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That seems rather disappointing considering the amount of hype the project got with the kickstarter, and then launch, etc. I've played around with an install a

That seems rather disappointing considering the amount of hype the project got with the kickstarter, and then launch, etc. I've played around with an install and ran a blog on it for a bit, and was never too impressed. The functionality and features all seem simplistic (Which isn't a bad thing in itself), but made me wonder why I had to download what felt like hundreds of packages with npm when I installed it. Even with all of the features they promised in the kickstarter that have now been cut, I never quite understood why they needed so much funding to create the project. I hope they are able to do better in the future, if only to have a good alternative to WordPress, and to maybe deliver on things that they have shelved. Edit: Looks like ghost has 38 direct dependencies in NPM, of which many have their own dependencies, etc.

rodgerd 11y ago
> Edit: Looks like ghost has 38 direct dependencies in NPM, of which many have their own dependencies, etc. This ended up putting me off. Sure, npm makes it easy to install/upgrade all the deps, but if one of the problems with WordPress is that it's a sprawling maze of potential security holes, this sort of setup really isn't the answer.
- philjackson 11y ago
  As opposed to writing it all from scratch? I don't mean to be facetious...
  - Retric 11y ago
    Most of the time you probably want 5% of any huge products features, the issue is everyone wants a different set. Often you can find a more focused project that works or roll your own with far less work than you might expect. Especially if you would need a highly customized version of that "huge" project.
  - rodgerd 11y ago
    As opposed to just using WordPress (and getting all the extra features and whatnot) like everyone else, or going with another blog engine.
drifkin 11y ago
I've been working on a lot of node stuff and lately I've been noticing how crazy big some of the dependency trees end up becoming. So I just did a quick check on ghost: currently there are 487 total dependencies in the dep tree when you do an `npm install ghost` To be fair, there is some overlap. For example, "debug", a fairly common package, is included in various parts of the tree 8 times, though there are 3 distinct versions being used. (Keep in mind these numbers are not including dev dependencies. If we add those in, the tree balloons to over 1,400 dependencies!)
- Swizec 11y ago
  The issue with the node ecosystem is that they (we?) have really taken the mantra of "Do one thing and do it well" to heart. Most of the dependencies you load are tiny and only do one thing. Whether that's ultimately a good thing, I don't know. Maybe NPM is just too explicit in showing you everything that you installed. But there's now this shrinkwrap thing now that promises to slim down those huge dependency trees. I haven't played with it too much yet, but smells promising.
  - nailer 11y ago
    Shrinkwrap doesn't slim down the trees, it just makes sure the whole tree is locked to specific version, so your Linux server doesn't end up installing a different version of some package than your Mac does. You might be thinking of npm 3, where modules are installed at the top of the tree first, and there's only extra copies of a module down the three if something specifically needs a different version of that module.
  - 3pt14159 11y ago
    The issue is that the Node ecosystem embraces not sharing libraries so you end up with n^2 growth in packages for size. There are lots of small Ruby gems, but you can only require one version of a Ruby gem per runtime so it keeps things much smaller.
    - TimJRobinson 11y ago
nailer 11y ago
> Edit: Looks like ghost has 38 direct dependencies in NPM, of which many have their own dependencies, etc. That's awesome! There's so much bad JavaScript around where someone writes their own case insensitive sort() function, or their own state machine, or scrapes wikipedia for ISO codes or currencies rather than using country-data. It looks like ghost is working on the parts that actual deliver value to their users and letting common, well maintained projects do the common stuff.
- fapjacks 11y ago
  I guess you're implying that all those packages out there aren't as poorly-written as it would be if someone wrote it themselves? Have you actually looked through some of those packages published on npm and depended on by huge projects?
  - nailer 11y ago
    I pick modules with a long maintenance history, frequent releases, lots of contributors, lots of stars, passing tests and great documentation. So do most people in npm - you can tell from module popularity stats.
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
- eonw 11y ago
  what makes you think the info used in country-data isnt just scraped from wikipedia too?
  - pritambaral 11y ago
    Even if it is, it leaves the responsibility of updating the data to the maintainer of country-data. That, and it's really quick to just use an existing module. I believe GP wanted to use country-data as just an example for both (or either, or more) of these points^.
ionwake 11y ago
Coincidentally , this week, I made a post on how to setup your Ghost on AWS , including all the gotchas. https://twitter.com/craftfortress/status/635555503905603585 https://twitter.com/craftfortress/status/635555503905603585 Unlike you (with respect to your opinion), I found it to be absolutely perfect. I am surprised they don't make more revenue. EDIT> Just to add more information regarding how Ghost stacks up against other free alternatives for Blogging Coders: Jekyll I tried Jekyll with skeleton. Very easy installation onto github, and the fact username.github.com automatically links to your blog is great. The downside is ofcourse you have to install a them for it to be usable, and perhaps for many , having your blog edits in your official github account, may not be perfect. Medium I also tried medium but I did not like: 1) The constant modals asking you to log in 2) The fact Medium posts are automatically negatively ranked by HN
- briandear 11y ago
  Why is Medium negatively ranked?
  - minimaxir 11y ago
    The quality of Medium posts is highly variable, with posts trending toward the low-quality promotion-in-disguise articles. I think the auto-penalty has been toned down a bit though compared to when Medium first launched.
- trumbitta2 11y ago
  My own blog, http://www.williamghelfi.com/ http://www.williamghelfi.com/ , is made with Jekyll and hosted on Divshot (not GitHub) Seamless, quick, developer-oriented. Perfect for me :D EDIT: http://docs.divshot.com/integrations/jekyll http://docs.divshot.com/integrations/jekyll
- ohitsdom 11y ago
  Just an FYI, you don't have to use Jekyll with github. The integration seems convenient, but I run it on its own to build my static site (blog) on my own domain.
cheez 11y ago
There are two reasons to make such posts: 1. Encourage investors to reach out 2. Marketing They've proven that they've got a crank that takes in money (labour) and puts out money. The question is whether the ratio is good enough or if the right kind of investor can help improve that ratio.

