Substack charging for "setting up" custom domain names you own is extortion

A webpage form prompts users to add a custom domain to their Substack account by entering credit card information and paying a $50 fee.

That sour, disappointed look flooded onto my wife’s face. She was upset. I asked her what was wrong, and she explained to me that her Wordpress stats weren’t working like they used to. I poked around and couldn’t find anything obviously amiss in the Jetpack plugin settings, so I told her it was likely a glitch and would clear up. About a week later I got the email.

I cannot BELIEVE that #Substack has the gall to charge $50 to use a custom domain!! Hey #networking #nerds, how much does it cost Substack to “host” a domain name #tech #internet #capitalism

Wow. Good job making your customers think their computers were infected with a virus, ASUS. #stupid #capitalism #tech tech.slashdot.org/story/24/…

Oh god, what a disaster. It was bad enough that #ElonMiusk’s #SpaceX was shooting thousands of satellites into orbit, but now others are doing it. There are countless factors to blame for this, not the least of which are #Capitalism and toxic power fantasies. arstechnica.com/space/202…

I think Sam Elliot kinda nails it… to the wall… with his special brand of gravitas and casual Southern snark. #politics #TFG #capitalism

I’VE DONE IT!! I’ve found the single most stupid product on #Amazon!! I introduce you to the “Anti-Cat Keyboard Cover, Laptop Keyboard Covers cat Proof, Clear Keyboard Protector, PC Desk Stand for Keyboard Storage Acrylic Monitor Stand Riser and Laptop Stand Riser”. Sure, Amazon product names have become ludicrous, eschewing the need for an actual name and leaning 1000% into SEO, but this is ridiculous. If that wasn’t bad enough, it’s $50. #capitalism #caturday

#OMG! Is there no low Elongated Muskrat won’t stoop to? Well, that’s a dumb question… I know. Maybe Lord #TFG will declare him Regent of the Sovereign Kingdom of teXas. See what I did there? Clever, no? #idiocracy #xitter #elonmusk gizmodo.com/elon-musk…

Um. Wow. Okay… So, it’s a banana… and it’s taped to a wall… with a strip of standard silver duct tape. And it just sold at auction for $6.24 MILLION DOLLARS. Aside from being the easiest art to forge, I applaud artist Maurizio Cattelan for creating “Comedian” since it pokes the art industrial complex in the eye and the winning bid makes fools of every last art “speculator” out there. It also peeks under the veneer of stupid we’re running on these days. #art #banana #stupid www.nbcnews.com/news/us-n…

As one might say, “Must be nice.” I mean, it’s not like dropping a cool quarter million plus to go on a #cruise for four years is an option for all of the people whom #TFG is likely to cause harm with his addled concepts of ideas. It certainly appears to be a thing, though. #escape #uspol www.salon.com/2024/11/1…

Save The Web: Advanced Dollarnomics

In the first part of this series I started last year, I spoke about the idea of Dollarnomics, describing it in some detail. If you want to get the basics of the concept, then you should go read that first. It’s not a long piece and I’ve linked it below. I do outline a few ideas there, but there needs to be some additional context so that you might fully understand the power that I believe resides both in the $1 bill and in the people who are tired of always being on the bottom of the economy, even if you only have a few million dollars in the bank, an amount that is nowhere near as comforting as it was a decade or two ago.