• Elsewhere
• Blog or CMS?
• Updates
• Sep 20, 2013
• Themes
• Blogs
• October 2013
• Oct 2013
• Ghost and NodeJS hosting
• Digital Ocean Articles
• Marketplace
• Forum
• Blog
• Ghost Uses

Proposed Ghost blogging platform

Idea proposed in the fall of 2012.

Development began in 2013.

First release expected in summer or fall of 2013.

A lot of nerd hype.

Concept, however, contains interesting ideas.

http://john.onolan.org/ghost

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4743245

http://john.onolan.org/ghost-from-fiction-to-function/

http://pandodaily.com/2012/11/07/wordpress-guru-designs-a-concept-blogging-platform-that-doesnt-suck-gets-rave-reviews/

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/johnonolan/ghost-just-a-blogging-platform

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2013/05/01/check-out-the-new-ghost-blogging-platform-kickstarter-funded-in-under-12-hours/

http://tryghost.org/

https://twitter.com/TryGhost

Elsewhere

http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/07/ghost-will-take-your-boring-blog-to-the-next-astral-plane/

http://mashable.com/2013/05/25/ghost-kickstarter-blogging/

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2013/05/01/check-out-the-new-ghost-blogging-platform-kickstarter-funded-in-under-12-hours/

http://agbeat.com/social-media/ghost-blogging-platform-that-could-be-the-next-wordpress/

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-05/10/ghost

http://www.forbes.com/sites/andyellwood/2013/04/30/innovation-in-creation/

Blog or CMS?

The purpose of creating a new "blog" publishing system was because Wordpress had allegedly morphed into a CMS.

http://john.onolan.org/ghost

"WordPress is so much more than just a blogging platform."

"66% of [users] said they use WordPress as a CMS and not as a blog."

But posted at https://twitter.com/TryGhost

Hey @TryGhost i love your idea, im just curious if u guys will be giving support for news websites with multiple authors.

@themacified Yes. Not at day 1 (need to do the basics first) - but that's absolutely in our long term plan :)

@TryGhost will be possible to set permissions for each author? For example, user A can save post only as a draft, but B can publish it.

@micwro It isn't possible yet - but it absolutely will be in the future, yes :)

@micwro Totally - we want to build an awesome editorial flow so authors and editors can collaborate properly :) this is a part of that

Sounds like a lot more than a blogging tool.

Updates

May 16, 2013
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/johnonolan/ghost-just-a-blogging-platform/posts/482591

July 4, 2013
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/johnonolan/ghost-just-a-blogging-platform/posts/529591

http://greenlighter.com/podcast/episode-5/

We follow up with John O'Nolan, find out what it feels like to raise $300,000 in 30 days via Kickstarter for "Ghost," and how his project's developing. John shares advice on getting publicity, tells us what he wouldn't do again and how he got Mashable to profile his project.

Sep 16, 2013 - Medium.com - Microsoft Throws its Weight Behind Ghost
Hacker News thread

Sep 15, 2013 humorous HN comment

It's just the turn of the wheel. Should Ghost succeed, odds are quite good that in about seven years, you'll be reading about how old and crufty Ghost is, held back by it's aging Node.js platform, and how some new hotness or other is coming along to give you just blogging (or whatever).

To a first approximation, every web project starts life as a "clean, simple X without all that cruft". It is the destiny of most projects to follow that with A: failure or B: becoming the next pile of sludge to inspire a "clean, simple X".

Another HN comment

I'd love to see a platform that is easily deployed on shared hosting (written in php, using mysql) but that lends itself better to version control and switching environments. It should keep configuration in plain text instead of in the database, and it should allow easy definition of node types in addition to the standards (post, page, comment, etc.). These should also be defined in plain text instead of in the database (I'm looking at you, Drupal). Meanwhile, theming should be just as easy as with Wordpress.

Sep 20, 2013

http://blog.ghost.org/launch - Sep 19, 2013 - blog post on Ghost

Another post on Ghost:
http://ghost.onolan.org/what-it-means-to-be-non-profit

Displays a bit like a Medium.com blog post:

• white background
• Serif font
• "big" font for body text
• text appears to be very dark grey and not black
• fairly narrow, centered column of the body text
• small, round image for user (many places do this now)
• large header or banner image for blog or blog post (optional)

New URL:
http://ghost.org

Themes

• http://themespectre.com/linen
• http://themespectre.com/store/themes/the-classy
• http://www.svenread.com/readium-ghost-theme

Blogs

Blogs powered by the downloaded version of the Ghost software

• http://blog.hwee.com.au/hello-world-this-is-ghost/

October 2013

October 14, 2013 announcement about the public release of the Ghost blogging app.

