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What we've learned from building Ghost after 5 years and $3M

blog.ghost.org

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Re: What we've learned from building Ghost after 5 years and $3M

#2
I'm a little surprised to read that Ghost doesn't use gitlab. Given the companies are both open source and distributed work forces; not to mention they call out github as a big headache.

>How open source works is: If you want something, you can build it.

Re: What we've learned from building Ghost after 5 years and $3M

#3

I'm a little surprised to read that Ghost doesn't use gitlab. Given the companies are both open source and distributed work forces; not to mention they call out github as a big headache. >How open source works is: If you want something, you can build it.

The problems listed were with the interaction model. There's nothing I've seen in GitLab's UX that would indicate it's any better.

Re: What we've learned from building Ghost after 5 years and $3M

#5
post #3

I'm a little surprised to read that Ghost doesn't use gitlab. Given the companies are both open source and distributed work forces; not to mention they call out github as a big headache. >How open source works is: If you want something, you can build it.

The problems listed were with the interaction model. There's nothing I've seen in GitLab's UX that would indicate it's any better.

Unfortunately I think Github itself has a lot to do with this. The product has become too transactional - more support tool than collaboration. And Github themselves show remarkable disinterest in the open source community as a whole - they give us beta access to test new features every so often. That's about it. There's no wider involvement at all.

I read it as two parts. Interactions are flawed & Github doesn't really care about open source. Just one guys opinion, and my wife works for gitlab, but there is a deep commitment to open source and contributors, as well as an abundance of places for deeper dialogues to occur, between projects / contributors / the general public / gitlab.

+1 for also living in Minneapolis. We should get coffee.

Re: What we've learned from building Ghost after 5 years and $3M

#6
I didn't realize Ghost was a non-profit. Very noble. The feedback in Github is interesting. Ghost is probably more likely to have issues with demanding users than, say, mongodb.

Very cool and inspiring post. That said:

- Ghost's marketing materials tend to outright lie to users when making comparisons to WordPress or other platforms.

- I dislike OSS projects that hide their OSS nature. Why does a user need to pay $29/mo for an entry level blog? Why isn't there any obvious mention of the OSS nature of the project on the pricing page, home page, or features page?

- What's been done about the memory issues? Last time I tried ghost, it was a bit of a memory hog.

Re: What we've learned from building Ghost after 5 years and $3M

#7
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problems listed were with the interaction model. There's nothing I've seen in GitLab's UX that would indicate it's any better.

Unfortunately I think Github itself has a lot to do with this. The product has become too transactional - more support tool than collaboration. And Github themselves show remarkable disinterest in the open source community as a whole - they give us beta access to test new features every so often. That's about it. There's no wider involvement at all. I read it as two parts. Interactions are flawed & Github doesn't rea…

Huh, I also live in Minneapolis.

How many HNers are around here?

Re: What we've learned from building Ghost after 5 years and $3M

#8
> The best marketing we've done has been to launch, over and over again.

That's my favorite takeaway from the article. Seems like a difficult thing to do in practice, but also something I've been considering lately.

Anyone else have experience with doing repeated launches that they'd be willing to share?

Re: What we've learned from building Ghost after 5 years and $3M

#9
post #6

I didn't realize Ghost was a non-profit. Very noble. The feedback in Github is interesting. Ghost is probably more likely to have issues with demanding users than, say, mongodb. Very cool and inspiring post. That said: - Ghost's marketing materials tend to outright lie to users when making comparisons to WordPress or other platforms. - I dislike OSS projects that hide their OSS nature. Why does a user need to pay $29…

Their home page at ghost.org literally says "Ghost is a fully open source, adaptable platform for building and running a modern online publication" at the top.

Re: What we've learned from building Ghost after 5 years and $3M

#10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately I think Github itself has a lot to do with this. The product has become too transactional - more support tool than collaboration. And Github themselves show remarkable disinterest in the open source community as a whole - they give us beta access to test new features every so often. That's about it. There's no wider involvement at all. I read it as two parts. Interactions are flawed & Github doesn't rea…

Huh, I also live in Minneapolis. How many HNers are around here?

There are a few. Are you thinking what I'm thinking? A meetup?
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