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How do we convince reputable journalists and politicians to get off of X? They are the ones that help legitimize X with each post. X generates sexual abuse and still, these people use X. I don’t get it.

A note on Ghost as an alternative. I've used Ghost for my newsletter for years now and their customer service has always been super responsive whenever I've needed something. I was trying to figure out, a ways back, how to format a poetry post and they helped me with it, across several emails.

it's really upsetting the number of progressives who feel that they can't afford to leave substack bc they'd lose their huge audiences. I get that it's daunting, but braving the loss of a platform is the LEAST you can do. And eventually your huge audience will dwindle anyway bc *they* all left.

Buttondown and Beehiv really are good alternative platforms. unless you anticipate gaining tens of thousands of readers rapidly, then they both offer most features you'd need, and I believe you can also have different subthemes, so different newsletters under your newsletter.

I urge people to get a domain and post content they can control

Thank you for this. There are several people I like and respect who still post there. Every once in a while when they post links from their substack, I ask them if they post elsewhere so I can read it there as I won’t support that platform.

Please note that this isn't primarily about ethical purity. This is about protecting your actual effectiveness and reach. The platforms I'm warning you about are either already killing the reach of progressives or very liable to. If you're not a fascist, you need to find alternatives.

i'm heartened each time i see a new blog and it's on Ghost or some other platform that's not Substack. Ghost exists, they have steps to move off Substack if anyone wants to take that step!

Not to defend Substack—I have a low circulation, very occasional travel thing there—but I never found it pushes readers past the particular author you sought out. I think of it as a tool, not a platform. I wish they had kept it that way instead of adding clunky social media gimmicks.

true, but it does provide basic secure communication better than telegram or whatsapp