8 ms·

A Year to The Day

81 points by Naushad 12y ago

drivingmenuts 12y ago
Is there anything about Ghost that, intrinsically, makes it better than other blogging platforms? Seems to me it's just reinventing a many times reinvented wheel (except this one is hip and popular).
- sergiotapia 12y ago
  It's main selling point is that it's fast and uses Markdown for writing posts. It's perfect for a developer blog.
  - platz 12y ago
    For a developer blog, what would be the advantage of Ghost over a static site generator?
    - sergiotapia 12y ago
      I don't have to spend 1 second figuring out how to convert layouts and templates and blah blah blah. I just want to write content.
    - egeozcan 12y ago
      I can't see any reason to use it for any type of blog. Setting up ghost on your server and getting used to the UI (yes, it's as simple as it can be but it's still new) sounds more to deal with than pushing markdown files to your Github account.
      - egypturnash 12y ago
        Web apps can be used from any device - your home machine, your phone, your tablet, your friend's machine, a computer in an internet cafe halfway around the world. Pushing markdown files up to your github account... well, okay, I dunno, maybe you can figure out a way to do it in all of those cases if you're the kind of person who thinks that's the simplest thing to do, but most people are not.
    - ryanSrich 12y ago
      If you have A LOT of posts and pages it can take minutes to generate your blog, then push it to your server. Ghost is pretty much instant. Write in the browser, publish in the browser.
- beachwood23 12y ago
  I thought the same. What is the advantage of this platform over something equally simple like Jekyll or Octopress?
  - snide 12y ago
    Not a great comparison. Ghost has an admin that's pretty nice. While it might be easy for all of us to jump into code to compose our posts, with Ghost you can jump in on your mobile device, make some edits and hit save.
    - icebraining 12y ago
      If you're a programmer, I don't see the advantage over, say, SGit. Just launch the app, edit the file, commit & push. And hey, you can even edit offline.
- EC1 12y ago
  > except this one is hip and popular And sometimes that's all it takes.
- fhd2 12y ago
  I guess we'll never get this horrible metaphor out of software development, but I keep trying: It's not _reinventing_ the wheel. The wheel is an old concept, so are blogs. This is a new/different implementation of that wheel. "Reinventing the wheel" is as pointless as it sounds. But what about making new, better wheels? Maybe not everyone needs the same wheel? (Edit: Just to clarify, I'm not exactly a fan of Ghost.)
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - icebraining 12y ago
    That's the point: while Ghost claims to be a new, better wheel, it actually seems (to some people) to be reinventing it.
    - coldtea 12y ago
      It would only be "reinventing" the wheel if it was (or, at least claimed to be) an independent first-time creation of a blog engine without prior knowledge of them existing. So, unless we're talking about something like that (unlikely) there's no such thing as "reinventing the wheel" in real life. There's just "creating a different wheel". BBS, Enkei and all the wheel companies are not "reinventing the wheel". The create a new version of wheel. Even if it's boring and similar to existing things, it's not a re-invention. That would be like calling another CRUD app that is "re-inventing the CRUD".
      - icebraining 12y ago
        If you're going to complain that it's not actually reinventing, then can I point out that Ghost is not a wheel, either? It's an idiom with a known meaning. It doesn't have to be literally true.
        coldtea 12y ago
        Yes, but the problem is that it's not a good idiom either, for the reasons explained: It's based on a broken metaphor, and it doesn't reflect how things work on software. They could have at least said "they made just another blog engine".
- freyr 12y ago
  It gained a lot of its initial traction by unveiling a very slick, built-in dashboard. This was a design concept, and hasn't materialized (yet). In its current state, it's an extremely basic blogging platform with a built-in Markdown editor. For me, that was enough to become an early adopter, because I think it has more long-term potential for interesting new features than, say, Jekyll. That said, there are still a lot of rough edges. Regarding the dashboard, there is lower-hanging fruit with greater payoff for Ghost, including the API (which is apparently a prerequisite to the dashboard anyway). They seem to be prioritizing the right things.
- modernerd 12y ago
  From an end-user perspective: 1. It's easier to use than WordPress, Drupal etc. That's because it does much less than those platforms on purpose. The WordPress admin area has become a scary place for new users, particularly once they start to add plugins that litter the admin menu with extra entries. 2. The admin area is fast. Moving around feels slick – it is a desktop-like experience; hitting Command+S will save the draft you're working on, for example, rather than bringing up your browser's “Save Page As...” prompt. The Markdown preview is as-you-type, and they use the screen estate very well. It's a comfortable environment to write long posts in, and it hasn't been tacked on as an afterthought, like WordPress' full-screen editing mode. 3. The organisation behind Ghost, the "Ghost Foundation" is a non-profit. It doesn't have investors or shareholders; it is answerable only to its users and funded by those who pay for official Ghost hosting. 4. Pricing for official Ghost hosting is very reasonable ($5/month for 1 blog, $14/month for 5 blogs). 5. Although it's still in development, the proposed Dashboard looks far more useful than competitors. WordPress' Dashboard often looks like a wasteland once a few plugins have been installed – a mish-mash of "Upgrade to the PRO version!" prompts and RSS updates from the WordPress feed. And from a developer perspective: 1. GitHub-based workflow. 2. MIT licence instead of GPL. 3. Less code debt (for now!). 4. Handlebars-based theme templates that enforce separation of presentation and logic. (It will be possible to add custom handlebars tags via the Ghost Apps API in the future for more advanced stuff, but it's already pretty solid.) 5. The official hosted version allows you to upload your own themes (unlike wordpress.com, for example). As a developer and end-user, it's already a more enjoyable experience than competing platforms for simple blogs, and I think by the end of the year – once the app API has launched and developers are adding forum apps and more – it will be a real competitor for more complex sites too.
