Why Substack?

My reasons for starting an Another Angry Voice Substack

Over the years I’ve built up substantial social media followings on Facebook (380,000) and Twitter (45,000) but things haven’t been going well recently, so I’m trying to diversify my platforms to help as many readers as possible to access my content.

At the absolute peak of Another Angry Voice on Facebook I was achieving astonishing levels of virality with my infographics, articles, and posts, to such an extent I was the most widely shared political writer during the 2017 general election campaign.

Over the following years Facebook has deliberately tuned down the visibility of my content to such an extent that it’s now normal for only 3% of the people who follow my page to actually see the posts I put up.

Furthermore Facebook has made it so that links to the original Another Angry Voice blog are even more invisible than my general Facebook posts, so that they’re barely seen by anyone.

Over on Twitter things are also degenerating badly. You’d have to have been living an entirely analogue existence to have remained unaware of Elon Musk’s takeover, and the rapid deterioration in standards and usability.

I’m still on Twitter, but like so many others on there at the moment, I’m wondering how much longer I can tolerate what is essentially a deteriorating mental health illness in an app.

Will Substack be the magic bullet?

Probably not.

But it will allow my most enthusiastic readers to keep accessing my content without billionaire-controlled censorship algorithms deciding what they can and can’t see on their behalf.

I’m not going to hide any of my essays behind a paywall, because I genuinely don’t believe in forcing people to pay for my content. However I will try to upload occasional paywalled updates to thank those who do support my work via paid subscriptions.

Thank you very much to everyone who does decide to support my work with a small monetary subscription, and no worries at all to those who can’t, or don’t want to pay. You can still help me out by interacting (like, comment share), by sharing links to my content, by crossposting my content to other social media platforms, or by recommending me to people who might enjoy my work.

Without your support I’d be nothing.

Tom (Another Angry Voice)