Update: Substack wants to be very clear that its original position and stance still stand, but they ALSO have checked their notes and discovered that Nazism does fall under their established hate speech policies?
It's a tough situation to be in, no question. I don't think there are any good solutions here (other than letting it be known that Substack management is making deeply fucked up and cynical decisions). I'm still onboard with Episodic Medium as a paid member, for the community created and maintained around a topic I love and values I support, but it's definitely increasingly difficult to justify sticking around on Substack in general.
The only thing I took issue with in what Myles said was repeatedly mentioning feature like chat etc. as a reason to stay on Substack. Obviously anecdotal but I'm a heavy user and commenter on substack and basically never use chat etc. I don't know what the numbers are, but I'd be surprised if many users see these as an important part of their Substack experience
I think that's fair - I've been pro-Discord or Slack Discussion Server since the start, but I understand the challenge that creates for an episodic criticism blog (i.e., it moves the discussion into that space instead of this space). I do like Chat, though I don't think I've ever started one. Someone there did remind me that Archer finally ended this year!
Love these updates, I'm excited for Fallout! I'm a fan all the way back to the original games in the late 90s.
I loved the coverage of Murder at the End of the World, and it's actually what got me watching the show. My experience of For All Mankind, Fargo and Survivor also wouldn't have been the same without the reviews and comments! Thanks so much to you and all the contributors!
I for one am very excited about Elsbeth so hopefully Donna will have the time to cover it. The Gilded Age discussion was loads of fun.
I will support Episodic Medium regardless of platform. I will warn that several newsletters I subscribe to have left the platform over the years and are now just emails. Sadly I am less engaged with them now. The email inbox was a nice way to start the business but the Substack app is very good and tough to beat. It just stinks that it’s near to impossible to do the right thing with these tech firms being all evil. I feel like it could have been a plot line on The Good Place. We’re all going to the bad place based on what apps we use!!
Yeah, there’s something to be said for the Substack app itself being a big perk - I can subscribe to dozens of newsletters and read the interesting ones instead of flooding my inbox. I don’t know of another platform with that kind of infrastructure.
Thanks for the update on this, Myles. I'm not planning on leaving Substack, but I figured this has likely been on your mind. This stuff is never an easy decision, and we all make our compromises in our late-capitalist dystopia. I finally had enough and left Twitter a while back, but some people are still there because it's the only big social media platform that allows sex workers, or because it's the only place they can talk/interact with some of their friends, and I get that. We're all living in glass houses here, whomst among us never shops at Amazon or uses Google, or whatever, right?
The lines are blurry, and I do my best to make the best choices I can, and also not to be too judgmental of the choices other people make. I feel like the good I'm doing in supporting you and the other writers here and allowing this insightful criticism to exist in the world outweighs the small cut of the revenue that goes to the assholes running this place, and so I'm sticking around, but I understand the people who feel differently and I respect their choices as well.
Glad to see The OC season 2 on the schedule. I’ve really enjoyed watching it for the first time with Latoya’s reviews.
When I heard about the new Elsbeth show I felt prompted to watch the last season of The Good Fight which I forgot I hadn’t finished. It’s a pretty good season overall. Would love to see coverage of Elsbeth here, which looks like it’s going to be a how catch ‘em series in the vein of Columbo and Pokerface.
Thanks for addressing this Substack situation Myles.
For anyone who may consider moving platforms in the future, Buttondown seems to be a consensus (at least via reading Bluesky opinions), and they are implementing comments now. The creator has stated a no-Nazi content policy: https://bsky.app/profile/buttondown.email/post/3kh3h27mey52z.
Re: upcoming shows, very excited for Night Country. Intrigued by Shogun and The Regime and will be tuning into those.
If Elsbeth would be covered by Episodic Medium I would be over the moon.
Completely understand your decision to keep EM here for now. I'm also excited that you will be covering so much of what I plan to watch the next few months!
It's despicable that Substack has decided to embrace being a Nazi bar (via the free speech lie; ask sex workers on the platform how free their speech is, oh, wait, you can't, they're banned). I fully support those moving to other platforms, though multiple people have noted that if you want comments, there isn't a good alternative right now. Hopefully that will change.
For me, the comments are a big part of the fun of EM. I know the aim was always to create a community, which you kinda need comments to do. So I completely understand this position and support it, despite thinking Substack is the worst. (Maybe the folks taking this issue to the payment processors will force a reconsideration; that'd be something.)
I was not impressed with Substack’s response to their heavy amount of anti-trans posters, and I’m no more impressed with their response here. For me, it’s easier to stay and update my blog as I purposely do not use it for profit, but that’s a difference between a passion side project for me and a way to pay for people’s bills like this, so I understand the difficulty here.
Still, the material covered on this blog is worth sticking around. I’m especially happy to see OC and Enlightened return, was hoping to continue those rewatches. And I did not know that we’re getting an Elsbeth Tascioni show! I really need to watch those last 2 seasons of The Good Fight.
Update: Substack wants to be very clear that its original position and stance still stand, but they ALSO have checked their notes and discovered that Nazism does fall under their established hate speech policies?
https://www.platformer.news/p/substack-says-it-will-remove-nazi
We’ll allow the tech bro gymnastics and call it a win.