  - mcherm 12y ago
    Hey, that was actually a pretty clear and detailed answer. Thank you for not treating it as a rhetorical question.
  - jackpirate 12y ago
    I've been looking to switch away from wordpress for awhile, but I don't know of an easy migration path that transfers all my data. Is this possible?
- icelanddev 12y ago
  I was wondering the same thing a while back. I signed up for a bunch of platforms just to cover all the bases and see the differences: Ghost, Medium, Silvrback, Svbtle, and Postagon. I won't say which is my favorite, because I think everybody has different needs. But I found a decent Medium article which compares most of the big platforms. Might be of help to anyone else looking for a new blog home: https://medium.com/blogging-and-seo-tips/d62682d9b0aa https://medium.com/blogging-and-seo-tips/d62682d9b0aa
- bunkerbewohner 12y ago
  I gave it a shot for a month. So far there was nothing that could convince me that goes beyond a fancy look & feel. Feature-wise it's ages behind WordPress (not suprisingly, WordPress is a huge eco system). It's missing several fundamental features that make it unusable (in my opinion) for any serious user, such as user management.
dewey 12y ago
> - Ghost Dashboard I'm really excited for that one, that was the reason I installed it in the first place only to realise it's not available yet.
- AhtiK 12y ago
  -> "Very soon you’ll be seeing a fresh, slick Ghost(Pro) dashboard" Is "(Pro)" indicating that the dashboard component will be available only for paying/hosted customers and will not be open-sourced?
  - freyr 12y ago
    I doubt it, since the dashboard was a main selling feature of its Kickstarter campaign. A move like that would probably sacrifice any goodwill its garnered among early adopters.
    - coffeecheque 12y ago
      I think it is, worryingly for early backers. http://blog.ghost.org/introducing-ghostpro/ http://blog.ghost.org/introducing-ghostpro/
- RKoutnik 12y ago
  I did the same thing - They didn't have the "coming soon" banner on their website back then. Kinda scummy marketing if you ask me. FOSS is awesome, just don't overpromise and underdeliver or you'll burn goodwill.
barsky 12y ago
I'm really glad that Ghost is progressing nicely — I've used it for a small project, and it was a really nice experience.
JamesBaxter 12y ago
Does anyone have any recommendations for comment systems on Ghost? It looks like they themselves are using Disqus and Jeff Atwood is using Discourse (obviously) are there any other contenders?
- snide 12y ago
  Some people like Livefyre, which can add some more real-time abilities if you happen to have a large user base.
- jdp23 12y ago
  I'm using NodeBB -- https://nodebb.org/ https://nodebb.org/ I wanted something I could host myself, which rules out Disqus and LiveFyre. And while Discourse lets you show the comments on the blog page, people have to go to the forum page if they want to comment.
- TarpitCarnivore 12y ago
  I saw this one tweeted out yesterday by one of the Ghost devs. Integrated commenting similar to what Medium does. http://ouija.io/ http://ouija.io/
- ximi 12y ago
  I was confronted with this problem myself and decided to code up a jquery plugin that would let me add comments using firebase, so I wouldn't have to rely on a third party commenting system. It's really basic right now, but I'm planning to extend it's functionality in the future significantly. You can check it out here: https://github.com/ximi/jquery-firecomments https://github.com/ximi/jquery-firecomments
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
snide 12y ago
Just as an aside. If you're looking for something built in Node that's more of a CMS, my Kickstarter for Webhook recently hit it's goal. I really like Ghost as a blog service, but you might like our system if you need to build a more customized CMS experience for multiple editors. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1749618880/webhook https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1749618880/webhook
- cpr 12y ago
  Nifty! Any plans for a self-hosted version?
  - snide 12y ago
    Yes. By end of the year. Check the updates, I explain the reasoning there.
    - forgottenpass 12y ago
      Whoo. I'm glad to hear you have firm plans about it, that was the only thing preventing me from backing you.
- egeozcan 12y ago
  Why Firebase + static pages instead of, say, varnish? (Honest question)
  - snide 12y ago
    Because people who know HTML and CSS don't know how to set up or manage a database locally. Even worse, they'd have no idea how to port that data onto a live production server. Firebase makes the install pretty painless. Our only dependency is Node. Right now that means even windows users can get up in running in less than a minute. As a designer I really like the ease of systems like Jekyll, but it was a dead stop as soon as I wanted those sites to be editable by other users. This way we get the best of both systems.
- 12y ago
abeh 12y ago
curious about what happened from current tagline and differentiating point from wordpress: 'Just a blogging platform.', to the statement here: 'Ghost has the potential to be far more than just a blogging platform' ?
thkim 12y ago
Ghost promised to be a simple blogging platform. It's simple if you use it as installed. It's not so straightforward to tweak and upgrade. I'm not very excited about it anymore.
- coherentpony 12y ago
  They may improve the upgrade process for users. It's also open source, I'm sure they'd love to hear about your upgrading concerns. On the other hand, there's also the paid service, which you don't have to manage at all.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
dang 12y ago
Please don't rewrite titles unless they're linkbait or misleading. ("Ghost blogging platform, future." wasn't even intelligible.) The post's title, when combined with the site name, is fine.
- Naushad 12y ago
  Got it.
lnanek2 12y ago
I didn't think another blogging platform was really needed, but their stats and revenue make it sound successful. Congrats, they succeeded where I didn't think it could be done, or would have just hosted WordPress and tweaked it if I was doing it myself.

