Technically I am violating Substack’s Publisher Agreement because my recurring membership system is done via Memberful.

You may not circumvent your payment obligations to us by soliciting payment from a Reader outside of Substack or by using any alternative method to collect subscription payments. This includes receiving payments for your publication through links to PayPal or a separate Patreon page.

This is why I’m exporting my email list every day.

When I signed up back in 2021 I knew (more or less) what I was signing up for: I’d be able to offer a “paid newsletter” via Substack, and that made total sense.

But I’ve realized I don’t really write a paid newsletter at all! I offer my community via weekly Escape Pod Zoom calls, and using Substack to manage that doesn’t work very well.

While places like Twitter and Instagram may “hide” your posts when you include a link to your Substack, Substack doesn’t just frown upon links to PayPal, Patreon, etc – they might shut down your account because of it.

Substack was great for growth (for a bit), but frowns upon you outgrowing their offering. Then they technically make it difficult to extract yourself from their system.

If we find yourself trying to fit your square membership into Substack’s round hole, tough luck – that’s what we signed up for, I guess. And it seems now that the safest best for Social Media Escape Club is to move my email list elsewhere at some point.