@alongtheray @pimoore I’d like to strongly disagree. Substack has custom domains support, easily exportable posts (what @JohnPhilpin mentioned), exportable email lists (per category that too), a customizable sidebar for links (you can put Blogrolls in here, for example), ability to not send posts as emails i.e. only to the blog and RSS, and so on. All with a super clean Editor and no nagging to enable paid subscriptions anywhere in the Dashboard or UI. No ads anywhere on your blog+newsletter either.

On the other hand, Wordpress is an absolute mess to use, especially in its popular Wordpress.com implementation. Any feature you can add via plugins and stuff is not obvious to non-techies or easy for them to control. The Block Editor gives so much friction to the writing process it’s crazy it was even considered good enough to drop it on tens of millions of users. If you have a blog on Wordpress.com, or connect Jetpack to hosted Wordpress, the dashboard is utterly littered with ads from WordPress in nearly every single section of the Dashboard, urging you to upgrade even if you’re already on one of their paid plans.

I find it suprising that people who vouch for blogging and its culture continue to promote and laud Wordpress but judge when people use Substack. Substack has its flaws but this particular issue seems to be misplaced among my blogging-culture-loving friends IMO.

The other argument I want to make is that many of us here in this community and beyond are more tech savvy than people on average. We don’t realize just how much friction exists for people in general to setup their own identity on the Web. We tend to judge a blog on its architectural foundation so much that we often miss focusing on the words the person is putting out. I’d say let’s judge something on the actual words the blogging system is enabling people to put out rather than just its visible exterior.