Same here. I'm glad I hemmed and hawed over my overall theme because I have yet to officially start anything beyond creating my account. My Dad fought the Nazis and as an historian I will always emphasize the evils of Nazism. So unless I can find a way to combat Nazism from within Substack, Substack is going to be an entirely unacceptable venue.

I've been running a newsletter in Buttondown for a while now, and it's a decent service and does a good job delivering emails. I enjoy writing in markdown and having posts render exactly as I expect, so that's plus in my book. Also the founder, Justin, replies to emails quickly and is quite helpful. I recommend it! (However, what it won't do is help you build out a following through algorithmic recommendations the way Substack does.)

@Jasper That's (a big) part of what I'm looking for - a built-in recommendation engine to help people find my work. I'm surprised other services aren't at least trying to do that.

I think built-in algorithmic recommendations is what opens the Pandora's box of content moderation - it's the difference between being a pure software provider (as Substack initially was) vs a social media platform (as Substack is becoming)