Something's Wrong, and I Can't Fix it Alone

Hello, this is reah lost.

First of all, I’m sorry we’re meeting like this — in the middle of something so unpleasant.

I’ve tried quietly, persistently, to resolve this on my own. But now, it’s painfully clear that this is beyond what I can fix by myself.

I never wanted to write a note like this.

I’d much rather be here with you — sharing warm thoughts, laughing together, and simply writing in peace without having to worry about distorted statistics.

But now, I truly have no other way forward.

If I want to continue walking this path with you, I need your help. I sincerely, humbly ask for it.

I started my Substack account on July 24.

That evening, I uploaded my very first post, Shell above the Shell — a piece that meant the world to me.

At first, I thought everything was working fine. My post received 18 views on the first day, then 24 views the next. For a quiet start, I thought that was more than enough.

But the real problem began on July 26, when Shell above the Shell showed 32 post views — even though the total views for that day were only 18.

How is it possible for a post to be viewed more times than the entire account?

That was just the beginning of a series of missing and clearly broken stats.

• As of August 5 (Pacific Time), two notes containing a link to Solid Ground have received 98 and 110 link clicks, respectively. But the post itself only shows 11 views.

• Traffic data is also clearly off: my “Direct” category shows 358 views, but only 12 users. The Substack app traffic shows 77 views from 12 users.

• The latest note announcing the upload of Dumb Companion received 27 link clicks — but the post only shows 3 views so far. This raises serious doubts that every post I’ve published may be undercounted.

I fully realized how serious this was four days ago.

That’s when I first submitted a formal report via email, attaching screenshots and a detailed explanation.

I immediately received an auto-reply directing me to contact their chatbot instead. From then on, I’ve had no choice but to rely solely on the chatbot to raise my concerns.

And yet, even after multiple attempts — one four days ago, another three days ago, and several more since — I’ve received nothing but the same scripted responses:

“We’ll forward this to a specialist team.”

That’s all.

Five times now.

Twice, I was told to submit a detailed request to the Standards and Enforcement Team. I did — more than two days ago — but still nothing.

Even just a few hours ago, I followed up again. And again, the same response:

“We’ll forward it to a specialist team.”

I never wanted to go public like this.

But at this point… I truly don’t know what else to do.

I need your help — desperately.

Without accurate statistics, I cannot understand your responses. I cannot plan the next post.

I cannot make any thoughtful decisions about going paid.

If you can help this issue reach Substack — by sharing this, tagging them, leaving a comment if you’ve experienced something similar — it would mean everything.

Not only for me,

but for the next writer who might otherwise go unheard.

I still hope Substack can be a platform that stands by writers like me.

And I hope I can return to you again soon — not with this kind of post, but with the stories I long to tell.

Thank you.

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If you’d like to review the screenshots and logs backing up each issue, feel free to contact me.

(All sensitive info has been redacted. I’m sharing this transparently in hopes of getting this resolved—for myself and others.)