Moving my blog from Svbtle to Substack

Let's blame SSL certificates.

I was an early user on Svbtle back when I saw a “Show HN” thread about it on HackerNews.

I loved the minimal design. I loved how it works really well on mobile. I dig the draft preview URLs. I think the composer makes it super easy to write without distractions. I’ve had no complaints about it for the past ~4 years. It does what every blogging platform should do, without any-frills.

The main reason I’m moving on is: SSL. Chrome would show a privacy error when users visited my custom blog domain because Svbtle doesn’t use custom domain SSL certs. Custom domain certs have been a private beta feature for more than a year now. I’ve written to the Svbtle team asking them to give me access, but have gotten no response from them. On Chrome (and any browser using a “Force HTTPS” extension) this makes my blog totally unusable. Having custom domain certs for paying customers should have been treated as an urgent high priority item. It should have been on by default for all users.

Anyways, I’m sad to move on from Svbtle, but excited for a fresh start on a new platform. I’ll be writing about random AI / web things I’m learning and building. You might get a post or two a month. Feel free to subscribe (it’s free and all the cool kids are doing it).