Hello world! Goodbye...Substack?My main connection network, and focus, for the last 4 months, evaporated in an instant…
I was really just getting started with my newsletter and, I think, doing something that could make a difference.
Where did I do wrong? Will I be let back? Will I lose all my subscribers? How do I explain any or all of this to my Substack network and friends?
Suspended By Substack
First, I have to say I’m upset that, A: you cannot backup your Substack data if you’re suspended; and B: that the images aren’t backed up if you did back up in time, but that they are saved only on Substack. So if Substack deleted my data, even by accident, then even if I did back it up, after every major change to a newsletter/blog post, then I would still lose all the images.
On top of that, the HTML files that they send you still have all the redirect info, so unless you view them offline, or edit them first, when you open your old newsletters in your web browser (Chrome/Firefox etc.) your newsletter is gone, and you only get the following in it’s place:
Regardless, most writers are on Substack because they don’t know how to edit HTML files, or mess with network settings, about hard-linked images, or even that the load posts option could force a redirect and how to disable, bypass, or remove it.
“The best thing that came out of this was that I decided to get on a domain and hosting.”
Hopefully, they will let me back as I love the community there, and it would make me sad if I could not go back and keep in contact and connecting with such a cool and diverse community.
I have three ideas why I might have been suspended on Substack, I believe all are misunderstandings, but I’ll let you decide that for yourself.
Okay, the first thing I did was I was that I was trying to do a good deed, and let a fellow community member know that their website link was broken, not being directly connected to them I first followed them, and then sent them a message, something along the lines of:
“Hi Joe, I noticed that your website link yourlin.com was missing the letter K in yourlinK.com, just wanted to let you know. Have a great weekend!”
So from that, I think that I might have been auto-flagged, as I sent some random person, a random message, with with a link in the message, only minutes after following them. Now that I re-read it, it almost sounds spammy, even though I’m trying to do them a favor (I thought?).
Seeing the above when visiting my Substack page was heartbreaking…
So my second thought was that I’ve been following a lot of people recently — most of them are connected to my healthy whole foods plant based vegan / vegetarian no salt, no oil, no sugar, or scratch cooking, but, I do have a diverse interest in, well, everything. Regardless, most of the people I followed were just 2nd or 3rd level connections away from me, at the most!
Now, even going to read in the Substack app all I get is:
I’m my defense, I just wanted to spread my free, easy, healthy, scratch cooking recipes, using affordable ingredients, to all the people who are currently eating the vegan gruel (that’s killing me), or vegan processed junk food (that’s killing them).
I just want to show that there is a way to have you, healthy, whole-food, unprocessed, tasty, and decadent, cake… and yes, to also eat that cake and feel good, not guilty, about it.
The last thing, which is highly likely, is that Substack might have thought my content is “sensational,” because, well: it is, in many ways.
My newsletter titles are supposed to shock and grab attention by being seemingly impossible feats of food!
Things like: eat pizza to lose weight, or waffles and syrup to fight diabetes & CVD, are over the top sounding. But, if you do read the science and medical research data I’ve provided: it all checks out in controlled and scientifically valid studies and controlled human trials.
So the good thing about Substack shutting me out was that I created my own blog (que Bender’s blackjack line here), where I will keep posting and updating and reposting my old recipes. Luckily, I only had a few more than a dozen recipes that, that I backed up before, and that I’ll need to re-enter into their new, permanent, home.
Hope to see you all back on Substack in the future!