Why we're staying on Substack; Golriz Ghahraman resigns for mental health reasons; Water infrastructure stress deepens as Queenstown spills sludge from Shotover plant & Wellington restrictions start
Bernard, this is nonsense. There are far, far more than "just five" Nazi publications on Substack, which you'd know had you done any journalism on the topic, and not only that, there is a gigantic disinformation and anti-transgender hate-speech ecosystem here which happily utilises Substack to spread (and monetize) their message because there's practically nowhere else online that will let them do it!
I'm unsubscribing immediately. Not because you're staying - I understand completely why people who use this platform for their livelihood might feel a need to hang on - but because the reasoning for staying is so poor. It takes very little research to reveal just how much disinformation is on this platform, and even how many overt Nazis remain, and you're ignoring or dismissing the scope of the problem entirely. You should be better than this.
I posted a while back about why I'm leaving. I'm currently sorting the migration. I have one newsletter left to post on Substack - about the absolutely hideous garbage I found on this platform, either algorithmically suggested by Substack or with minimal effort - and then I'm out.
I think it is okay for you to stay if this is the only way to get your business to work. I love your work on our non-economy. However, I don't think it is fair to dismiss the anti-trans and alt-right content on Substack as insignificant. It makes me really uncomfortable. I left Twitter much later than a lot of people but giving advertising money to Andrew Tate was my line. I'm still considering what to do about Substack. I don't get much revenue and all my posts are open so I was considering just stopping the payment side. I don't know. Substack has been really good for getting people to see my work.
Glad I saw this comment as it motivated me to read through your 60-minutes of content post. Wow, it's bad. Really bad. I basically grow up on the internet; I've gone from watching anti-SJW cringe compilations at 14 (short lived, thank god), to attending protests against Posie Parker and Jordan B Peterson. I'm far too familiar with the terminally online alt-right.
From Bernard's comments, I was expecting something akin to 2020 Youtube's Nazi-wormhole algorithm due to poor moderation. Nope, it looks like Substack is actively embracing branding that is invocative of Rumble and Gab, completely sling-shotting itself beyond the edgy, short-form styles of X and 8chan into a long-form, Turner-Diary-Esque article provider.
This isn't a little incel/AnCap problem, it's a full-blown white-supremacist disaster.
I wonder Bernard if those who do not want to be part of the Substack, and I am one of them but not because of the Nazi problem but because I find it so difficult to access the Kaka in it, could the Kaka be separated out of the Substack. I am 84 and I know it is my problem but is that possible?
I thought I had replied to this but I can’t find it in my sents. God only knows where it went. But it is a peculiar email address.
Yes I do get an email and when I go to the comments in it, it goes automatically to the Kaka. But when my Substack app shows a message, sometimes it goes to The Kaka but it usually goes to Substack. That is why I asked if you could separate the two. It probably is me.
Hi Patricia, I'm kind of the opposite to you. Substack seems to have given up emailing me (& I've given up complaining about it). According to the wonderful Spinoff Bulletin people, this seems to be because Substack has a problem with sending emails to xtra.co.nz. So I've now given up on emails all together, and always go to either this web/Internet address https://thekaka.substack.com/ for The Kaka (which I've got bookmarked in my Chrome internet browser), or to this one, https://substack.com/inbox, where all my Substack subscriptions show up. If you just subscribe to The Kaka, it might be easier to read everything including comments at https://thekaka.substack.com/. I check it around once a day, knowing that Bernard will publish usually early or mid-morning, depending on how busy he is.
Thank you very much for your suggestion Maisie. I only subscribe to the Kaka so I will do as you suggest. But how do I put thekaka.substack.com on the front page of my iPad so that all I have to do is press it and not have to type it in every time.
I asked for help, and did some searching and have got 2 options for you. Here's the first one: another Kaka reader Gareth says "Open your homepage in Safari on the iPad, then tap the “share” link to the right of the title bar, and look down the list for “add to homepage"' . Then you can add thekaka.substack.com to your Safari homepage.
3. Tap the Share button at the bottom of the page. It looks like a square with an arrow pointing out of the top.
4. In the list of options that appear, scroll down until you see Add to Home Screen. Tap this. The Add to Home Screen dialog box will appear.
5. Choose a name for the website shortcut on your home screen (maybe “The Kaka”?). You’ll see the link so you can confirm it, as well as the site’s favicon that will appear as the “app” icon on your home screen. Click Add when you’re done. Safari will close automatically and you will be taken to where the icon is located on your home screen.
