By Michael Kelman Portney

Alright, let’s address the awkward silence in the room—or rather, the glaring absence from my Instagram profile. Yes, I removed the link. No, it wasn’t an accident. And no, I didn’t lose a bet. Instagram decided to play referee and threw a penalty flag at me for the heinous crime of wanting to share my blog with you. Apparently, linking you to misinformationsucks.com was a bridge too far for the algorithm gods. “Dear God, not a link off platform! Anything but that!”

So, here we are. Unlinked. Untethered. Raw. It’s just you, me, and the stories, stripped of the extra fluff. Honestly, I feel like I’ve been through some kind of digital detox. I mean, who needs links anyway? I’m not running a scavenger hunt, and you’re not here for breadcrumbs to another site. You’re here for me.

But let’s be real: Instagram made it weird first. They treated my links like I was smuggling contraband into your feeds. Like misinformationsucks.com was some underground rebellion rather than the modern-day oracle it actually is. I get it, Instagram. You want me to keep all the fun contained in this little box. But you didn’t count on one thing: I thrive in rebellion. If links are contraband, I guess I’m now the Pablo Escobar of ideas—minus the helicopters and questionable moral compass.

The real irony? By removing the links, I’ve made this Instagram Story the main event. No need for a hyperlink to pull focus. This is where the magic happens now. Every joke, every thought, every over-the-top rant is right here, contained in this algorithm-friendly sandbox. It’s the unlinked renaissance, people. We’ve entered a new era.

So what’s next for this brave, linkless frontier? Oh, don’t worry—I’m still here to disrupt, to entertain, and to make you think twice about scrolling past. Think of it as a challenge: you’ll have to work a little harder to find your way to misinformationsucks.com. (Spoiler: it’s in the name. You can figure it out.) But in the meantime, I’m doubling down on the stories. Consider this Instagram profile the main stage. The show starts now.

And to Instagram: Nice try, but you can’t stop me from being a trailblazer. You can penalize links, but you can’t penalize brilliance. Welcome to the post-link era. Buckle up—it’s going to be a wild ride.

—Michael Kelman Portney