Hi there!
So we’ve just joined, but how does Ghost compare to using Slack?
Some people also seem to be leaving for Substack.
Is Ghost therefore still relevant, and are people still here?
Gerald
You wrote Slack but did you mean to write Substack?
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Both were meant. Substack being listed below as well, but thank you for checking, that’s appreciated.
Hoping this is still a good and relevant Forum, so trying to get a measure of where things are at.
Slack is not a blogging and newsletter platform, so I am also confused! :)
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That’s very true Cathy, but people do use it in much the same way as posts on here (Ghost). A Community has therefore been started to help assist Authors & Writers, especially for commercial lines, bringing in Agents and Commercial contracts, etc. It was therefore whether Ghost should be supported at the same time, or if trends had recently changed.
If the goal is a community (I am also unsure what specifically your use case is), then you still have a huge gap.
Slack is an instant messaging tool where people can engage. It is not focused on publishing content.
Both Ghost and Substack are pure blogging and newsletter platforms. You can engage in comments, but not as instant messages or a forum.
I am sure you have something in mind in how you want to use Slack and/or Ghost – but it’s clearly not obvious to us. So, instead of telling us how they can theoretically be used for the same purpose, could you tell us what that purpose is?
Certainly, and again you are right regarding Slack, although more and more people are now using it for links ‘out’ to material, opposed to simple messaging (that you are correct in stating it was originally designed for).
As many authors/writers/newsletters are seeking additional commercialism of their material, a publishing firm I am researching for has spare resources to assist, spearheading what is often required, utilising contacts and connections across the industry.
The interest to look at Ghost came from former knowledge, just seeing a range of different messages at present much the same as there is on Slack. Understandably the ‘use case’ is supposed to be different, but topics suggesting people were leaving were not expected either.
Would there be a decent blend for formats on this community as well (comprising links back to articles and content on here for everybody’s benefit at the same time), or would they/us be best researching elsewhere for that specific purpose?
Maybe there is more to see on Ghost that has yet to be discovered at the same time. Thank you once more for your reply.
Ghost has pages, posts, comments, newsletters, subscribed members, ability to charge for membership, and more. What it does NOT have is a built-in discussion forum – but, people have figured out how to integrate it with Discourse.
It is NOT any sort of messaging platform. (So, no comparison to Slack.)
There are numerous articles out there comparing Ghost to Substack, Medium, and Wordpress.
There’s a lot more to unpack here, but I will say that if your publishing company wants to expand their reach, Ghost would be a good choice. Best of all, they can give it a try pretty cheaply, with Ghost Pro.
One other thing: Ghost and Wordpress put your content on your own site. Substack and Medium put your content on their site.
If you want to share more requirements, we might be able to help more.
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Here is what connects Slack and Ghost.
Publisher publishes content to Ghost. There is audience A there that peruses and consumes the content.
Publisher then goes to a subset of various Social Media platforms. Slack is one of them. Shares a link to the original content in Ghost and engages with the audience B present in Slack. There is then audience C, D, E and so on on the various other Social Media platforms that the publisher have opted in to use.
There is no overlap between Slack and Ghost. Slack is much more closer to Discord which is also very popular nowadays. Ghost on the other hand is closer to Substack or even Kit nowadays.
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Thank you Bruce, very useful, also to assess the current relevance of Ghost.
It is understood how Ghost should not be compared to Slack, although as mentioned, users now seem to be utilizing Slack as close comparisons to content platforms, comprising links out to various content and material, etc. It is also understood regarding Substack & Medium. Plagiarism concerns come to mind with platforms such as that however, the correct controls not being harnessed in many cases.
It was not so much the publishing firm trying to expand their reach, but more several of us sometimes having spare capacity between projects. It was therefore whether value could be added to others in the craft, especially for the commercialisation of material for which so many writers struggle with, opposed to driving high volumes of material or promotion.
This was only going to be done in a community, or communities worthy however. Social Media often not the place for deep or highly valued discussions or experience (seldom not respected anyway, even when tried).
There therefore looks to be promise, so thank you again for your reply and details added.
Thank you @EchonCique . Also very useful and helps to suggest how some users are now using Slack, from what has been observed.
It’s a slightly different tech stack than Ghost, but a lot of creatives are publishing posts on Patreon and linking that to Discord which is comparable to a consumer version of Slack.
Discord functions as a private blog and Patreon has some integrations where users are auto provisioned based on what tier they’re buying. Some creatives post their content to both Patreon and their Discord. Others you have to join both because the posts are only on one platform or the other. One author I follow has a regular Patron publishing schedule, but they only post the answers to lore questions from their fans on Discord instead of using a blogging platform. They could also post on Patreon (or Ghost, or Wordpress), but their handlers/editors don’t repost it elsewhere.
The other use case I’ve seen is I’m in a few Discord communities where authors have their sales pages on a website but newsletters, publishing schedules, etc. are only posted on a restricted Discord channel (read only for everyone but them). They don’t blog or update their readers publicly. If you’re going with the latter format then you could just have a static webpage with a Discord join link or integrate into an ecommerce platform so when someone buys a book for example they also get an email invitation to join the Discord community. There they would get blog posts in a restricted channel and be able to interact with each other in the same site.
In my view you could use Slack as a supplemental blogging/publishing platform. I’m using Microsoft Teams instead of Slack, mainly for private member only posts and the SharePoint backend is good for distributing files to the community. According to Copilot you can download files from Ghost even if the post they’re linked from is members only if the URL is known. If that’s currently up to date then Ghost isn’t a good platform for uploading a monthly ebook as a URL with member only posts due to piracy. I’m mostly using Ghost as a static CMS that’s snappier than Wordpress with Teams/SharePoint where the newsletters, blogs, and ebooks live.
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Thank you John. That’s another and especially useful overview. It’s all about getting involved, contributing and adding value for us, so we’ll definitely give those ideas and perspectives some thought. Hoping to keep in touch, and thank you again.@dearestleader
Yeah, apples and coconuts.