus.
HIVE wallet creation under the hood, ie no special actions required by subscribers, until the moment they want to claim HIVE/HP/HBD, but then the subscriber is already onboard.
The whole idea, make the UX in onboarding as simple as onboarding to Substack.
Anything related to HIVE/blockchains, execute under the hood and introduce the extra's only when the subscriber is initiating this later on.
In terms of UX: frontends needs to work as swiftly with the same performance and UX as Substack and other 'normal' social media does. Requires a high-quality smartphone App as well.
If somehow we can integrate with Substack, to extend the Substack service, or make 'transition' and/or 'extension' of Substack subscribers to DeStack easier, then include such integration as well.
Not really a Substack user, so I cannot suggest much.
Except for a better name. ÜberStack or SupraStack. Or something of this nature, as the oposit to the sub- prefix.
SupraStack, I like!
Sub is short for subscriber, I think.
Though I like DeStack for the reason that in my language De = The.
At the same time DE = short for Decentralised
Could also be DEStack. As in THE Stack 🥳
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