The Substack Branding and Faux Prestige Trap

I've been banging this drum for a while, and will continue doing so, even after leaving my role at Ghost: Substack is not a place for independent writers.

John Gruber offers up a few examples of Substack's branding trap.

But now they’ve gotten people to call publications on Substack not “blogs” or “newsletters” but “substacks”. Don’t call them that. And as I griped back in December, even the way almost all Substack publications look is deliberately, if subtly, Substack-branded, not per-publication or per-writer branded.

If you're on Substack, and are now wondering if, why and how you should leave: here's a neat little resource.