Why We Moved
(We hate Nazis)
Every once in a while, a video like the below pops up on my feed and I realize it's been too long since I have reminded everyone why .WAV Gallery migrated from Substack to Ghost (where you're reading this now).
Substack was .WAV Gallery’s home for its first year. In that time, I had a positive experience. However, it came to my attention that the platform refuses to moderate hate speech. When confronted with these allegations by the public, Substack Editor-in-Chief Hamish McKenzie said “We don’t expect everyone to agree with our approach and policies, and we believe it’s helpful for there to be continued robust debate of these issues.”1
It goes further than allowing for debate, Substack has sent push notifications to people recommending Nazi blogs and allows for these publications to be monetized, rewarding them for cultivating a following.2 Even Nazi publications that have been banned from other corners of the internet are finding a home on Substack.3
I never saw or interacted with this content, but I will not to engage with a platform that encourages the propagation of far-right ideologies. This publication is intended to be a celebration of the local community and of music in general. It has no place on a platform that allows bigotry or discrimination without consequence.
Where'd We Go?
After extensive research, we moved to an open-source blogging platform called Ghost. Ghost has lots of the same features but functions a little bit more like a standalone site than a social media platform. Existing subscribers were migrated over and all new posts have come from Ghost since November 2025. All previous posts were transferred over with a cleaner and more aesthetically pleasing format (so now is a good time to revisit them).
Citations
1 How Deep Does Substack’s Far-Right Problem Run, Really? by Shane Burley
2 Substack sent a push alert promoting a Nazi blog by Taylor Lorenz