rodgerd 11y ago

> Edit: Looks like ghost has 38 direct dependencies in NPM, of which many have their own dependencies, etc. This ended up putting me off. Sure, npm makes it easy to install/upgrade all the deps, but if one of the problems with WordPress is that it's a sprawling maze of potential security holes, this sort of setup really isn't the answer.

philjackson 11y ago
As opposed to writing it all from scratch? I don't mean to be facetious...
- Retric 11y ago
  Most of the time you probably want 5% of any huge products features, the issue is everyone wants a different set. Often you can find a more focused project that works or roll your own with far less work than you might expect. Especially if you would need a highly customized version of that "huge" project.
- rodgerd 11y ago
  As opposed to just using WordPress (and getting all the extra features and whatnot) like everyone else, or going with another blog engine.

drifkin 11y ago

I've been working on a lot of node stuff and lately I've been noticing how crazy big some of the dependency trees end up becoming. So I just did a quick check on ghost: currently there are 487 total dependencies in the dep tree when you do an `npm install ghost` To be fair, there is some overlap. For example, "debug", a fairly common package, is included in various parts of the tree 8 times, though there are 3 distinct versions being used. (Keep in mind these numbers are not including dev dependencies. If we add those in, the tree balloons to over 1,400 dependencies!)

Swizec 11y ago
The issue with the node ecosystem is that they (we?) have really taken the mantra of "Do one thing and do it well" to heart. Most of the dependencies you load are tiny and only do one thing. Whether that's ultimately a good thing, I don't know. Maybe NPM is just too explicit in showing you everything that you installed. But there's now this shrinkwrap thing now that promises to slim down those huge dependency trees. I haven't played with it too much yet, but smells promising.
- nailer 11y ago
  Shrinkwrap doesn't slim down the trees, it just makes sure the whole tree is locked to specific version, so your Linux server doesn't end up installing a different version of some package than your Mac does. You might be thinking of npm 3, where modules are installed at the top of the tree first, and there's only extra copies of a module down the three if something specifically needs a different version of that module.
- 3pt14159 11y ago
  The issue is that the Node ecosystem embraces not sharing libraries so you end up with n^2 growth in packages for size. There are lots of small Ruby gems, but you can only require one version of a Ruby gem per runtime so it keeps things much smaller.
  - TimJRobinson 11y ago

nailer 11y ago

> Edit: Looks like ghost has 38 direct dependencies in NPM, of which many have their own dependencies, etc. That's awesome! There's so much bad JavaScript around where someone writes their own case insensitive sort() function, or their own state machine, or scrapes wikipedia for ISO codes or currencies rather than using country-data. It looks like ghost is working on the parts that actual deliver value to their users and letting common, well maintained projects do the common stuff.

fapjacks 11y ago
I guess you're implying that all those packages out there aren't as poorly-written as it would be if someone wrote it themselves? Have you actually looked through some of those packages published on npm and depended on by huge projects?
- nailer 11y ago
  I pick modules with a long maintenance history, frequent releases, lots of contributors, lots of stars, passing tests and great documentation. So do most people in npm - you can tell from module popularity stats.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
eonw 11y ago
what makes you think the info used in country-data isnt just scraped from wikipedia too?
- pritambaral 11y ago
  Even if it is, it leaves the responsibility of updating the data to the maintainer of country-data. That, and it's really quick to just use an existing module. I believe GP wanted to use country-data as just an example for both (or either, or more) of these points^.

ionwake 11y ago

Coincidentally , this week, I made a post on how to setup your Ghost on AWS , including all the gotchas. https://twitter.com/craftfortress/status/635555503905603585 https://twitter.com/craftfortress/status/635555503905603585 Unlike you (with respect to your opinion), I found it to be absolutely perfect. I am surprised they don't make more revenue. EDIT> Just to add more information regarding how Ghost stacks up against other free alternatives for Blogging Coders: Jekyll I tried Jekyll with skeleton. Very easy installation onto github, and the fact username.github.com automatically links to your blog is great. The downside is ofcourse you have to install a them for it to be usable, and perhaps for many , having your blog edits in your official github account, may not be perfect. Medium I also tried medium but I did not like: 1) The constant modals asking you to log in 2) The fact Medium posts are automatically negatively ranked by HN

briandear 11y ago
Why is Medium negatively ranked?
- minimaxir 11y ago
  The quality of Medium posts is highly variable, with posts trending toward the low-quality promotion-in-disguise articles. I think the auto-penalty has been toned down a bit though compared to when Medium first launched.
trumbitta2 11y ago
My own blog, http://www.williamghelfi.com/ http://www.williamghelfi.com/ , is made with Jekyll and hosted on Divshot (not GitHub) Seamless, quick, developer-oriented. Perfect for me :D EDIT: http://docs.divshot.com/integrations/jekyll http://docs.divshot.com/integrations/jekyll
ohitsdom 11y ago
Just an FYI, you don't have to use Jekyll with github. The integration seems convenient, but I run it on its own to build my static site (blog) on my own domain.

cheez 11y ago

There are two reasons to make such posts: 1. Encourage investors to reach out 2. Marketing They've proven that they've got a crank that takes in money (labour) and puts out money. The question is whether the ratio is good enough or if the right kind of investor can help improve that ratio.