After many criticisms of Academia Edu, I didn't have space to discuss alternative research repositories like ResearchGate, or open access repositories like Knowledge Commons (which also maintains a sizeable Mastodon instance) -- details under: https://hcommons.social/@SteveMcCarty/112635424860940626
ResearchGate purports to be more exclusive but still allows non-members to scroll down to read in-text articles. However, they might also be tempted toward #enshittification (in Cory Doctorow's colorful parlance). To an extent we have to hold our nose ;-) to gain the network effects of Academia Edu and ResearchGate, but if they become too unethical or difficult to reach readers, we can move our works and links to an open access repository like Knowledge Commons. Most members use it additionally for blogging, but I recommend it as a free Website host as well, such as my central Website on Japan, online education, bilingualism, and the academic life: https://japanned.hcommons.org