https://on.substack.com/p/introducing-reply-rules
Which resulted in all Substack writers having "automatic moderation" of comments under all articles, even going back in time to the first articles ever written, five+ years ago. Resulting in replies that violate "community standards" - which are EXACTLY the same as Fakebook/Twatter/YourTub's - being shoved into a light gray font "replies hidden" link at the bottom of all replies.
Writers have to go to their settings and toggle "Off" "automatic moderation." The update was installed overnight, no notice. When I noticed "replies hidden" under Stacks I read I put together an Alert showing how to turn it off and exposes the sorts of comments that violate "community standards."
https://freedomfox.substack.com/p/alert-substack-shadow-banning-deployed
I investigated the "community standards" and Reply Rules, engaged the Substack Chatbot to discover more about it, and derived that the same "community standards" that are shadowbanned on comments are applied to individual Stacks, like Art of Liberty and Freedom Fox. But instead of being flagged and partitioned off from other replies with a 'helpful' link to for those seeking 'forbidden fruit' knowledge, there's no helpful "Stacks hidden" link for disfavored Stacks that violate "community standards." Those/these Stacks exist in the Substack "ghetto." Ghetto Stacks don't get boosted, promoted, are not given any visibility, are not indexed for search engines, require full, knowing, intentional searching within Substack to find them by name.
And to add another facet to the Substack shenanigans is the presence of a coordinated "chaos bot" trolling profiles that make reading and contributing to comments under Stacks difficult. Mocking, derisive, snarky remarks more fitting on social media than Substack, profiles that mimic/imitate freedom-oriented profiles, even using the same profile pictures of a user they target, make the give-and-take of the platform less enjoyable. Even getting allies to fight one another. Many of them automated, prepopulated with followers, subscribers, subscriptions in less than five minutes of establishing a 'new' profile via sophisticated programs. That will keep the same url account but change profile names for any other users that challenge them.
Here's an example of one that was created to target me, had replicated my profile and populated with followers, subscriptions in less than five minutes following a comment exchange last year. Others were also created that no longer exist or were subsequently morphed into other profiles it's moved on to attacking:
https :// freedomfux[dot]substack[dot]com/
And NONE of that is done without Substack's knowledge. The chaosbots/troll accounts are roving enforcers of Substack's "community standards," sentinels that are most often found patrolling high-readership contrarian, freedom-oriented Stacks for users and ideas that go against the permissible narrative.
These type of "chaosbots" are funded by the same censorship-industrial complex, work in packs, teams to make it look like they are more in number shouting down the heretics. Like Information Warfare specialists working for public-private control entities.
Yes. Substack is compromised in the ways you describe. The ways I discovered add more depth and layers to how compromised it really is now.
Yet, I remain here...for now...but aware of what the platform has become. And developing my own contingency plans for a future without it. Thank you for developing your own and sharing it with us.
https://on.substack.com/p/introducing-reply-rules
Which resulted in all Substack writers having "automatic moderation" of comments under all articles, even going back in time to the first articles ever written, five+ years ago. Resulting in replies that violate "community standards" - which are EXACTLY the same as Fakebook/Twatter/YourTub's - being shoved into a light gray font "replies hidden" link at the bottom of all replies.
Writers have to go to their settings and toggle "Off" "automatic moderation." The update was installed overnight, no notice. When I noticed "replies hidden" under Stacks I read I put together an Alert showing how to turn it off and exposes the sorts of comments that violate "community standards."
https://freedomfox.substack.com/p/alert-substack-shadow-banning-deployed
I investigated the "community standards" and Reply Rules, engaged the Substack Chatbot to discover more about it, and derived that the same "community standards" that are shadowbanned on comments are applied to individual Stacks, like Art of Liberty and Freedom Fox. But instead of being flagged and partitioned off from other replies with a 'helpful' link to for those seeking 'forbidden fruit' knowledge, there's no helpful "Stacks hidden" link for disfavored Stacks that violate "community standards." Those/these Stacks exist in the Substack "ghetto." Ghetto Stacks don't get boosted, promoted, are not given any visibility, are not indexed for search engines, require full, knowing, intentional searching within Substack to find them by name.
And to add another facet to the Substack shenanigans is the presence of a coordinated "chaos bot" trolling profiles that make reading and contributing to comments under Stacks difficult. Mocking, derisive, snarky remarks more fitting on social media than Substack, profiles that mimic/imitate freedom-oriented profiles, even using the same profile pictures of a user they target, make the give-and-take of the platform less enjoyable. Even getting allies to fight one another. Many of them automated, prepopulated with followers, subscribers, subscriptions in less than five minutes of establishing a 'new' profile via sophisticated programs. That will keep the same url account but change profile names for any other users that challenge them.
Here's an example of one that was created to target me, had replicated my profile and populated with followers, subscriptions in less than five minutes following a comment exchange last year. Others were also created that no longer exist or were subsequently morphed into other profiles it's moved on to attacking:
https :// freedomfux[dot]substack[dot]com/
And NONE of that is done without Substack's knowledge. The chaosbots/troll accounts are roving enforcers of Substack's "community standards," sentinels that are most often found patrolling high-readership contrarian, freedom-oriented Stacks for users and ideas that go against the permissible narrative.
These type of "chaosbots" are funded by the same censorship-industrial complex, work in packs, teams to make it look like they are more in number shouting down the heretics. Like Information Warfare specialists working for public-private control entities.
Yes. Substack is compromised in the ways you describe. The ways I discovered add more depth and layers to how compromised it really is now.
Yet, I remain here...for now...but aware of what the platform has become. And developing my own contingency plans for a future without it. Thank you for developing your own and sharing it with us.