Why I’m Leaving Substack (Sort of)

Ghost, Ethics, and the Price of Recognition

My leaving is up to you.

If you’ve been reading Born Without Borders, you know I care about language, power, systems, and the invisible forces shaping how we live, move, and connect. So when I discover the infrastructure I publish on conflicts with my values, I should move, right?

That’s why I’m going to try to rebuild it on Ghost.

I’m writing this for two reasons:

1. To explain why I'm making the switch

2. To help other writers, educators, and creatives make better choices than I did. Or, who knows, maybe this is a mistake, too. We’ll learn from that, too (if you stay subscribed).

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Why I Came to Substack in the First Place

Substack kicked ass since the first week.

• Dozens of people I didn’t know engaging and subscribing with minimal self-promotion, just natural conversation.

• I didn’t need to know how to code

• Incredible writers, easy to make friends.

• And most importantly, no ads.

But there’s a cost to that convenience.

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What’s Wrong With Substack? (Technically, Ethically, Structurally)

Let’s start with the technical issues.

• My comments broke and stayed broken for over three months.

• Substack support told me: “Unfortunately, this issue may not be prioritized.” I know, celebrities are.

• Lacking multicultural and language features—It’s slowly improving, but Substack is still very Anglo and ‘Merica-focused.

• SEO is mid at best—subdomain-based URLs, no structured language metadata, and heavy scripts that hide content from crawlers (and AI scrapers). We’ll get into more of this later.

But it’s deeper than that.

Substack pays creators to join, offering advances and visibility boosts to big names.

The biggest names? Funded. Promoted. Algorithmically elevated.
The rest of us? Left to cross-promote and grind while money funnels into the hands of those who already have it as it supposedly “trickles down” to the rest of us. Sound familiar?

Of course, there are the deeply questionable voices under the banner of “free speech absolutism.” I’ll go as far as to stand with Substack on allowing all voices. But actively promoting

Bari Weiss

who collaborates with reactionary thinkers and treats progressive overreach as more dangerous than actual authoritarianism? Or

Richard Hanania

who has a history of white nationalist writings under a pseudonym? I’ll let my readers be the judge of that.

There are also the celebrity intellectuals our world needs on Substack. People like

Yanis Varoufakis

and

Slavoj Žižek

. Yet, they’ve shown me that maybe Substack and social media aren’t the problem.

We’re the Problem

Why would people like Varoufakis and Žižek be here? Why would any of us thinkers who challenge neoliberal capitalism, advocate for systemic transformation, and critique current power structures be here?

The bottom line

For those who are already famous, Substack is a convenient way for them to reach people and, of course, make money. It’s thanks to Substack I discovered my favourite sociopolitical writer,

Brian Klaas

, but celebrity thinkers like

Michael Moore

,

Sam Harris

,

Richard Dawkins

,

Michael Pollan

and all those giant names Google, Meta, and even Netflix algorithms have been putting into my view since I was a teenager, could have easily used Ghost. Although they would have the same impact on Ghost because people will subscribe to them anywhere, Substack makes it easier for them to gain subscribers and reach people. Or Substack pays them to be here.

Even us most radical egalitarians are human and succumb to the temptation of right-wing-billionaire-piece-of-shit-venture-capitalist-backed platforms as long as it helps our bottom line.

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So Why Ghost?

Because, after three years, my bottom line is still unsustainable here and I need to think ahead.

When I saw “paid subscriber” pop up with the source “ChatGPT",” I realized where discoverability will come from in the long haul. We should stay away from allowing LLMs (Large Language Models) to create and think for us. Yet, when it comes to searching and planning, you’ve already seen where we’re heading.

I've chased discoverability on Substack. While Substack offers a powerful network effect for those it chooses to amplify, it comes at a fundamental cost: ownership and control. It's the same trade-off you make using Instagram or X for your primary presence—you're building on rented land, chained to algorithms and changing terms.

Substack's focus has clearly shifted towards celebrity writers and established names, offering massive advances and boosted visibility that most independent creators will never see. Their support team's candid admission of "this issue may not be prioritized" after months of silence, or their well-documented track record of hosting controversial content for profit, simply highlights that your independence is secondary to their bottom line.

With Ghost, I'm not just publishing; I'm building an owned, resilient, and ethically aligned foundation for my work and my business… I hope.

1. True Ownership of My Website & Audience: Unlike Substack, where your audience is essentially "on loan" and your content lives on their subdomain, Ghost provides full, undeniable ownership.

• Your Content, Your Rules: My articles are under my own domain. There's no fear of my content being de-prioritized due to a platform's changing moderation policies or algorithmic shifts.

• Your Brand, Uncompromised: I have complete customization over my site's design, URL structure, and overall “branding.” Don’t get me started on how we use the word brand more than human to refer to growth nowadays. Yet, the control of codes and seeing how I can transform my website from within has been a new creative journey.

2. Advanced Technical Capabilities for Global Reach & SEO Precision. From all the articles I read (which I discovered searching with Perplexity, Gemini, and ChatGPT), I learned Ghost takes the lead in discoverability, particularly for a global, multilingual audience:

• Multilingual Mastery: I can publish seamlessly in multiple languages (e.g., Spanish and English) with native support for hreflang tags, html lang attributes (shit I had no idea about before), separate language feeds, and automatic UI translations for the reader portal, comments, and search. Apparently, this is crucial for proper SEO indexing in each language, so my work can reach global audiences effectively.

