h1. 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 h2. 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/ h2. 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 bq. "WordPress is so much more than just a blogging platform." bq. "66% of [users] said they use WordPress as a CMS and not as a blog." But posted at https://twitter.com/TryGhost q. 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 :) q.. q. @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 :) q.. q. @micwro Totally - we want to build an awesome editorial flow so authors and editors can collaborate properly :) this is a part of that q.. Sounds like a lot more than a blogging tool. h2. 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/ q. 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. q.. br. Sep 16, 2013 - Medium.com - "Microsoft Throws its Weight Behind Ghost":https://medium.com/tech-talk/e103e33a0fa8 Hacker News "thread":https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6390437 Sep 15, 2013 humorous HN "comment":https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6391089 q. 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". q.. Another HN "comment":https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6390667 q. 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. q.. h2. 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 h2. Themes * http://themespectre.com/linen * http://themespectre.com/store/themes/the-classy * http://www.svenread.com/readium-ghost-theme h2. Blogs Blogs powered by the downloaded version of the Ghost software * http://blog.hwee.com.au/hello-world-this-is-ghost/ h2. 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 h2. Oct 2013 http://ghost.onolan.org/part-i-lets-begin-at-the-beginning/ http://blog.ghost.org/hosted-platform-preview/ h2. 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/ h2. 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 h2. Marketplace http://marketplace.ghost.org h2. Forum https://ghost.org/forum h2. Blog http://blog.ghost.org/ h2. Ghost Uses https://ghost.org/forum/off-topic/15-what-will-you-use-ghost-for/ q. 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. q.. This comment, however, makes no sense: q. 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. q.. 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: #blogging #writing #design #ghost