Substack hosts swastika-laden Nazi accounts promoting white supremacism (https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/feb/07/revealed-how-substack-makes-money-from-hosting-nazi-newsletters).

[gbargoud@masto.nyc]

@faduda @FediTips @alatartheblue

I think one issue is that so many online services have offered a "free tier" for so long that it's almost become an expectation

[oneinterestingfact@mastodon.ie]

@FediTips @molly0xfff

I'm not a creator on substack but I used to follow a few free accounts.
I unsubscribed but I want to go further - ppl still link to substack in my TL and I was hoping to filter those mentions out. Filtering on substack.com doesn't seem to work - is there a technical reason that domain wouldn't be picked up or is it something else?

[faduda@mastodon.ie]

@FediTips @alatartheblue

Like I said, it's the Linux problem. Docs isn't ux

[faduda@mastodon.ie]

@FediTips @alatartheblue @gbargoud

I don't want it hosted on ghost. I want it hosted on my own server. I don't expect that to be free, I just need it to be something I can do without a compsci degree.
And as long as it isn't, there's going to be a limit to uptake, and eventually someone will come along with a simple plug-and-play alternative

[faduda@mastodon.ie]

@FediTips @gbargoud @alatartheblue

Okay then, let me rephrase.
Ghost should not be any more complicated than wordpress, yet I can run the former but not the latter.
That's a documentation issue. I've pretty much given up trying with Ghost at this point, after several attempts. It looks like a great idea, but it is impenetrable. If you don't build it for civilians, they won't come.

[gbargoud@masto.nyc]

@FediTips @alatartheblue @faduda

I don't know if you saw this but WordPress added an ActivityPub plugin a couple of years back: https://wordpress.org/plugins/activitypub/

[greg_ray@mastodon.au]

@FediTips @molly0xfff I can't access the Substack writers I used to read. Substack is demanding I upload my biometric data to some creepy Yank third party corporation.

[bigbelgianbopper@mastodon-belgium.be]

@FediTips @molly0xfff @jaykuo

[katandpeaches2026@c.im]

@FediTips @molly0xfff

[hexaheximal@mstdn.social]

@FediTips @molly0xfff Ghost is less bad, but it isn't a great choice either now: https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost/blob/main/AGENTS.md

[commanderred@chaos.social]

@FediTips @molly0xfff Ghost unfortunately has one huge issue: It is unable to use regular SMTP servers. They are actively blocking this feature because "google would block such sites"

The fact that I would not care if google blocks me does not interest anyone there, so I really can't recommend it if the dev team acts like that.

[justin@mastodon.tacoma.community]

@FediTips
Some of the initial funding for substack was by Techno-Fascists so do with this what you will.
@molly0xfff

[feditips@social.growyourown.services]

@Cloudslave

If you use it through a managed hosting provider such as https://cloud68.co/managed-hosting/ghost or https://ghost.org it's about the same complexity as Substack.

The really complicated instructions are for people who want to manually install it on their own server.