4 ms·

I'm just curious - why? Forgive me if I am missing the obvious advantage over a blogging platform like medium.

Kpourdeilami 8y ago
Medium's reading experience is pretty bad with all the annoying popups showing up all over the place. Also with Ghost you can easily export your data and move it across different ghost installations, you can customize the look and feel of the blog, you can use your own custom domain without paying medium extra for that, etc.
- ageitgey 8y ago
  For anyone that wants to move from Medium to Ghost easily, I made this thing to do that: https://github.com/ageitgey/medium_to_ghost https://github.com/ageitgey/medium_to_ghost
  - jazzyjackson 8y ago
    Ghost uses markdown, right? So does this tool export my medium blogs as markdown files, with links to the image files already embedded? If so, I will be forever indebted xD
    - icebraining 8y ago
      Apparently it uses a format called Mobiledoc¹, not Markdown. ¹ https://github.com/bustle/mobiledoc-kit/blob/master/MOBILEDOC.md https://github.com/bustle/mobiledoc-kit/blob/master/MOBILEDO...
    - ageitgey 8y ago
      Ghost 2.0 uses Mobiledoc format now. But you could get Markdown + Images out of this with a little hacking and passing the output to https://github.com/yuloh/mobiledoc-markdown-renderer https://github.com/yuloh/mobiledoc-markdown-renderer
JazzXP 8y ago
Not giving your content to someone else. Not obeying their rules. Having control over the domain name (Medium doesn't support adding custom domains anymore).
drngdds 8y ago
Medium has tracking and social media integration. And you don't have any real control over the platform. (Also, the sticky headers are so damn annoying!)
- SteveNuts 8y ago
  What do you mean by sticky headers?
  - homero 8y ago
    The stupid app thing on mobile view never goes away now
    - SteveNuts 8y ago
      Ahh, thank you I haven't heard this term yet.
  - drngdds 8y ago
    The big header on the top of the screen that doesn't go away when you scroll down. It takes up a ton of vertical space on a phone. About a third of the screen in landscape!
  - captain_perl 8y ago
    The industry term is "dickbar", coined by John Gruber about persistent toolbars: https://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/03/06/dickbar https://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/03/06/dickbar
detaro 8y ago
medium doesn't allow you to bring your own domain, and that's fairly crucial. Both for longevity (can always point a domain at a new host, even if it's just a bunch of static files somewhere, if the old host goes away or becomes bad in some way) and identity: proper name instead of "yet another medium blog", which isn't exactly a signal of quality. Still, there's tons of hosting options where that's not an issue. Running a VPS can be interesting and fun, but if you just want to host a simple site there's easier options that work just as well.
tokyodude 8y ago
medium is horrible if you want comments since it requires people to have medium account also medium isn't nearly as customizable as your own blog. Can you do this on medium? http://cabbibo.com/ http://cabbibo.com/

Medium's reading experience is pretty bad with all the annoying popups showing up all over the place. Also with Ghost you can easily export your data and move it across different ghost installations, you can customize the look and feel of the blog, you can use your own custom domain without paying medium extra for that, etc.

ageitgey 8y ago
For anyone that wants to move from Medium to Ghost easily, I made this thing to do that: https://github.com/ageitgey/medium_to_ghost https://github.com/ageitgey/medium_to_ghost
- jazzyjackson 8y ago
  Ghost uses markdown, right? So does this tool export my medium blogs as markdown files, with links to the image files already embedded? If so, I will be forever indebted xD
  - icebraining 8y ago
    Apparently it uses a format called Mobiledoc¹, not Markdown. ¹ https://github.com/bustle/mobiledoc-kit/blob/master/MOBILEDOC.md https://github.com/bustle/mobiledoc-kit/blob/master/MOBILEDO...
  - ageitgey 8y ago
    Ghost 2.0 uses Mobiledoc format now. But you could get Markdown + Images out of this with a little hacking and passing the output to https://github.com/yuloh/mobiledoc-markdown-renderer https://github.com/yuloh/mobiledoc-markdown-renderer

JazzXP 8y ago

Not giving your content to someone else. Not obeying their rules. Having control over the domain name (Medium doesn't support adding custom domains anymore).

drngdds 8y ago

Medium has tracking and social media integration. And you don't have any real control over the platform. (Also, the sticky headers are so damn annoying!)

SteveNuts 8y ago
What do you mean by sticky headers?
- homero 8y ago
  The stupid app thing on mobile view never goes away now
  - SteveNuts 8y ago
    Ahh, thank you I haven't heard this term yet.
- drngdds 8y ago
  The big header on the top of the screen that doesn't go away when you scroll down. It takes up a ton of vertical space on a phone. About a third of the screen in landscape!
- captain_perl 8y ago
  The industry term is "dickbar", coined by John Gruber about persistent toolbars: https://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/03/06/dickbar https://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/03/06/dickbar

detaro 8y ago

medium doesn't allow you to bring your own domain, and that's fairly crucial. Both for longevity (can always point a domain at a new host, even if it's just a bunch of static files somewhere, if the old host goes away or becomes bad in some way) and identity: proper name instead of "yet another medium blog", which isn't exactly a signal of quality. Still, there's tons of hosting options where that's not an issue. Running a VPS can be interesting and fun, but if you just want to host a simple site there's easier options that work just as well.

tokyodude 8y ago

medium is horrible if you want comments since it requires people to have medium account also medium isn't nearly as customizable as your own blog. Can you do this on medium? http://cabbibo.com/ http://cabbibo.com/