And .... Glenn Greenwald has gone back to Substack, so the place just keeps getting better.
greenwald.substack.com/p/welcome-ba...

Hey look. Glenn Greenwald has gone back to Substack! So ...yay?

greenwald.substack.com/p/welcome-ba...

I remain baffled as to why Substack would choose to let these people stay on the site. Don't they understand that if they had better moderation, more people who wouldn't ordinarily join Substack would join because they feel better about the platform, so Substack will earn more money/good will?

Those particular N*zi newsletters harassed another Substack writer last year on Notes. She was incredibly distraught, reached out to Substack, and they did NOTHING to help her. So she left. I'm shocked to see that they're still on there (or maybe I shouldn't be shocked).

I don't use Substack (for many reasons) but I get the appeal. Easy to use, looks good, & that's where everyone is. As a writer you want to be where others are, get your stuff read. It's fine if people don't use it but it's fine if you do, & the aggressive anti-Substack people don't get that.

It sounds like maybe you would start a Substack today if you were just starting out (or maybe start one for a separate project even though you have your WP site)? I mean, I know I've thought about it, even though I have a lot of problems with Substack.

Actually, they do. I've seen it in my Substack feed. Also: last year they sent a push notification on their app to users suggesting a N*zi newsletter users might want to follow! They said it was an "error" (though I don't know how an error like that would be made.) That newsletter is still on there.

Definitely. I don't use Substack but I subscribe (free) to dozens. Lots of great writers, writers I know who are good & smart & ethical. I'd say that most of them lean left, even if the controversial ones get all the press. I'm just frustrated b/c there are many reasons to use other platforms.

That's absolutely true, but that doesn't mean you just shrug and use the platforms you already KNOW are bad. (And the N*zi stuff isn't even the top reason to not use Substack. There are many other reasons.)

I should add that I hate Substack with a passion and I'm not on it! And I always advise people to use other platforms. But it's undeniably attractive & a ton of great writers/artists/celebs use it and it's hard to get normal people too worked up about the various controversies.

There are other reasons: Substack is easy to use, it looks great, & "it's where everybody is now," compared to platforms like Ghost/Beehiiv, which may be better but don't have the social aspects. People just want to write, don't want to get too involved w/tech, & think "all platforms are bad, so .."