Substack user: fascists are running the White House why won’t anyone do anything????

[benlockwood@ecoevo.social]

Substack user: fascists are running the White House why won’t anyone do anything????

Me: Substack is making money off nazi propaganda, maybe we should stop using it

Substack user: how dare you

[ohmu@social.seattle.wa.us]

@benlockwood
Every time.
Qasim Rashid is my latest favorite.
But there are soooo many.
And I don't get it. My understanding is that buttondown and ghost are as easy to use and have about the same cost.
Is it a fear of losing audience thing - like what keeps people on Twitter, FB, and IG?

[benlockwood@ecoevo.social]

@ohmu I think it’s the fact that SS has combined the newsletter/blog feature with a microblogging social media platform that is very good at discoverability. So people are worried if they move somewhere else, no one will find it. Of course the flip side is that everyone on SS is just trying to grow their own subscriber count and not much reading gets done. That’s my take

[mav@masto.hackers.town]

@benlockwood
literally 100% of the substack users I've confronted about it

[millie@infosec.exchange]

@ohmu @benlockwood Why not just rent a VPS and have static site generator running on it? What benefit do these services really provide?

[ohmu@social.seattle.wa.us]

@millie @benlockwood

[ohmu@social.seattle.wa.us]

@benlockwood
This scans. Thank you.

I am recalling now my dad mentioning he was "getting into following things on Substack".
And recalling a "you may like" list at the bottom of Substack pages. I don't think ghost and buttondown do that.

[jeromio@triangletoot.party]

@benlockwood
For real. Like, how is Dropsite news on substack? They just created it a year ago!? They are supposed to *know* about these things!

[weirdwriter@caneandable.social]

@ohmu @benlockwood Readers go there. I write on my own website instead. This is 1 reason why though http://juliaserano.blogspot.com/2025/06/regarding-substack-and-writer-centric.html

[ohmu@social.seattle.wa.us]

@WeirdWriter @benlockwood
This is a good expansive explanation. Thank you.

[wil@beige.party]

@ohmu Rashid is actually using Ghost now! I just checked.

@benlockwood

[weirdwriter@caneandable.social]

@ohmu @benlockwood It’s the same reason why I will never tell a publisher to not publish somewhere. I would frankly be shooting myself in the foot if I told my publisher not to release anything on Amazon. They would laugh me out of my own contract anyway because that’s how they make the most money anyway but also, I have personally witnessed a little bit of what she is referring to. I cannot tell you how so many people, even though I have my own website, I cannot tell you how so many Rreaders begged me to get a Substack so they would not need to visit my own website. It really is strange. I cannot tell you how so many people begged me to publish my stuff to Facebook. Fedi needs to understand that the mainstream Internet does not like reading blogs or personal websites. They place a much higher value on corporatized content rather than personal websites and I’ve seen this happen over, and over, and over again. The few essays I did syndicate to Facebook, the very same individuals that did not want to read it on my own website, they read it multiple times when it was on Facebook.

[ohmu@social.seattle.wa.us]

@wil @benlockwood
That's good news. I'll start opening his newsletters. Thank you!