A lifetime ago, I worked as a community manager.
Part of my job was writing and enforcing the rules: Terms of Service agreements, content guidelines, moderation policies. Many social media companies describe themselves as “public squares” akin to street corners and park squares, but I never saw it that way.
To me, an online platform is like a house party: the operator decides who’s allowed inside, what kind of behavior is acceptable, and how guests are expected to behave. My goal was never perfection, but fairness. I wanted to foster environments where people could show up, participate, and not feel unsafe.
Now, imagine you’re at that party, and you walk into the kitchen with your red Solo cup, but next to the keg, someone’s holding forth — loudly and proudly — about how some people don’t deserve to be there at all.
When you bring this to the host’s attention, they explain that while they disagree with hateful statements, guests are free to say whatever they want, as long as they’re not inciting violence.
Would you leave? Would you return and chip in for more beer? Would you invite your friends, knowing who else is going to be in the room?
That’s the question I finally had to ask myself about publishing on Substack.
I launched Fund/Build/Scale there in 2023 because it was easy. The publishing tools worked, I could leverage network effects to grow my audience, and since the platform didn’t seem to be amplifying hate speech, I tried not to think too much about what else was hosted on the platform.
In July 2025, “Substack sent a push alert encouraging users to subscribe to a Nazi newsletter,” reported Taylor Lorenz. And it was then that I realized I couldn’t keep pretending I didn’t know who else was in the kitchen.
The company apologized for the error, but I realized that I’d never be comfortable growing — or especially monetizing — my work in that environment.
I moved to Beehiiv because its content moderation policies are closer to how I think communities should operate: clear standards, consistent enforcement, and a business model that prevents extremists from monetizing hate speech.
LinkedIn and Medium are still part of my distro strategy, but Beehiiv provides better control over my subscriber list, more design options, and analytics that will actually help me understand what readers value.
I’m not chasing clout or trying to project moral superiority; it’s housekeeping. Every publisher makes decisions about where their audience gathers and what their clicks support. This is mine.
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