I can’t help but think that with the recent revelation that Substack will not ban nazis, and the movement that it was in response to, and the subsequent follow-through by the Substackers Against Nazis, we’re at another point in the social media timeline where the people who are doing the work of journalism, independently, really, really need the tools to go fully independent. Fully. Not on Wordpress, Ghost, or any mailing list platform or CMS. They need easy, plug and play ways to set up a self-hosted site, running open source software, with connections to Platforms That Matter.
We are far past the point where a platform collapsing, or becoming untenable for you should result in the massive problem that exists with some of the journalists and others now leaving Substack for other mailing list platforms. This shouldn’t happen. There is an entire community of people who build these things and the tools are incredible. But I can barely get my mind around most of them because they require command line knowledge, which I consider an advanced set of computer skills, to install and administer.
I wish I was capable of doing such a thing. I am not (see: command line as advanced). I do see an opportunity to really build a lasting way of communication. Open source applications to install open source platforms that use open source protocols to communicate through open source endpoints.
Or any kind of endpoint. If the system exists, and all the people who make this ecosystem what it is are part of it, like they were on Twitter, any place that wants you to read the stuff on their site will play. They’ll have to. But keep the people creating the things we want to see in control of those things. And make it easy for them to control it.