81 points by Naushad 12y ago

Is there anything about Ghost that, intrinsically, makes it better than other blogging platforms? Seems to me it's just reinventing a many times reinvented wheel (except this one is hip and popular).

sergiotapia 12y ago
It's main selling point is that it's fast and uses Markdown for writing posts. It's perfect for a developer blog.
- platz 12y ago
  For a developer blog, what would be the advantage of Ghost over a static site generator?
  - sergiotapia 12y ago
    I don't have to spend 1 second figuring out how to convert layouts and templates and blah blah blah. I just want to write content.
  - egeozcan 12y ago
    I can't see any reason to use it for any type of blog. Setting up ghost on your server and getting used to the UI (yes, it's as simple as it can be but it's still new) sounds more to deal with than pushing markdown files to your Github account.
    - egypturnash 12y ago
      Web apps can be used from any device - your home machine, your phone, your tablet, your friend's machine, a computer in an internet cafe halfway around the world. Pushing markdown files up to your github account... well, okay, I dunno, maybe you can figure out a way to do it in all of those cases if you're the kind of person who thinks that's the simplest thing to do, but most people are not.
  - ryanSrich 12y ago
    If you have A LOT of posts and pages it can take minutes to generate your blog, then push it to your server. Ghost is pretty much instant. Write in the browser, publish in the browser.
beachwood23 12y ago
I thought the same. What is the advantage of this platform over something equally simple like Jekyll or Octopress?
- snide 12y ago
  Not a great comparison. Ghost has an admin that's pretty nice. While it might be easy for all of us to jump into code to compose our posts, with Ghost you can jump in on your mobile device, make some edits and hit save.
  - icebraining 12y ago
    If you're a programmer, I don't see the advantage over, say, SGit. Just launch the app, edit the file, commit & push. And hey, you can even edit offline.
EC1 12y ago
> except this one is hip and popular And sometimes that's all it takes.
fhd2 12y ago
I guess we'll never get this horrible metaphor out of software development, but I keep trying: It's not _reinventing_ the wheel. The wheel is an old concept, so are blogs. This is a new/different implementation of that wheel. "Reinventing the wheel" is as pointless as it sounds. But what about making new, better wheels? Maybe not everyone needs the same wheel? (Edit: Just to clarify, I'm not exactly a fan of Ghost.)
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- icebraining 12y ago
  That's the point: while Ghost claims to be a new, better wheel, it actually seems (to some people) to be reinventing it.
  - coldtea 12y ago
    It would only be "reinventing" the wheel if it was (or, at least claimed to be) an independent first-time creation of a blog engine without prior knowledge of them existing. So, unless we're talking about something like that (unlikely) there's no such thing as "reinventing the wheel" in real life. There's just "creating a different wheel". BBS, Enkei and all the wheel companies are not "reinventing the wheel". The create a new version of wheel. Even if it's boring and similar to existing things, it's not a re-invention. That would be like calling another CRUD app that is "re-inventing the CRUD".
    - icebraining 12y ago
      If you're going to complain that it's not actually reinventing, then can I point out that Ghost is not a wheel, either? It's an idiom with a known meaning. It doesn't have to be literally true.
      - coldtea 12y ago
        Yes, but the problem is that it's not a good idiom either, for the reasons explained: It's based on a broken metaphor, and it doesn't reflect how things work on software. They could have at least said "they made just another blog engine".
freyr 12y ago