• Granular SEO Control: Ghost excels in SEO. It provides auto-generated XML sitemaps, full control over meta titles, descriptions, canonical URLs, and headers. Its clean code and fast (some say faster than Substack) page speeds make my content more discoverable by search engines like Google and more "dissectible" by LLMs and AI agents, unlike Substack's often script-heavy structure.

3. Diverse & Direct Monetization Streams (No Middleman Fees). Ghost enables more monetization options that put people in direct control of my revenue:

• 0% Platform Fees: Every dollar (minus standard payment processor fees) goes directly to me. However, Ghost’s cheapest plan is $11/month ($9 if paid annually). If you want to build custom integrations and access the 1,000+ Zapier integrations, you’ll pay $31 ($25 if paid annually). In my case, I’ll be losing money by switching to Ghost. I’m just hoping it pays off in the long run when people see the more ethical choice.

• Tips & Donations: Beyond subscriptions, Ghost supports one-off "buy me a coffee"-style tips and direct donations, providing additional avenues for audience support without requiring a full paid tier. Of course, you can do this with Substack, but that kind of defeats the purpose of their model.

4. Decentralized Discoverability via the Fediverse (The Open Web is Back). This is where Ghost might future-proof my reach and reduce reliance on centralized social media and newsletter algorithms.

• Native ActivityPub Integration (Beta): My articles and short "notes" automatically publish to the decentralized social web, appearing natively in users' feeds on platforms like Mastodon, Pixelfed, but yes, also Threads.

  We had it pretty good for a while, back there. The early days of the web were chaotic, free, and open. Everyone published unique content on their own domain. No two sites looked the same. We interacted with one another to share ideas.

  Then the social networks came. They removed the complexity of running a server. They added simple social interactions. Follow. Like. Reply. Everything got easier.

  But convenience came at a cost, and slowly the way we consumed information became less like home cooking and more like McDonalds.

  This fast food algorithm diet was deliberately designed by technology companies to profit from our addictions. And after two decades of indulgence, the cracks in our collective consciousness are visible all around us.

  The time has come to take back control, and there are good reasons to be optimistic.

  For the past few years the choice has been difficult. Either participate in closed networks at the mercy of algorithms, or set up an independent website at the expense of your growth. Now, though, that entire dynamic is getting flipped upside down for the first time.

  Email gave us private messaging technology that isn’t owned by a single company. You can communicate with anyone, whether you use Gmail or Outlook.

  ActivityPub is doing the same for social technology. It’s a protocol that allows people across different platforms to follow, like and reply to one another. No algorithms. No lock-in. No bullshit.

  The open web is coming back, and with it returns diversity. You can both publish independently and grow faster than ever before with followers from all over the world & the web.

  — Activity Pub, Ghost.

• Built-in Inbox & Feed: Ghost's admin panel now includes an "Inbox" and "Feed" to see long-form posts, short notes, plus comments, likes, and reposts from the Fediverse allowing for direct engagement without jumping platforms.

• Open Web Networking: My Ghost site becomes a node in the broader open web, unlocking network effects lost on closed platforms.

In Summary:

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How I'll Use Substack Moving Forward (The "Hypocrisy" Acknowledged): Yet, I'm also a pragmatist, acknowledging the realities of attention. I'm not abandoning Substack entirely; it has transformed into a social media platform I enjoy thanks to the lack of ads and, of course, all of you.

I'll continue to hang out here, engage in Notes, post lives, appear in guest posts, and collaborate with anyone who is interested. I’m treating it as a centralized network for promotion and community interaction. It's a place to amplify my message, but I won't give it my money or my primary business focus because their money and primary focus don’t go to writers like me.

My newsletter and core business will live on Ghost. This subtle distinction allows me to use centralized networks for promotion and discussion while ensuring my content, audience, and revenue remain in my control on a platform aligned with my values.

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What If You’re Just a Reader?

Nothing will change. You’ll still get emails—just from Ghost, not Substack. Unless you don’t want them, of course. I’ll make sure there are no double payments or subscriptions, but if you notice you’re getting doubles, just email me, and I’ll fix it. Plus, if there’s a glitch, I’ll finally have access to a support team that shows support.

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TL;DR (modern scrolling brain)

• Substack helped me grow. But I might have outgrown it.

• Ghost lets me publish like I think: across cultures, languages, and formats.

• I’m supporting a non-profit, decentralized, carbon-neutral business not funded by undeniably evil twats like Marc Andreessen.

• I’ll actually have a technical support team.

• Don’t unsubscribe from Substack! I’ll still be here, posting lives and hanging out with my friends in the comments. I’m also open to collaborations. And if there’s too much hate on this article, I’ll drop Ghost. Again, there’s that bottom line.

• Subscribe to the new site → born-without-borders.ghost.io (I’ll change my domain if this works out).

And if it flops? I’ll write a follow-up post saying “Alright, ya’ll convinced me to stay.” After all, when I first came to Substack I said it was wrong to take your subscribers to Ghost after Substack helped you grow. However, this was before the time of Notes, lives, celebrities, and what Substack has, for better and for worse, become today. Now, I believe the right choice is Ghost.

Unfortunately, the ethical choice isn’t always the one that works in our society. I’ll leave it up to us.

— Nolan