Feature request for Substack: sidenotes
Feature request for Substack: sidenotes
Or anyone, really
One of my favorite features in Substack is footnotes. I know I should be writing linearly, and I consider that I do (“sans footnotes”). Hence, I like footnotes to keep any digression or other hopefully-relevant context away without entirely removing it.
However, they could be better in horizontal and vertical displays in different ways.
In horizontal displays, footnotes should be margin notes or asides. There is space for them, and it does not require scrolling back and forth.
In vertical displays, footnotes should not be endnotes after scrolling, but footnotes, at the foot or bottom of the display. To allow for scrolling without interleaving footnotes, they should show as pop-ins (interleaved) or pop-ups (at the bottom). Examples are in the links of the following paragraph. In the worst-case scenario, sidenotes would remain as endnotes in vertical displays.
This is better explained with examples in Sidenotes In Web Design. Being different in horizontal and vertical displays highlights responsiveness, which probably is the default in 2023 anyway.
Should this be a priority for Substack? I do not know. Footnotes are a good differentiator;1 this is a way to double down on this feature, e.g., with sidenotes being a setting to opt-in. It may also promote web or app usage over email, which may be or not be aligned with their strategy.
So far, so good, but why share that here? So far, all of that is just an example and context for the actionable advice:
You will find many things that could be better in the world. The often-quoted serenity prayer says:
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.
Among the famous quotes from Sun Tzu, we find:
Can you imagine what I would do if I could do all I can?
Which I take as “you cannot change everything you can.” You have to prioritize and be selective. The way to prioritize is simple: ROI, not in economic terms, but generally: money, fame, satisfaction, time, or whatever makes you tick. Predicting the future is not always easy, but there is no workaround.
If you have no business doing something you are missing, but someone else does: tell them. The worst possible outcome is: they ignore you. A more likely outcome is: you get what you want. I think many people have great ideas but have no business in acting upon them and choose not to share them, which is a loss for everyone.
If you do not find what could be better because you think everything is ideal, but still you want to think like a producer or entrepreneur and not just enjoy everything as it is, pay close attention. You will find people complaining or asking for things that do not exist; among all the noise of people complaining because other people do things they do not like. Then again, you must see what you can address and prioritize within that set.
Not only do you need to be able to solve the problem, but you also need to sell your solution. Sales is not an actionable point but a career. This is a pointer.
In fact, footnotes may seem simple, but they usually break when automatically cross-posting to other platforms. Responsive sidenotes are more challenging and fragile. I never said this was an easy change or free from implications and maintenance.
BTW, tweets are no longer embeddable in Substack, making the result way cleaner, and somewhat fragile, if links to tweets were to break at any time. Since we are discussing suggestions, someone should make a tool to capture tweets in images using SVG rather than PNG or JPG. The result would be far superior. I am adding it to my ToDo list.