I rage-quit Ghost today after over-reacting to a comment by John Nolan on the forums. I’m not interested in Ghost’s direction overall, even though I mostly like using it as a simple blogging platform. Or did, anyway. Anyhooo, copingmechanism.com is back on WordPress.
@jack Shame on you for not wanting to become a professional, and monetize, and develop, and grow your audience! You, and your hobbies!! 😡🤣
@maique Ha!. It's too bad, really. I like Ghost as a platform but the in-your-face audience building stuff is off-putting and becoming more in-your-face with every update. Oh well.
@jack that’s… wow. I’m not involved with Ghost in anyway and never used it, but this post is obnoxious. He could have just said: „You’re not a „professional“? GTFO!“
@jack It would have the same effect on me, I can tell you that. I was reading the linked reply and fuming inside.
@hutaffe Well, at least he knows the audience he's going for and isn't wishy-washy about it, but I still disliked the tone.
@jack John is probably the worst thing about Ghost. I remember when he deleted a users site because the user was unhappy with the unclear pricing plan. (the article seems to have gone).
@jack I couldn’t agree more with what everyone in this thread is saying. Ghost was fun for a little bit, but mostly it just felt overpriced. Spend any time in the forums and you’ll probably see two things:
Luckily, the second one is fairly rare, but the fact that it happens at all is frustrating. It’s nicer to be here—I’ve never seen that tone from @manton, or anyone else for that matter.
Their big push towards memberships and being a “platform for professional publishers” (despite their previous language) feels unpleasant to me. I get the impression that they saw the meteoric rise of services like Substack, realized how much money they could make from large companies, and stopped caring about the hobbyists, i.e., many of the users who got them to where they are now.
@jack Wow, what an ignorant and shortsighted comment. Does he even realize or care how condescending that comes across as? If I was on Ghost right now I’d be switching in a heartbeat.
On a side note, your site is failing to load with “cannot establish secure connection” error.
@peterimoore Yikes, thanks! Let's Encrypt must've gotten stuck during the DNS updates for the www version of the hostname. It should be fixed now.
@jack if you look the why ghost was started it makes sense that they move into the same kind of experience you get with Wordpress
@dandycat Thanks. If you ever see that tone from me, please call me on it. I get why developers might be defensive when criticized, but we have to actively try to listen even if the product isn't a perfect fit for everyone. No place for talking down to customers.
@manton For what it’s worth, your efforts to engage and listen are very much noticed and appreciated. It’s a big part of what keeps drawing me back to MB.
@jack I was considering it for a project just recently. Sounds like I dodged a bullet. Thank you for sharing!
@manton I may not be in the same position as you, but I still couldn't agree more. I appreciate your dedication and thoughtfulness. I think your insistence on caring and improving are great reasons why this place is so welcoming, creative, and supportive.
@simonwoods Yeah, I remember that. Although at the time I thought both of them were being a little petty, but you're right that it sure puts a ding in trust of Ghost's leadership. Too bad things haven't improved because I really do like using Ghost. Oh well, onward!