6. Now just tap the shortcut and it will open the website in its own window.
I subscribe to several newsletters. One, early on, left and went elsewhere. I support that decision, but I also support your decision. I'm happy to stay on.
I guess if things change and you decide later to remove The Kaka from Substack, that'll be OK too.
Hi Patricia, could you explain a bit more about the problems you have? I’m just a fellow kaka member but happy to help if there is some way I can. Eg are you accessing it on a phone or on a webpage on your computer? Is the problem that you start at thekaka.substack.com but can’t find the day’s kaka? (If so, don’t worry you are not the problem, for some reason the homepage often seems very out of date, not showing the latest post until much later. A workaround for this would be to switch on email notifications and then you could go directly to the day’s post from the email)
Thank you very much Hamish. Very kind of you. I do get the Kaka in my email but when I do my heart sinks because sometimes it goes to that dreaded substack and then my heart lifts if it goes straight to the Kaka. But then, during the day, when the Substack app says it has messages, my heart sinks again because 9 times out of 10 it goes to the actual Substack and 9 times out of 10 it has nothing to do with the Kaka. So that is why I wondered if Bernard could let us have the option of just going into the Kaka
Totally agree. Hopefully the kaka community can put this to bed and move on. There is always going to be be some objectionable content on any platform. Don't feed the trolls.
In a time when we are in desperate need of high-quality information, analysis and insight, the last thing we need is This world class newsletter being dragged into an online screaming match and forced to exit. Bernand, please don't go anywhere, your response is more than adequate.
Good to have dealt with this so openly Bernard; substack is a publishing tool, and as a tool, it can be used for good and bad, and that is it... from my limited interaction here (I'm mainly for the Kaka), is mostly used for what I think is good. I also had dead threats for my positions on fisheries and neo-colonialism (very niche topics!) in open social platforms, I quit one (it was in the plan anyhow) and stayed in the two others because I see more benefits than negatives, albeit I'm aware that there are unsavoury people there... as anywhere.
Thank you Bernard for this extended post and your information about your journey with online publishing. I was both surprised and relieved when joining Substak to be able to avoid the ‘gunshot’ mentality of FB and the rest of social media. Your Kaka is excellent. Your obvious depth of knowledge comes across so well. Please keep going!
Yep. I was lucky and avoided scope creep. But most journalists then (or now) couldn't and wouldn't be able to pay for that. It's why Substack is a gift.
Tēnā koe Bernard, Ahakoa ko hea tāua haere atu ai. Ka kōkiri tahi tāua. No matter where the Kaka is, I will follow. I value the thinking and writing that goes into the channel. I also see it as one of the emerging guardrails. So I am relaxed about your decision, and appreciate how you walked us through your process. Secondly, he kupu o te mana. I think words have great power. They create the permission structure for action. That’s a reality we have yet to confront in any serious way here in Aotearoa, even after what happened in Ōtautahi. Thirdly, I can see Kaka is in a rock and hard place. Ka aroha ahau ki a koe - it’s a genuine conundrum. But somewhere in the silence and the space in between the words – we need to develop the confidence to have the korero about how none of us is free if the N##is and N##i adjacent actors in Aotearoa are allowed to silence all the voices they disagree with through the use of violent political rhetoric (online and in real life) - while the state sits by twiddling its thumbs. So, given all that, I support the Kaka staying here, speaking louder, going harder, and leaning into the challenges we have in front of us. Strength to your arm e hoa.
Wonderful Bernard I applaud your thoughtful approach and happy that you engaged with us throughout this process.
Bernard, this is nonsense. There are far, far more than "just five" Nazi publications on Substack, which you'd know had you done any journalism on the topic, and not only that, there is a gigantic disinformation and anti-transgender hate-speech ecosystem here which happily utilises Substack to spread (and monetize) their message because there's practically nowhere else online that will let them do it!
I'm unsubscribing immediately. Not because you're staying - I understand completely why people who use this platform for their livelihood might feel a need to hang on - but because the reasoning for staying is so poor. It takes very little research to reveal just how much disinformation is on this platform, and even how many overt Nazis remain, and you're ignoring or dismissing the scope of the problem entirely. You should be better than this.
Edit: I've been working on a newsletter about Substack's colossal disinformation ecosystem (feat. Nazis) for several weeks now, and I published today. Here it is: https://badnewsletter.substack.com/p/all-the-garbage-i-found-on-substack.
