Do you know any good alternatives to Ghost for blog websites that:

[macmanx@social.lol]

@Em0nM4stodon @britt Self-host WordPress https://wordpress.org add the ActivityPub plugin https://wordpress.org/plugins/activitypub/ and plenty of donation plugins available.

[em0nm4stodon@infosec.exchange]

@macmanx Have you used this solution yourself? How much control do you have on the data collected from visitors on WordPress?

[shadow53@floss.social]

@Em0nM4stodon Would a static website with Patreon/Liberapay/Ko-Fi/etc. for donations work? What federation features are you looking for?

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@Em0nM4stodon try https://write.as/ maybe?

[macmanx@social.lol]

@Em0nM4stodon I’ve used WordPress for decades, and the ActivityPub plugin for a year now.

You host the WordPress installation on a hosting provider of your choosing. By default, it collects no data on visitors unless you require logging in to comment, in which case that data is only stored on your server. You can add stats plugins to collect more, some store on your server and some integrate with third-party services where the data would be stored elsewhere of course.

(There is also a hosted version of WordPress at WordPress.com where you do use their services and they do collect data, but you’re under no obligation to go that route.)

[kevinashworth@mastodon.social]

@Em0nM4stodon Maybe Pika? Although I doubt it actually meets all your requirements, but it seems like a good alternative for some people who are (hopefully) moving away from Substack. https://pika.page/

[jonah@mastodon.neat.computer]

@Em0nM4stodon unfortunately, the only other solution (besides DIY) I'm aware of remains WordPress :(

There are other services like write.as but poor theming/customization is usually the case with all of them I believe.

1. Costs me $3.28/month to host jonaharagon.com at https://www.pikapods.com.

2. True, if you need it to integrate with memberships or paywalled articles. If it's only donations like a tip jar though, you could just embed anything you want of course.

3. Not a ton of themes. Ghost themes are static HTML though, somewhat similarish to Jekyll's if you're familiar with those.

[em0nm4stodon@infosec.exchange]

@shadow53 Indeed, I already use a simple static website now, but I'm looking if there could be an easier "all-in-one" solution, so that I would spend less time with coding and more time with writing.

I'm picky though (especially about data collection and design), and might just come back to a static website if it's simpler in the end.

[em0nm4stodon@infosec.exchange]

@evan I will look it up! Thanks! 🙏

[em0nm4stodon@infosec.exchange]

@macmanx This is very helpful information! Thank you!!

[em0nm4stodon@infosec.exchange]

@kevinashworth Thank you! I will go look at it 👀

[eriatolc@mastodon.xyz]

@Em0nM4stodon self-hosted Ghost with thé ActivityPub service to federate?
https://activitypub.ghost.org/

[em0nm4stodon@infosec.exchange]

@jonah Interesting! That's much more affordable actually. I will look it up. Thanks for the recommendation Jonah!

[amgine@mamot.fr]

@Em0nM4stodon

→ @yunohost

[leberschnitzel@existiert.ch]

@Em0nM4stodon some interesting solutions in the comments so thanks for asking

[jonah@mastodon.neat.computer]

@Em0nM4stodon if you end up using Ghost with your own custom theme I will leave you with these resources to look into, to disable as much of Ghost's client-side JS for visitors as you'd like:

- https://www.spectralwebservices.com/blog/adding-new-features-to-ghost-head/
- https://docs.ghost.org/config#privacy

[em0nm4stodon@infosec.exchange]

@jonah Ah neat! This is very helpful, thanks! 🙏

[nead@social.vivaldi.net]

@Em0nM4stodon I selfhost at https://micro.one
"Micro.one combines blogging at your own domain name with the emerging open social web. Post to your own blog and connect with Mastodon and the fediverse."

[wizarro@social.vivaldi.net]

@Em0nM4stodon Unfortunately I still get a few links to substacks and wonder if the authors know the implications. Is Ghost a good alternative to substack? Should authors/journalists think of moving to that platform?

[aimeemaroux@mastodon.social]

@Em0nM4stodon I'm self-hosting Ghost, so customisation is not an issue and technically other services than Stripe are possible but Stripe is the only one that is natively integrated. Self-hosting is probably just as expensive as their service, though, since you need a VPS.

Others have already pointed out the Activity Pub services such as write.as, which seems closest to what you are looking for?
There was also Plume but it seems to be discontinued or on hiatus.