Fedi.TipsFeb 9

Substack hosts swastika-laden Nazi accounts promoting white supremacism (https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/feb/07/revealed-how-substack-makes-money-from-hosting-nazi-newsletters). If you're currently using Substack, you might want to switch to a more ethical alternative like Ghost.

Ghost is a Fediverse-compatible blog and newsletter platform, it runs on free open software and you can host it yourself or use a paid hosting service. More info:

➡️ https://fedi.tips/ghost-blogs-and-newsletters-on-the-fediverse

The journalist @molly0xfff wrote on moving from Substack to Ghost:

➡️ https://www.citationneeded.news/substack-to-self-hosted-ghost

#Substack

Revealed: How Substack makes money from hosting Nazi newsletters

Exclusive: Site takes a cut of subscriptions to content that promotes far-right ideology, white supremacy and antisemitism

The Guardian
Show threadGerard Cunningham ✒️Feb 9

@molly0xfff @FediTips

Use Ghost is the new 'install linux'. I have yet to find a well written guide to setting up a ghost install.

Show threadFedi.TipsFeb 9

@faduda

If you don't want to do any techy stuff, you can use a managed hosting service, I link to them in the guide:

Cloud68
https://cloud68.co/managed-hosting/ghost

Ghost.org
https://ghost.org

It is really easy to use managed hosting, you don't need to install anything.

There are also official instructions for a manual self-hosted install:
https://docs.ghost.org/install

Ghost

Independent, professional open source publishing.

Show threadGerard Cunningham ✒️Feb 9

@FediTips

But I want to host my own ghost install. I just want to do it without learning a foreign language.

Show threadFedi.TipsFeb 9

@faduda

Which language do you want the instructions to be in?

Show threadGerard Cunningham ✒️Feb 9
@FediTips
Plain English.
Show threadNick (Alatar the Blue)Feb 9

@faduda

The ghost documentation is some of the clearest technical documentation I’ve seen in my 25 years of managing IT “things.” That said - it’s technical documentation, and absolutely assumes that you have technical knowledge.

If it’s above someone’s current technical abilities to run and install something, that’s not a bad thing - but it does leave you with (roughly) two options:

  • Acquire technical knowledge. There are loads of people in the world that will happily help interested parties do this, assuming the interested parties are willing to learn and not just “do it for me.”
  • Pay a trusted service for their knowledge (hosting). There are loads of options there, from various cloud providers to paying an individual to host and manage on your owned hardware; each comes with varying degrees of cost vs. liability, but in all cases you’re paying for someone else’s time (both directly spent to manage your service and historically to learn how to do so).

    • I absolutely agree that, “just install ghost” has become the new, “just install Linux.”

    @FediTips

    Show threadGeorge BFeb 9

    @faduda @FediTips @alatartheblue

    I think one issue is that so many online services have offered a "free tier" for so long that it's almost become an expectation

    Show threadGerard Cunningham ✒️Feb 9

    @FediTips @alatartheblue @gbargoud

    I don't want it hosted on ghost. I want it hosted on my own server. I don't expect that to be free, I just need it to be something I can do without a compsci degree.
    And as long as it isn't, there's going to be a limit to uptake, and eventually someone will come along with a simple plug-and-play alternative

    Show threadNick (Alatar the Blue)

    @faduda @FediTips @gbargoud

    Hosting on your own server is inherently not plug and play, and requires technical knowledge.

    The “plug and play” solutions are companies providing a service to do it for you.

    Feb 9 at 8:10pmWeb
    Show threadGerard Cunningham ✒️Feb 9

    @FediTips @gbargoud @alatartheblue

    Okay then, let me rephrase.
    Ghost should not be any more complicated than wordpress, yet I can run the former but not the latter.
    That's a documentation issue. I've pretty much given up trying with Ghost at this point, after several attempts. It looks like a great idea, but it is impenetrable. If you don't build it for civilians, they won't come.

    Show threadGeorge BFeb 9

    @FediTips @alatartheblue @faduda

    I don't know if you saw this but WordPress added an ActivityPub plugin a couple of years back: https://wordpress.org/plugins/activitypub/

    ActivityPub

    Connect your site to the Open Social Web and let millions of users follow, share, and interact with your content from Mastodon, Pixelfed, and more.

    WordPress.org
    Show threadFedi.TipsFeb 10

    @gbargoud @alatartheblue @faduda

    Ghost and WordPress have some overlap but they are intended for slightly different purposes.

    Ghost and Substack are mainly aimed at journalists, writers and independent publications who sell access to their blogs and/or newsletters. It's like a sort of cross between a blog and a Patreon.

    WordPress is a more general blogging and website platform, and not as geared towards selling subscriptions to publications.

    Show threadGerard Cunningham ✒️Feb 10

    @FediTips @gbargoud @alatartheblue

    Thanks for all this, it is appreciated.