It gained a lot of its initial traction by unveiling a very slick, built-in dashboard. This was a design concept, and hasn't materialized (yet). In its current state, it's an extremely basic blogging platform with a built-in Markdown editor. For me, that was enough to become an early adopter, because I think it has more long-term potential for interesting new features than, say, Jekyll. That said, there are still a lot of rough edges. Regarding the dashboard, there is lower-hanging fruit with greater payoff for Ghost, including the API (which is apparently a prerequisite to the dashboard anyway). They seem to be prioritizing the right things.
modernerd 12y ago
From an end-user perspective: 1. It's easier to use than WordPress, Drupal etc. That's because it does much less than those platforms on purpose. The WordPress admin area has become a scary place for new users, particularly once they start to add plugins that litter the admin menu with extra entries. 2. The admin area is fast. Moving around feels slick – it is a desktop-like experience; hitting Command+S will save the draft you're working on, for example, rather than bringing up your browser's “Save Page As...” prompt. The Markdown preview is as-you-type, and they use the screen estate very well. It's a comfortable environment to write long posts in, and it hasn't been tacked on as an afterthought, like WordPress' full-screen editing mode. 3. The organisation behind Ghost, the "Ghost Foundation" is a non-profit. It doesn't have investors or shareholders; it is answerable only to its users and funded by those who pay for official Ghost hosting. 4. Pricing for official Ghost hosting is very reasonable ($5/month for 1 blog, $14/month for 5 blogs). 5. Although it's still in development, the proposed Dashboard looks far more useful than competitors. WordPress' Dashboard often looks like a wasteland once a few plugins have been installed – a mish-mash of "Upgrade to the PRO version!" prompts and RSS updates from the WordPress feed. And from a developer perspective: 1. GitHub-based workflow. 2. MIT licence instead of GPL. 3. Less code debt (for now!). 4. Handlebars-based theme templates that enforce separation of presentation and logic. (It will be possible to add custom handlebars tags via the Ghost Apps API in the future for more advanced stuff, but it's already pretty solid.) 5. The official hosted version allows you to upload your own themes (unlike wordpress.com, for example). As a developer and end-user, it's already a more enjoyable experience than competing platforms for simple blogs, and I think by the end of the year – once the app API has launched and developers are adding forum apps and more – it will be a real competitor for more complex sites too.
- mcherm 12y ago
  Hey, that was actually a pretty clear and detailed answer. Thank you for not treating it as a rhetorical question.
- jackpirate 12y ago
  I've been looking to switch away from wordpress for awhile, but I don't know of an easy migration path that transfers all my data. Is this possible?
icelanddev 12y ago
I was wondering the same thing a while back. I signed up for a bunch of platforms just to cover all the bases and see the differences: Ghost, Medium, Silvrback, Svbtle, and Postagon. I won't say which is my favorite, because I think everybody has different needs. But I found a decent Medium article which compares most of the big platforms. Might be of help to anyone else looking for a new blog home: https://medium.com/blogging-and-seo-tips/d62682d9b0aa https://medium.com/blogging-and-seo-tips/d62682d9b0aa
bunkerbewohner 12y ago
I gave it a shot for a month. So far there was nothing that could convince me that goes beyond a fancy look & feel. Feature-wise it's ages behind WordPress (not suprisingly, WordPress is a huge eco system). It's missing several fundamental features that make it unusable (in my opinion) for any serious user, such as user management.

dewey 12y ago

> - Ghost Dashboard I'm really excited for that one, that was the reason I installed it in the first place only to realise it's not available yet.

