Déjà vu

In the Summer of 2022, I created a Substack newsletter to add longform writing to my content creation profile. Since then, I've deleted TikTok, phased out Instagram, and made newsletter writing my primary creative outlet. I'm incredibly proud of what I've been able to do with this platform: I built an audience of 1,110+ subscribers, made some of the best writing of my life, and monetized my work for the first time. Seriously, y'all helped pay for many grocery trips; thank you!

Now, however, it's time to move platforms yet again.

Wait what why

Substack always had its problems, most crucially the fact that it doesn't moderate itself at all. When you hit the "Report" button on a hateful comment, it simply gets sent to the author of the newsletter. I found this out when a literal Nazi (swastika in the username) left a hate comment on one of my essays and tried to report it; all that happened was I got sent an email about it with a prompt to delete the comment and block the user. I had never seen this sort of hands-off approach before.

Recently, more and more people have been leaving Substack for other platforms, due to this and other issues. Notes, a microblogging feature, has become the kind of algorithmically-curated drivel you can find on any other Twitter-like. Substack has integrated gambling site Polymarket into the platform in a strangely dystopian move. I personally have been considering this move for a while, but stalled because 1) leaving Substack would reduce my discoverability on one of the top newsletter platforms, stalling my growth and 2) I wanted to figure out how easy it would be to self-host Ghost on my NAS; spoiler alert, it's not, which is why I'm paying for Ghost(Pro). If Ghost somehow goes evil, I can always "fork" this newsletter and start self-hosted. Yay, open source!

All Platforms Are Bastards

I’ve both mourned and bemoaned the constant switching of online platforms before. Every time an app or platformed is deemed to Be Bad, it’s common for the most woke among us (*raises hand*) to give up their audience in favor of greener pastures. What often happens is the new platform also Becomes Bad; it seems to be the result of the incentive structure of capitalism (what we call “enshittification”) that drives this. Lots of new users join with the promise of a safer/more ethical space, then the platform holders change project direction, resulting in people leaving again, rinse repeat until movements are fractured.

Sometimes the new platform was never good to begin with. In January 2025, people left TikTok in droves to protest the Trump administration, myself included. I wrote about it at the time in a post which included a line from a Chinese citizen that brought this whole practice into focus: "U guys don't need a new app, u guys need a revolution". Indeed, platforms are simply the mediums through which we socialize, which makes them the means by which we can, theoretically, organize. There is a threshold above which organizing on a given platform becomes untenable due to high surveillance, shadowbanning, and abuse of moderation tools--I would argue TikTok is well past that point--but at a certain point we just have to pick someplace relatively private and get to work. The ruling class benefits by having us all enact our relationships on public social media, yet they also benefit from having us divided: some on one platform, some on another, some on yet another, and some not online at all.

With Discord now threatening age verification, which will surely lead me and my ilk to embrace Matrix or another alternative because fuck that, I wonder how many times Big Tech will be able to get away with this: once again dividing the population on yet another line, this time "willing to upload their government ID for it to be inevitably leaked" and "not". I have my own lines I'm not willing to cross when it comes to digital privacy, but I can definitely see the argument for sticking with Substack despite these issues (after all, the alternative to me banning the 'phobes one by one is someone from the global south doing it for me). I'm simply doing what's best for my brand, my business, and my audience; after all, some of my paid subscribers may not be comfortable with 10% of their donation being skimmed off the top to support an unethical platform.

The Good News

Drama aside, there are many benefits to Ghost as a platform, including...

• Multiple paid tiers: Substack doesn't allow me to go lower than $5/month for my paid newsletter, likely because they skim some off the top of every subscription fee. Ghost doesn't have that limitation, so paying members now have the option to give me just $2/month. Also, on Ghost, 100% of paying members' money goes to me, not the platform. I pay out of pocket for a Ghost(Pro) subscription, which handles site hosting, the email client, etc. My hope is that this will get more people paying for what I'm offering here!
• Moderation: The Ghost platform actually does ban Nazis!
• Customization: There are far more options for site themes, colors, fonts, and more. Plus, a bunch of author-side things you likely don't worry about as a reader.
• Open-Source: As I mentioned above, if the Ghost Foundation goes evil mode, users can fork the project into a less-evil version or I can export everything and start self-hosting on my NAS. I might just do this one day anyway, once I learn more about networking than I currently do.

I also used this opportunity to snag a custom domain. Instead of the clunky "thatannamarie.substack.com", which competes with my personal website for internet traffic, I now have "Annatations.com". Way nicer!

What To Expect

This is also an opportunity for another change. In case you haven't noticed, I haven't posted in over a month; the pressure to write Something Every Week has been too much pressure to handle and, with one of my busiest semesters in a while, I haven't had the time to even think, let alone write. Here's my solution that I hope will be much more conducive to my creativity, while serving my obligations to my audience...

1) Consistent Digest posts: Every month, there will be a Digest newsletter post with a bunch of stuff I've been reading, watching, and listening to. This is what you came to expect at the end of every Substack post I made; now, these will be their own separate posts entirely.

2) Free resources: Aside from longer personal essays, I occasionally share practical, actionable guides. Past examples include my teaching activity on the environmental impact of data centers or my scaffolded list of ways to support the trans community. These will be posted when ready and will continue to be free, forever.

3) Longer essays: My longer essay will now belong to paying members only, unless I deem them important for some reason. These will also fall into the "when they're ready" category.

I also may lurk on Substack Notes for a while as I make the transition. Ghost is beta testing a similar feature, so we'll see how it does for my discoverability! My last ask is that you continue sharing my work across other platforms, as this is the primary way I can attract new readership.

You can read more about the new site by visiting its About page, https://www.annatations.com/about/.

Thank You!

I truly appreciate your support, as well as your patience as we learn about this platform together! I think I have most of the right things set up, but we'll see if we run into any roadblocks. Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any comments or questions about the Ghost site, especially regarding email delivery and paid memberships, at: hello [at] thatannamarie.com.

Oh, and of course, here's your Koko.

In solidarity,

-Anna