I spent time with the Ghost blogging platform today. I am intrigued by the visuals and promised simplicity. But I don't see the latter. At this stage, I just see complexity. Yet the whole premise is stripping back to basic blogging, rather than managing content as WordPress increasingly demands.
This month I put up a website for my personal independent publishing brand, and there are few posts, making it a good test case for migration. I easily used the WordPress plugin for exporting posts in Ghost format and imported them just fine. But I see too much trouble adapting themes, most of which look fabulous, BTW, or prepping other basic features.
Maybe I misunderstand something here. But I don't grok the modernness of Ghost. I see the same old tired blogging concept, only less-developed at this early stage, creating complexity, rather than eliminating it.
Information sharing should be contextual. Anywhere. Anytime. On anything. By any means your senses allow. Context is what modern design should be all about. Simple isn't Markdown language, which Ghost uses instead of HTML, but voice. Let me dictate and post. If pure blogging is the goal, then simplify.
Provide an easy touch drag-and-drop interface so that I can mashup content form various sources and create something new. Concepts like Pinterest are 10 feet down the right path. Don't just pin one thing but pull together five elements mixed to make something fresh.
The infant-stage -- or alpha, if you prefer -- of this concept: When someone uses a photo of, say, Grumpy Cat and adds text, mashing together two different things. The recent craze in animated gifs is similar.
Based on visuals, I was ready to sign up for a monthly paid Ghost blog. But after seeing the complexity and finding the approach far less modern than the hype, I deleted the blog and my entire account after a few hours experimentation.
If you have different experience with Ghost, if there is something I just don't get, please educate me. I love trying new things.
As for our mashup future, Google Glass promises much there, Imagine capturing a moment and incorporating directly and hidden in metadata contextual relevancy.
Hypothetical: 20-second video clip with GPS coordinations; current weather conditions when taken; touch-induced pop-up bubbles about various parts of the location at that moment in time; pop-up YouTube videos from the vlogs of people in the photo or who live in visible domiciles; and much, much more.
That's modern blogging. That's contextual blogging. Each moment is its own production, chock full of vitality, and stands as a living archive for you, your family, mates, and posterity.
Photo Credit: jagoda/Shutterstock