AhtiK 12y ago
-> "Very soon you’ll be seeing a fresh, slick Ghost(Pro) dashboard" Is "(Pro)" indicating that the dashboard component will be available only for paying/hosted customers and will not be open-sourced?
- freyr 12y ago
  I doubt it, since the dashboard was a main selling feature of its Kickstarter campaign. A move like that would probably sacrifice any goodwill its garnered among early adopters.
  - coffeecheque 12y ago
    I think it is, worryingly for early backers. http://blog.ghost.org/introducing-ghostpro/ http://blog.ghost.org/introducing-ghostpro/
RKoutnik 12y ago
I did the same thing - They didn't have the "coming soon" banner on their website back then. Kinda scummy marketing if you ask me. FOSS is awesome, just don't overpromise and underdeliver or you'll burn goodwill.

barsky 12y ago

I'm really glad that Ghost is progressing nicely — I've used it for a small project, and it was a really nice experience.

JamesBaxter 12y ago

Does anyone have any recommendations for comment systems on Ghost? It looks like they themselves are using Disqus and Jeff Atwood is using Discourse (obviously) are there any other contenders?

snide 12y ago
Some people like Livefyre, which can add some more real-time abilities if you happen to have a large user base.
jdp23 12y ago
I'm using NodeBB -- https://nodebb.org/ https://nodebb.org/ I wanted something I could host myself, which rules out Disqus and LiveFyre. And while Discourse lets you show the comments on the blog page, people have to go to the forum page if they want to comment.
TarpitCarnivore 12y ago
I saw this one tweeted out yesterday by one of the Ghost devs. Integrated commenting similar to what Medium does. http://ouija.io/ http://ouija.io/
ximi 12y ago
I was confronted with this problem myself and decided to code up a jquery plugin that would let me add comments using firebase, so I wouldn't have to rely on a third party commenting system. It's really basic right now, but I'm planning to extend it's functionality in the future significantly. You can check it out here: https://github.com/ximi/jquery-firecomments https://github.com/ximi/jquery-firecomments

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

snide 12y ago

Just as an aside. If you're looking for something built in Node that's more of a CMS, my Kickstarter for Webhook recently hit it's goal. I really like Ghost as a blog service, but you might like our system if you need to build a more customized CMS experience for multiple editors. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1749618880/webhook https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1749618880/webhook

cpr 12y ago
Nifty! Any plans for a self-hosted version?
- snide 12y ago
  Yes. By end of the year. Check the updates, I explain the reasoning there.
  - forgottenpass 12y ago
    Whoo. I'm glad to hear you have firm plans about it, that was the only thing preventing me from backing you.
egeozcan 12y ago
Why Firebase + static pages instead of, say, varnish? (Honest question)
- snide 12y ago
  Because people who know HTML and CSS don't know how to set up or manage a database locally. Even worse, they'd have no idea how to port that data onto a live production server. Firebase makes the install pretty painless. Our only dependency is Node. Right now that means even windows users can get up in running in less than a minute. As a designer I really like the ease of systems like Jekyll, but it was a dead stop as soon as I wanted those sites to be editable by other users. This way we get the best of both systems.
12y ago

abeh 12y ago

curious about what happened from current tagline and differentiating point from wordpress: 'Just a blogging platform.', to the statement here: 'Ghost has the potential to be far more than just a blogging platform' ?

thkim 12y ago

Ghost promised to be a simple blogging platform. It's simple if you use it as installed. It's not so straightforward to tweak and upgrade. I'm not very excited about it anymore.

coherentpony 12y ago
They may improve the upgrade process for users. It's also open source, I'm sure they'd love to hear about your upgrading concerns. On the other hand, there's also the paid service, which you don't have to manage at all.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

dang 12y ago

Please don't rewrite titles unless they're linkbait or misleading. ("Ghost blogging platform, future." wasn't even intelligible.) The post's title, when combined with the site name, is fine.

Naushad 12y ago
Got it.

lnanek2 12y ago

I didn't think another blogging platform was really needed, but their stats and revenue make it sound successful. Congrats, they succeeded where I didn't think it could be done, or would have just hosted WordPress and tweaked it if I was doing it myself.