Substack continues to make explicit efforts to de-value their newsletter writers and make folks platform-dependent through promoting “followers.”

I have about 8.9k subscribers to the newsletter, but more than 5k additional followers… who may not know that you aren’t actually on my list, that you aren’t receiving any of my 2x/week missives, and that in the case that I d*part Substack after my 7 f-ing years here (… as will likely be happening in Q2), that you won’t see any astrological or magical support for your writing in the feed.

This is why subscribing is important! Not just to me, but to ANY writer you actually enjoy on here. If you’re subscribed, we can save your email and take you with us whatever platform we go to. But we don’t take any “followers” with us. This is how they try to make writers (and readers) dependent on them.