It's the last story I'll be publishing on Substack.
Okay, but aren't you still publishing on Substack?
Josh Drummond is definitely leaving Substack. He has posted to that effect.
I posted a while back about why I'm leaving. I'm currently sorting the migration. I have one newsletter left to post on Substack - about the absolutely hideous garbage I found on this platform, either algorithmically suggested by Substack or with minimal effort - and then I'm out.
Your choice - I'm staying on as a subscriber.
Thanks Josh. I'm sad you feel that way. I hope we can win you back one day. Bernard
I think it is okay for you to stay if this is the only way to get your business to work. I love your work on our non-economy. However, I don't think it is fair to dismiss the anti-trans and alt-right content on Substack as insignificant. It makes me really uncomfortable. I left Twitter much later than a lot of people but giving advertising money to Andrew Tate was my line. I'm still considering what to do about Substack. I don't get much revenue and all my posts are open so I was considering just stopping the payment side. I don't know. Substack has been really good for getting people to see my work.
Glad I saw this comment as it motivated me to read through your 60-minutes of content post. Wow, it's bad. Really bad. I basically grow up on the internet; I've gone from watching anti-SJW cringe compilations at 14 (short lived, thank god), to attending protests against Posie Parker and Jordan B Peterson. I'm far too familiar with the terminally online alt-right.
From Bernard's comments, I was expecting something akin to 2020 Youtube's Nazi-wormhole algorithm due to poor moderation. Nope, it looks like Substack is actively embracing branding that is invocative of Rumble and Gab, completely sling-shotting itself beyond the edgy, short-form styles of X and 8chan into a long-form, Turner-Diary-Esque article provider.
This isn't a little incel/AnCap problem, it's a full-blown white-supremacist disaster.
I wonder Bernard if those who do not want to be part of the Substack, and I am one of them but not because of the Nazi problem but because I find it so difficult to access the Kaka in it, could the Kaka be separated out of the Substack. I am 84 and I know it is my problem but is that possible?
Thanks Patricia. Are you able to read The Kaka via email? That's how most read it.
I thought I had replied to this but I can’t find it in my sents. God only knows where it went. But it is a peculiar email address.
Yes I do get an email and when I go to the comments in it, it goes automatically to the Kaka. But when my Substack app shows a message, sometimes it goes to The Kaka but it usually goes to Substack. That is why I asked if you could separate the two. It probably is me.
Hi Patricia, I'm kind of the opposite to you. Substack seems to have given up emailing me (& I've given up complaining about it). According to the wonderful Spinoff Bulletin people, this seems to be because Substack has a problem with sending emails to xtra.co.nz. So I've now given up on emails all together, and always go to either this web/Internet address https://thekaka.substack.com/ for The Kaka (which I've got bookmarked in my Chrome internet browser), or to this one, https://substack.com/inbox, where all my Substack subscriptions show up. If you just subscribe to The Kaka, it might be easier to read everything including comments at https://thekaka.substack.com/. I check it around once a day, knowing that Bernard will publish usually early or mid-morning, depending on how busy he is.
Let me know if any of this is useful.
Thank you very much for your suggestion Maisie. I only subscribe to the Kaka so I will do as you suggest. But how do I put thekaka.substack.com on the front page of my iPad so that all I have to do is press it and not have to type it in every time.
Hmm, good question. I don't use an iPad, I'll do some research & see what I can find out.
I asked for help, and did some searching and have got 2 options for you. Here's the first one: another Kaka reader Gareth says "Open your homepage in Safari on the iPad, then tap the “share” link to the right of the title bar, and look down the list for “add to homepage"' . Then you can add thekaka.substack.com to your Safari homepage.
2nd option to follow!
1. Open Safari. Other browsers such as Chrome, won’t work for this.
2. Enter “thekaka.substack.com” in the browser and tap “Go”.
3. Tap the Share button at the bottom of the page. It looks like a square with an arrow pointing out of the top.
4. In the list of options that appear, scroll down until you see Add to Home Screen. Tap this. The Add to Home Screen dialog box will appear.
5. Choose a name for the website shortcut on your home screen (maybe “The Kaka”?). You’ll see the link so you can confirm it, as well as the site’s favicon that will appear as the “app” icon on your home screen. Click Add when you’re done. Safari will close automatically and you will be taken to where the icon is located on your home screen.
