Substack could embrace the federated model of social media, which platforms like Mastodon, Bluesky, and even Threads leverage. In so many ways, the Fediverse embodies the ideals that Substack was founded on: giving users a platform-agnostic connection to their audience, allowing for audience portability, eliminating top-down moderation, and putting users back in control of their online experience.

How Substack's follow feature betrays its original mission

The follow button is a powerful discovery tool that is proven to help writers gain subscribers. It's also a step away from creator ownership.

"Contrary to what ME [denialists] have been claiming for decades, far from being a bourgeois disease, made up by white women to find an outlet for their neuroticism, ME is a poor person’s disease. The construction of ME as a form of hysteria occludes this fact and harms those marginalized the most"

The Black Insurrectionist account is linked directly to Jason G. Palmer, who has his own questionable backstory, starting with the fact that he isn’t Black. Palmer has repeatedly been accused of defrauding business partners and lenders, has struggled with drug addiction and whose home was raided by the FBI over a decade ago. He also owes more than $6.7 million in back taxes to the state of New York.

The ‘Black Insurrectionist’ account is run by a white man

+ Lily Allen's feet pic empire, Timothée Chalamet crashes his own look alike contest, influencers are monetizing cancer, and more

“This is a documented Israeli war crime of the execution of a U.S. resident and her extended family in Gaza.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/jabalia-massacre

Question for something I’m writing: would it be possible for Substack to make substack Notes (its twitter like feature within the Substack app) part of the fediverse? I’m wondering if this is something that’s technically possible or not and I don’t know enough about how the fediverse operates to know if it would be feasible. #fediverse

While this sort of posting strategy might seem trivial, the same engagement farming and stan-baiting tactics that pop culture accounts use are now being replicated across the rest of the news and politics ecosystem online.

We need to start recognizing stan psyops

+ peak Chicken Shop date, policefluencers, proteinmaxxed ice cream, and the best outfits from the Tompkins Square Halloween dog parade

I really hope the fediverse can get more traction among “normies”. But one thing I have been wondering is why the community on Bluesky (which I think is also part of the fediverse?) is so much worse than Mastodon? I’ve received more hate and harassment on Bluesky than Twitter. The people are truly awful on that app, but every time Musk does something usage balloons. I don’t understand why people jump to Bluesky when Mastodon is here and so much better imo!

NPR is once again publishing irresponsible misleading garbage. An entire strain of the flu was not eliminated "thanks to covid" it was eliminated because everyone collectively masked and took measures that halted the spread of airborne disease. Think how many viruses and people could be saved if people just fucking masked, we upgraded ventilation, and took airborne disease seriously. But NPR will never put that in a headline.