Jetzt, wo @spreeblick angekündigt hat, auch (endlich) #Substack zu verlassen, wie @pallenberg und ich und viele andere vor ihm, hab ich die Gelegenheit genutzt, meinen Account dort endgültig zu löschen. Ward Tid.

Kill yer #substack! #ghost exists!

You should *definitely* leave #Substack

You should *definitely* leave #Substack

About that #Substack toot I published earlier: it made me feel uncomfortable to have it up without tagging the journalist (so she couldn't see what we were discussing). I had not tagged her on purpose because s​he complains of being called out about choosing to stay on Substack.

What is the right way to hold that discussion? I don't know. So I deleted the post.

An excerpt from my (now deleted toot): "Maybe it's just me, but I believe that the tech we use sends an important message about our values and the causes we support. Everything is politics now. Including our tech stack."

So later this week I will publish an article on my blog about my own tech stack, how everything is politics now and how I think the platforms we use should reflect our values. It will be linked at the bottom of every blog post I will publish from now on, in a sort of: "disclaimer: here is the tech stack I use" way.

Related: https://news.elenarossini.com/this-is-what-resistance-to-the-digital-coup-looks-like/

Wishing everyone a lovely day 🌞​

Substack is terrible - but even people who know it don't want to leave the platform – a tale in 3 acts.

Act I

Tech journalist Taylor Lorenz published a scoop a few days ago, showing how "Substack sent a push alert promoting a Nazi blog" (if you don't want to give #Substack a click, here is an alt link https://archive.ph/FTjEH).

It was a terrific and disturbing piece - kudos to her.

Act II (plot twist)

People started pointing out that Lorenz herself is using Substack as the publishing platform for her blog - which she monetizes with subscriptions. So, very ballsy move on her part to criticize the platform that she relies on to make a living, but still, some people started pointing out the incongruity of this. What about her values? Why wouldn't she move her newsletter?

Lorenz was starting to get fed up with these comments and explained on Bluesky (alt link / snapshot if you don't want to give Bluesky a click: https://archive.ph/CePll)

" Them: Get off substack
Me: Ok I set up a Patreon. The features aren’t as good but I’m willing to take a hit and do a lot more time consuming work on the back end to make it work. Here’s where you can subscribe to support me. Once enough people hop over I’ll be able to make the jump
Them: crickets "

She followed up that post with the comment:

" A lot of people on here want to attack and punish creators (esp women and LGBTQ ppl) for being forced to rely on certain platforms to make a living, but aren’t actually willing to support those creators in a way that allows them to leave the platforms ur so critical of them being forced to rely on. "

Fair enough.

Act III (in which I insert myself)

I don't post on Bluesky anymore but I felt compelled to resuscitate my account to point out that Substack is not only terrible, but it's also very expensive and takes the BIGGEST cut out of all other newsletter platforms.

I wrote:

" With all due respect Taylor, moving away from Substack is the ethical choice and it also makes financial sense. The great Molly White compiled a detailed breakdown of how much money creators who rely on subscriptions could save... by switching over to other platforms. "

And I linked to Molly White's brilliant post: https://hachyderm.io/@molly0xfff/114319870485786053

I also added a link to the article by @micahflee : "Not only is Substack right-wing broligarchy garbage, it's way more expensive than Ghost" https://micahflee.com/not-only-is-substack-right-wing-broligarchy-garbage-its-way-more-expensive-than-ghost/

Lorenz responded:

"Again, I am on Patreon and have had the option to receive my newsletter directly outside of Substack since day 1. Only 3 people have ever taken me up on this. By the way I cover Substack and the only reason I got the scoop I got it from being in the platform. Hence why I’ll always have an acct"

I just replied to her that #Ghost offers a free concierge migration service (https://ghost.org/concierge/) where she could move over all her paid subscribers... and I said that IMHO she could still use Substack Notes to share her articles if she moved elsewhere... but staying on Substack and giving them 10% of her earnings feels like an implicit endorsement.

I meant that in the most empathetic way. I can understand her struggles but she has 87,000 subscribers and if she wanted to move she could simply ask for help and I'm sure people would volunteer to set her up somewhere else. If she did so on the Fediverse she'd have a self-hosted account on a VPS in less than 24 hours.

Lest you think I want to "attack and publish creators (especially women)" like in Lorenz's words on Bluesky, well, I'm a woman who started self-hosting only 6 months ago and I now run my own Ghost blog which I manually installed. It's not that unattainable.

Maybe it's just me, but I believe that the tech we use sends an important message about our values and the causes we support. Everything is politics now. Including our tech stack.

#DigitalLiteracy #DigitalCoup #A16Z #Broligarchy

Substack is terrible - but even people who know it don't want to leave the platform – a tale in 3 acts.

Act I

Tech journalist Taylor Lorenz published a scoop a few days ago, showing how "Substack sent a push alert promoting a Nazi blog" (if you don't want to give #Substack a click, here is an alt link https://archive.ph/FTjEH).

It was a terrific and disturbing piece - kudos to her.

Act II (plot twist)

People started pointing out that Lorenz herself is using Substack as the publishing platform for her blog - which she monetizes with subscriptions. So, very ballsy move on her part to criticize the platform that she relies on to make a living, but still, some people started pointing out the incongruity of this. What about her values? Why wouldn't she move her newsletter?