6. Now just tap the shortcut and it will open the website in its own window.
Hope one of these does the trick.
It worked. Thank you so so much.
I subscribe to several newsletters. One, early on, left and went elsewhere. I support that decision, but I also support your decision. I'm happy to stay on.
I guess if things change and you decide later to remove The Kaka from Substack, that'll be OK too.
Thanks Jacqueline.
Well done, Bernard.
Thanks for the explanation, Bernard.
And you can never have too many cricket metaphors!
Ha! Thanks.
Thanks Bernard for the thoughtful post which I support. Your care in it supports entirely my sense of you. Let’s hope this kills the issue.
Hi Patricia, could you explain a bit more about the problems you have? I’m just a fellow kaka member but happy to help if there is some way I can. Eg are you accessing it on a phone or on a webpage on your computer? Is the problem that you start at thekaka.substack.com but can’t find the day’s kaka? (If so, don’t worry you are not the problem, for some reason the homepage often seems very out of date, not showing the latest post until much later. A workaround for this would be to switch on email notifications and then you could go directly to the day’s post from the email)
I agree Hamish. It comes to my laptop email so no hunting around on my phone
Thank you very much Hamish. Very kind of you. I do get the Kaka in my email but when I do my heart sinks because sometimes it goes to that dreaded substack and then my heart lifts if it goes straight to the Kaka. But then, during the day, when the Substack app says it has messages, my heart sinks again because 9 times out of 10 it goes to the actual Substack and 9 times out of 10 it has nothing to do with the Kaka. So that is why I wondered if Bernard could let us have the option of just going into the Kaka
Thanks Hamish.
Totally agree. Hopefully the kaka community can put this to bed and move on. There is always going to be be some objectionable content on any platform. Don't feed the trolls.
In a time when we are in desperate need of high-quality information, analysis and insight, the last thing we need is This world class newsletter being dragged into an online screaming match and forced to exit. Bernand, please don't go anywhere, your response is more than adequate.
Good to have dealt with this so openly Bernard; substack is a publishing tool, and as a tool, it can be used for good and bad, and that is it... from my limited interaction here (I'm mainly for the Kaka), is mostly used for what I think is good. I also had dead threats for my positions on fisheries and neo-colonialism (very niche topics!) in open social platforms, I quit one (it was in the plan anyhow) and stayed in the two others because I see more benefits than negatives, albeit I'm aware that there are unsavoury people there... as anywhere.
Thank you, Bernard. The right decision for the right reasons.
Thank you Bernard for this extended post and your information about your journey with online publishing. I was both surprised and relieved when joining Substak to be able to avoid the ‘gunshot’ mentality of FB and the rest of social media. Your Kaka is excellent. Your obvious depth of knowledge comes across so well. Please keep going!
Thanks Tony.
Thanks Bernard . Happy with your decision . all the best .
Producing a functional subscription based email system for $50k is honestly a very good price
Yep. I was lucky and avoided scope creep. But most journalists then (or now) couldn't and wouldn't be able to pay for that. It's why Substack is a gift.
Oh, absolutely not implying people should just pay that! But you must have done a good job to keep it relatively light.
BTW I thought this was a very sane and sensible analysis of the options.
Tēnā koe Bernard, Ahakoa ko hea tāua haere atu ai. Ka kōkiri tahi tāua. No matter where the Kaka is, I will follow. I value the thinking and writing that goes into the channel. I also see it as one of the emerging guardrails. So I am relaxed about your decision, and appreciate how you walked us through your process. Secondly, he kupu o te mana. I think words have great power. They create the permission structure for action. That’s a reality we have yet to confront in any serious way here in Aotearoa, even after what happened in Ōtautahi. Thirdly, I can see Kaka is in a rock and hard place. Ka aroha ahau ki a koe - it’s a genuine conundrum. But somewhere in the silence and the space in between the words – we need to develop the confidence to have the korero about how none of us is free if the N##is and N##i adjacent actors in Aotearoa are allowed to silence all the voices they disagree with through the use of violent political rhetoric (online and in real life) - while the state sits by twiddling its thumbs. So, given all that, I support the Kaka staying here, speaking louder, going harder, and leaning into the challenges we have in front of us. Strength to your arm e hoa.
Nga mihi nui e hoa.
I certainly want to push back at the hate speech, whereever it's hosted. For us, we can use Substack to do that.