It's a tough situation to be in, no question. I don't think there are any good solutions here (other than letting it be known that Substack management is making deeply fucked up and cynical decisions). I'm still onboard with Episodic Medium as a paid member, for the community created and maintained around a topic I love and values I support, but it's definitely increasingly difficult to justify sticking around on Substack in general.
The only thing I took issue with in what Myles said was repeatedly mentioning feature like chat etc. as a reason to stay on Substack. Obviously anecdotal but I'm a heavy user and commenter on substack and basically never use chat etc. I don't know what the numbers are, but I'd be surprised if many users see these as an important part of their Substack experience
I think that's fair - I've been pro-Discord or Slack Discussion Server since the start, but I understand the challenge that creates for an episodic criticism blog (i.e., it moves the discussion into that space instead of this space). I do like Chat, though I don't think I've ever started one. Someone there did remind me that Archer finally ended this year!
Thank you for being upfront and honest
I do hope that EM will cover Season 4 for Slow Horses when it appears.
Yes, Please!! (I've been begging for this since the 1st season.)
Love these updates, I'm excited for Fallout! I'm a fan all the way back to the original games in the late 90s.
I loved the coverage of Murder at the End of the World, and it's actually what got me watching the show. My experience of For All Mankind, Fargo and Survivor also wouldn't have been the same without the reviews and comments! Thanks so much to you and all the contributors!
I for one am very excited about Elsbeth so hopefully Donna will have the time to cover it. The Gilded Age discussion was loads of fun.
I will support Episodic Medium regardless of platform. I will warn that several newsletters I subscribe to have left the platform over the years and are now just emails. Sadly I am less engaged with them now. The email inbox was a nice way to start the business but the Substack app is very good and tough to beat. It just stinks that it’s near to impossible to do the right thing with these tech firms being all evil. I feel like it could have been a plot line on The Good Place. We’re all going to the bad place based on what apps we use!!
No ethical consumption under capitalism! Everyone's in the Bad Place!!!
Yeah, there’s something to be said for the Substack app itself being a big perk - I can subscribe to dozens of newsletters and read the interesting ones instead of flooding my inbox. I don’t know of another platform with that kind of infrastructure.
Thanks for the update on this, Myles. I'm not planning on leaving Substack, but I figured this has likely been on your mind. This stuff is never an easy decision, and we all make our compromises in our late-capitalist dystopia. I finally had enough and left Twitter a while back, but some people are still there because it's the only big social media platform that allows sex workers, or because it's the only place they can talk/interact with some of their friends, and I get that. We're all living in glass houses here, whomst among us never shops at Amazon or uses Google, or whatever, right?
The lines are blurry, and I do my best to make the best choices I can, and also not to be too judgmental of the choices other people make. I feel like the good I'm doing in supporting you and the other writers here and allowing this insightful criticism to exist in the world outweighs the small cut of the revenue that goes to the assholes running this place, and so I'm sticking around, but I understand the people who feel differently and I respect their choices as well.
This is really well said and I feel the same way.
Glad to see The OC season 2 on the schedule. I’ve really enjoyed watching it for the first time with Latoya’s reviews.
When I heard about the new Elsbeth show I felt prompted to watch the last season of The Good Fight which I forgot I hadn’t finished. It’s a pretty good season overall. Would love to see coverage of Elsbeth here, which looks like it’s going to be a how catch ‘em series in the vein of Columbo and Pokerface.
Looking forward to the new year of EM.
Thanks for addressing this Substack situation Myles.
For anyone who may consider moving platforms in the future, Buttondown seems to be a consensus (at least via reading Bluesky opinions), and they are implementing comments now. The creator has stated a no-Nazi content policy: https://bsky.app/profile/buttondown.email/post/3kh3h27mey52z.
Re: upcoming shows, very excited for Night Country. Intrigued by Shogun and The Regime and will be tuning into those.
If Elsbeth would be covered by Episodic Medium I would be over the moon.
Completely understand your decision to keep EM here for now. I'm also excited that you will be covering so much of what I plan to watch the next few months!
Some news.
https://open.substack.com/pub/platformer/p/substack-says-it-will-remove-nazi?r=biv1&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
It's despicable that Substack has decided to embrace being a Nazi bar (via the free speech lie; ask sex workers on the platform how free their speech is, oh, wait, you can't, they're banned). I fully support those moving to other platforms, though multiple people have noted that if you want comments, there isn't a good alternative right now. Hopefully that will change.
For me, the comments are a big part of the fun of EM. I know the aim was always to create a community, which you kinda need comments to do. So I completely understand this position and support it, despite thinking Substack is the worst. (Maybe the folks taking this issue to the payment processors will force a reconsideration; that'd be something.)
I was not impressed with Substack’s response to their heavy amount of anti-trans posters, and I’m no more impressed with their response here. For me, it’s easier to stay and update my blog as I purposely do not use it for profit, but that’s a difference between a passion side project for me and a way to pay for people’s bills like this, so I understand the difficulty here.
Still, the material covered on this blog is worth sticking around. I’m especially happy to see OC and Enlightened return, was hoping to continue those rewatches. And I did not know that we’re getting an Elsbeth Tascioni show! I really need to watch those last 2 seasons of The Good Fight.
Appreciate the honesty and POV. I am looking forward to the next few months of EM, especially season 2 coverage of The OC!
Shogun looks really cool. Definitely going to be tuning in for that.
Dear Donna,
I would love for you to do the write-ups for Elsbeth. She's one of my favorite characters ever.