17 Comments
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OGRE's avatar

There's many ideas as to what is going on with Substack. I think it's a temporary deal.

As soon as Substack started to need, funding, or take out new loans, it began its death spiral.

The are no tech investment firms that are *not* going to influence their borrowers'. That's not by accident/chance, it's by design.

Substack will exist, so long as the reader base, and clicks stay below a certain threshold. Once it passes that point, censorship will follow. Hell, is probably part of the loan agreement.

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Rich Slutzky's avatar

Yeah I eluded to Substack being “next in line” for the content moderation monster. I believe that would be the true death knell of the platform.

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Crapp's avatar

I have skim read for now, i’ll return, but as to your point on the glowing intros, i wholeheartedly agree..... i posted this on one of those glowing intros to some WaPo/CNN vampire....

https://substack.com/@crapp/note/c-39732880?r=b9soy&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action

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Koshmarov's avatar

"I welcome all odious and miscreant and degenerate and uncouth voice on this platform."

I feel seen. It's nice.

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Robert Urbaschek's avatar

Thank you for raising these points. This kind of stuff has been worrying me too. Maybe it's time to start hedging bets. Any idea about good alternatives? Locals maybe?

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Crapp's avatar

I came back. Great piece. Pretty much says it all. It looks like a money play to me. I’d be ok with that in truth if it wasn’t wrapped up in “we’re going to dissect this election for you.... over to our chief biologist, Matlor Yglorenzias, who has their scalpel ready” type bullshit.

It makes me want to listen to Leadbelly.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2MkfTYPmLlA

And just for the pure snarl....

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IZFYTp8bZ00

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jacob silverman's avatar

What are they trying to prove? I thought the company was a big success. If persons like it, then the platform will grow naturally. I just do not understand where the problem is. Why can't they just be happy? They have a few million customers. I'd be happy. You guys (Substack) are making a living, aren't you? I don't like all the churn, myself. There isn't anything to change. The world is fine. Businessmen are these useless wack-ass people. They are useful idiots at best. So put up you damn website, let me publish on it and go find a hobby. Despite ESG or whatever, the fact is business people never have an social conscience at all. I don't care what their business strategy is. I just want to publish. So it works for me. I have 24 subscribers (free). Woo-hoo. I am fine. If you want to read me, fine. S-stack has plenty of more fashionable more commercial folks to pay them. They are making a good living. Sorry I dont get it.

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Rich Slutzky's avatar

They want more funding. It’s the Silicon Valley startup mentality - always trying to please someone else in order to get more funding

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jacob silverman's avatar

I want more funding too. But I guess I don't have any big project going that would justify it. If I wanted to colonize the moon ---- no problem? As long as you take yourself seriously and have some kind of "big project," then you are okay? Whatever happened to capitalism as persons who need to make a living? This whole world is wall-to-wall bullshit. It is unreal! (I never thought I would use that term.)

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Mike Hampton's avatar

As a South African, Substack doesn't offer me a system for payment, so I can't collect my donations (few but needed as I, as an activist, have no income). That Substack doesn't provide payment options is further worrying considering websites and journalists that have been demonetised by neocon-loving companies.

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Rich Slutzky's avatar

Oh I wasn’t aware of that. Thank you for letting me know, I’m sorry that they’re inadvertently or otherwise screwing you over

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Mike Hampton's avatar

"Stripe is our sole payments provider and we rely on many of their features to make Substack work and their entire feature-set may not be available in every country. As a workaround you may consider using Stripe Atlas which helps you set up a company and bank account in the US and is designed to work with Stripe."

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Mike Hampton's avatar

If, for example, The Greyzone was only a Substack page, do you think they would feel secure setting up a US bank account?

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Rich Slutzky's avatar

Probably not. Especially in an age of “turn off your bank account when we don’t like you anymore” as a politics

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COVEXIT's avatar

What about a quality search tool? There is plenty of quality info here but, in my limited experience, not obvious to reliably find.

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Rich Slutzky's avatar

Yeah that’s something I’ve seen others request plus I’ve noticed is sorely lacking. Good suggestion ❤️

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COVEXIT's avatar

I may add: many lazy journalists on Twitter/X, in search of something of interest, who would probably use more this platform if such feature existed, along with some trending buzz words, topics, ...

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