• http://blog.ghost.org/public-launch/
• https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6546701
• https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost
• http://docs.ghost.org/installation

Oct 2013

http://ghost.onolan.org/part-i-lets-begin-at-the-beginning/

http://blog.ghost.org/hosted-platform-preview/

Ghost and NodeJS hosting

Web hosting companies that either support the Ghost install themselves or support NodeJS for people to install Ghost.

• http://blog.webfaction.com/2013/10/new-one-click-installers-node-js-and-ghost/
• https://www.digitalocean.com/blog_posts/try-ghost-a-simple-blogging-platform-for-free
• http://www.pogoapp.com/blog/posts/ghost-blog-in-one-click
• http://developer.rackspace.com/blog/launch-ghost-with-rackspace-deployments.html
• http://blog.bitnami.com/2013/10/ghost-new-blogging-platform-now.html
• https://www.runkite.com/docs/start-ghost-blog/

Digital Ocean Articles

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/community_tags/ghost

• https://www.digitalocean.com/community/articles/how-to-manage-content-using-the-ghost-blogging-platform
• https://www.digitalocean.com/community/articles/how-to-configure-and-maintain-ghost-from-the-command-line
• https://www.digitalocean.com/community/articles/how-to-serve-multiple-ghost-blogs-on-one-vps-using-nginx-server-blocks
• https://www.digitalocean.com/community/articles/how-to-change-themes-and-adjust-settings-in-ghost
• https://www.digitalocean.com/community/articles/how-to-host-ghost-with-nginx-on-digitalocean
• https://www.digitalocean.com/community/articles/how-to-use-the-digitalocean-ghost-application

Marketplace

http://marketplace.ghost.org

Forum

https://ghost.org/forum

Blog

http://blog.ghost.org/

Ghost Uses

https://ghost.org/forum/off-topic/15-what-will-you-use-ghost-for/

I've been setting people up on Wordpress for a long time and just find it's too much for most people - Ghost could be the alternative I'm looking for. I also work with authors / publishers / academia advising on digital strategies and technologies for writers. Therefore, the attraction of clean writing, authors preparing their manuscript ready for ebook production with markdown, and not a bloated system, really appeals.

This comment, however, makes no sense:

I've never really blogged before. But for nearly 5 years I've had this idea of what I think a blog should be (at least for me). This is the perfect opportunity to explore that idea further, so that's what I'll use Ghost for.

No mention of what barrier existed to prevent the user from starting to blog five years ago. Tumblr, Blogger, Wordpress, Typepad, other systems. Just blog. It's simple enough. What's the hangup?

The user continues:

It's 2013 and blogs are still using old and outdated ideas, not to mention outdated technologies (did you know that RSS will soon turn 15?).

RSS has nothing to do with blogging. RSS is syndicating content, which could exist in blogs, wikis, forums, CMSes, etc.

The same user continues:

The blog I'd like to have would be part of a decentralized/distributed social network, with all the interesting possibilities that come with the territory (probably some dragons too). A blog post wouldn't be just static HTML on a website, syndicated to readers via RSS. It would be a clear piece of content that flows across the net to reach its audience in an instant. The Tent protocol is a really interesting development that makes that possible.

So that would be the purpose of my blog – to share all the little tidbits of good stuff that I come across. A bit like Tumblr, only a lot simpler.

Really? Simpler?

Being enthusiastic about the software systems is nice, but by far the most important aspect is the content. My preference is plain text content that consists of a markup like Textile, Markdown, and HTML or some combination. Of course, I include my own custom markup commands.

I maintain two columns in the content table: one for the original markup, and one for the formatted content that gets displayed in the browser. Of course, the most important one is the original markup, which can be migrated to different systems or converted to something else.

And because it would be part of a decentralized and social network, it could also be a bit like Facebook or Twitter. Only there wouldn't be any Terms of Service, and you'd have full control over your privacy settings.

Okay, this user is not installing a personal publishing system. He's making something different that seems out of scope of Ghost.

His comment rambles on. Way too complicated what he's planning. It does not sound like a blog. Maybe that's why he's been thinking about it for five years. Best of luck though. It's good to be thinking and trying new things.

#blogging #writing #design #ghost