guys we need to stop supporting these obvious bots. nothing they say matter. they won't even let people read this piece without some kind of subscription that goes towards their online social status.
For what it's worth, it seems authors can disable that popup on their own substack. I did, and it doesn't seem to have reduced subscription sign-ups, but even if it does, not annoying people is always a good principle.
It defaults to 'on' though, and maybe not everyone has explored their settings. It took a while for me to find it.
i am so, so, so tired.