Publishing a version of an email to a Substacker in which I provided additional background and details about leaving the platform.
As I said here, I had concerns about Substack for a while and wanted to get off and move my content to my own site for many reasons. I did not want to stop researching and writing about the COVID Event. I have a lot more to say and share and plan to keep going for as long as I can.
The manner and abruptness with which I went about leaving Substack was not optimal and was prompted by personal circumstances but, in the end, I’m glad I “detonated” in a sudden fashion because it forced me to do what I had been needing to do and finding excuses not to.
I had experimented with different techniques (making the whole Stack private, pausing subscriptions), because I wanted to see how Substack was promoting various narratives and authors. Suffice to say, I was disturbed by what I observed – and by messages from the owners of Substack about what they considered their platform to be. (Plus, who are all the owners? Who all has a vested interest? Are we sure we know?) It changed a lot since 2021 and felt increasingly like a “show” in the COVID Dissident sector — one I wanted no part of and was disheartened to see others be a part of, if not be a part of “directing,” perhaps more than I’d realized.
Prior to deleting the Stack, I had paused subscriptions again. That might make a difference and be something that others who have paid subscriptions want to do before doing anything else.
I think the pause had been in effect for a couple of weeks when I went about deleting at the end of October. In the process, either Substack or Stripe (can’t remember which) tried to tell me that I owed $1,500. I was like, “Um, no.”
So, whatever I did to delete after that kept me from having to pay the $1,500. I deleted my account as well (my @jessicahockett name) but then realized that doing so took my name off of the articles I co-authored on Sanity Unleashed and Where Are the Numbers? So I created a new account solely for the purpose of being “on” those articles, in the interest of accurate attribution.
Meanwhile, Wood House 76 didn’t delete all the way and was left in a “pending deletion” state with most articles still on the pending version. (Tangent: it’s curious which ones were deleted immediately and were not in a pending state…happened to be some of the more recent ‘controversial’ ones.)
I went back and forth with Substack for weeks. They didn’t tell me I owed money but said I didn’t go about deleting in the right way. I think the fact that I had created a new @jessicahockett account also complicated things.
Finally, after more or less having to demand resolution, my emails got to the right Actual Person and the Stack was removed.
My Stripe account is still active and no one is being charged. I had fewer than 100 subscribers and had paused subscriptions so I thought that was the way to go. (I was actually thinking of Michael Senger, who basically disappeared from existence but kept his Substack posted and paused subscriptions. I, by contrast, didn’t want my content on the Substack platform at all.)
Some of my subscribers were Founding Subscribers (n=5?), no more than $250 each, with a few having given $250 twice. The rest were $50 annual or $5/month. I don’t really see why I would owe anyone anything much but I can refund any subscriber who emails me directly.
One thing I’m glad I did was associate the Stack with a domain. (h/t Michael Senger for that one — he did it first at a time when Twitter/X started suppressing Substack links; we thought having a .com would be a workaround, which seemed to work for a little while).
Wood House 76 is on WordPess.com for now but will soon move to a standalone site, hosted/created via WordPress.org. [UPDATE, 21 January 2026: After spending time and money on the development of a standalone site, I decided against it for reasons having to do with focus and purpose. I may change my mind in the future.]
I know fellow American and Dissident Writer Katherine Watt removed Bailiwick News from Substack a few weeks after I left. For the record, I was not aware she was going to do that, have not spoken to her about her decision, and don’t know why she did or if her reasons are similar to mine. Obviously, I respect the decision, as well as the decisions of those who decide to keep using Substack. I am not on a crusade against the platform and have bigger fish to fry.
But I do keep thinking of that line from “Little Women” (Great Gerwig version), when Jo says, referring to copyright, “I want to own my own book.”
Having written several books, I can relate to the sentiment. There is no substitute for fully owning your own content and time (or feeling like you do), regardless of whether you are paid or charge for it.
For me, Substack and my use thereof was robbing my sense of ownership — and much else.
I live a much quieter existence now, with fewer than a dozen subscribers and almost no traffic, but I have more peace — which is something all the money in the world cannot buy.
Added Post-Publication:
Katherine Watt, via comments:
“My reasons for leaving Substack were very similar to yours; they overlap and then there were some in addition to the ones you have described. My path to the exit began when VicParkPetition (ExcessDeathsAU) posted in early July 2025, about the financial leverage blocking exit from the platform. I paused my paid subscriptions about a week later, closed my Stripe account in mid-September and closed my Substack in early December.”
Hockett, replying to Watt:
“Thanks for replying.
I remember when you ended the paid subscriptions (because I saw you saying something about it in a Note, maybe).
If I’m not mistaken, your name retained the orange checkmark until you removed your account. Did you notice that too? I thought it was interesting because the checkmark is linked to the number of paid subscriptions. When you fall below 100 paid subscriptions, it gets removed. So apparently it doesn’t get removed when you close the linked Stripe account?”
Watt, replying to Hockett:
“I don’t know the answer to that question. I guess it must not matter to the checkmark system, whether the Stripe account is connected and active or not.
I think, but am not certain, that even after I closed the Stripe account in September 2025, my Substack dashboard continued to list a number of active paid subscribers.
I did not figure out whether there was a natural attrition of paid subscribers during the time when the paid subscriptions were paused but the Stripe account was still linked.
In other words, I was curious — from mid-July when I paused subscriptions — about whether paid subscribers would roll off the paid subscriber list on the date on which their auto-renewal would have auto-renewed, if the date came and went with the subscriptions still on pause, or whether they would stay on the list, so that new charges could resume immediately if I had un-paused the subscription pause.
I think the latter is the case, but did not un-pause the subscription pause to test my hypothesis. Instead, I just closed my Substack.”
Hockett, replying to Watt:
“Thanks.
The only thing I have to add to that is that, for me, how many paid subscribers one had did matter to the checkmark system and corresponding ‘rankings’ — both of which I did not care for and observed in 2025 as becoming part of a rewards/punishment incentive system of the ilk I detest. (I was on Substack to publish findings & my perspective, participate in shared inquiry, get feedback, etc., not to become a celebrity or player in a show.)
If you fell below 100 (which I usually did and never had more than 107, IIRC), the checkmark disappeared. That’s why I noticed when yours didn’t, after you disconnected Stripe.
It could have to do with billing cycles and subscriber type. So if a writer has 100+ yearly and founding subscribers, for example, the checkmark is ‘marked safe’ even when canceling Stripe because a certain number subscribers have ‘paid through’.”
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