Lorenz was starting to get fed up with these comments and explained on Bluesky (alt link / snapshot if you don't want to give Bluesky a click: https://archive.ph/CePll)

" Them: Get off substack
Me: Ok I set up a Patreon. The features aren’t as good but I’m willing to take a hit and do a lot more time consuming work on the back end to make it work. Here’s where you can subscribe to support me. Once enough people hop over I’ll be able to make the jump
Them: crickets "

She followed up that post with the comment:

" A lot of people on here want to attack and punish creators (esp women and LGBTQ ppl) for being forced to rely on certain platforms to make a living, but aren’t actually willing to support those creators in a way that allows them to leave the platforms ur so critical of them being forced to rely on. "

Fair enough.

Act III (in which I insert myself)

I don't post on Bluesky anymore but I felt compelled to resuscitate my account to point out that Substack is not only terrible, but it's also very expensive and takes the BIGGEST cut out of all other newsletter platforms.

I wrote:

" With all due respect Taylor, moving away from Substack is the ethical choice and it also makes financial sense. The great Molly White compiled a detailed breakdown of how much money creators who rely on subscriptions could save... by switching over to other platforms. "

And I linked to Molly White's brilliant post: https://hachyderm.io/@molly0xfff/114319870485786053

I also added a link to the article by @micahflee : "Not only is Substack right-wing broligarchy garbage, it's way more expensive than Ghost" https://micahflee.com/not-only-is-substack-right-wing-broligarchy-garbage-its-way-more-expensive-than-ghost/

Lorenz responded:

"Again, I am on Patreon and have had the option to receive my newsletter directly outside of Substack since day 1. Only 3 people have ever taken me up on this. By the way I cover Substack and the only reason I got the scoop I got it from being in the platform. Hence why I’ll always have an acct"

I just replied to her that #Ghost offers a free concierge migration service (https://ghost.org/concierge/) where she could move over all her paid subscribers... and I said that IMHO she could still use Substack Notes to share her articles if she moved elsewhere... but staying on Substack and giving them 10% of her earnings feels like an implicit endorsement.

I meant that in the most empathetic way. I can understand her struggles but she has 87,000 subscribers and if she wanted to move she could simply ask for help and I'm sure people would volunteer to set her up somewhere else. If she did so on the Fediverse she'd have a self-hosted account on a VPS in less than 24 hours.

Lest you think I want to "attack and publish creators (especially women)" like in Lorenz's words on Bluesky, well, I'm a woman who started self-hosting only 6 months ago and I now run my own Ghost blog which I manually installed. It's not that unattainable.

Maybe it's just me, but I believe that the tech we use sends an important message about our values and the causes we support. Everything is politics now. Including our tech stack.

#DigitalLiteracy #DigitalCoup #A16Z #Broligarchy

If you are still using Substack, it is time to leave.

You might want to try #Ghost, a free open source self-hostable alternative to Substack (more info: https://ghost.org/vs/substack/). If you don't self-host, you can sign up at https://ghost.org

Ghost has Fediverse support in testing, Ghost users can sign up at https://activitypub.ghost.org

We host Nazis because if we didn’t, things would be even worse — That’s #substack’s policy since quite some time. I’ll leave it up to you to decide if you want to support that take by visiting their site or using it to host your content.

https://www.usermag.co/p/substack-sent-a-push-alert-promoting-nazi-white-supremacist-blog

We discovered an error that caused some people to receive push notifications they should never have received,

So their actual concern is that their filter bubble malfunctioned???

In other words, "we're sorry that our algorithms misclassified some of our users as neo-Nazis and fed them the wrong recommendations." 🤦‍♂️

#substack #filtering#socialMedia

If you are still using Substack, it is time to leave.

You might want to try #Ghost, a free open source self-hostable alternative to Substack (more info: https://ghost.org/vs/substack/). If you don't self-host, you can sign up at https://ghost.org

Ghost has Fediverse support in testing, Ghost users can sign up at https://activitypub.ghost.org

I think it is time for #substack authors to find a new home. It will be difficult for some to give up the income, but it needs doing. https://social.wildeboer.net/@jwildeboer/114942045138964951

I think it is time for #substack authors to find a new home. It will be difficult for some to give up the income, but it needs doing. https://social.wildeboer.net/@jwildeboer/114942045138964951

I suspect mostly mental laziness and self-absorbed lackadaisical inertia from them. The average reply to the query of why they publish that in SUBSTACK of all places is "oh, I am happy with their services".

So I started discounting a lot of their ideas, given the mentality they display.

Substack promoted a literal nazi propaganda pub with push notifications to random people.

Their response? Not “sorry we host Nazis.” It was “sorry for the technology glitch.”

WHAT‽ 🤬

To all writers and journalists who use Substack. Im unsubscribing from your feeds and email lists. Move to a new platform.

I’m calling for a boycott. Fuck Substack forever.

https://www.usermag.co/p/substack-sent-a-push-alert-promoting-nazi-white-supremacist-blog

#Substack#Nazi#Boycott#BoycottSubstack

We discovered an error that caused some people to receive push notifications they should never have received,

So their actual concern is that their filter bubble malfunctioned???

In other words, "we're sorry that our algorithms misclassified some of our users as neo-Nazis and fed them the wrong recommendations." 🤦‍♂️

#substack #filtering#socialMedia