I tried Substack for a couple of months earlier this year, even though I had to hold my nose while doing so considering their stance towards platforming people and opinions that most companies would shun.

I liked their tools, and the ability to intensely control the paywall. I enjoyed being able to choose the specific cutoff point for free previews on my paid stories.

But the "closed-off" nature of the platform that you talked about here was almost immediately apparent. It had far less organic platform traffic than Medium, or any other social media site I've used for that matter, with everyone sitting on their own little walled islands. As a new creator there I didn't have any meaningful way to make my island bigger without advertising my content to readers on other platforms I might already be using.

I deleted my substack to re-focus on Medium and I've been doing much better since.