If there is a perfectly functional @ghost newsletter hosting platform with the capability to transfer existing paid or free subscriptions and which doesn't actively monetize and profit from Nazis and fascists, why are people still making me use suckstab!?!?

#GhostIO

Current #selfhosting headache (thankfully there are not that many):

My new, self-hosted Ghost blog is almost ready for its public debut. I transferred all the posts and the look and feel is identical to the old one. Great!

Only problem: when I exported 611 members, I realized I need to MANUALLY select for each and every one which newsletter they are subscribed to. I have 3 newsletters. And it's taking FOREVER.

(Yes, Ghost allows you to add labels to each member, but newsletter subscriptions cannot be automatically recreated). 75 members done, 536 to go. Gaaaaaah

#MySoCalledSudoLife #GhostIO

✨ this is what tech empowerment looks like ✨

my year in tech (Feb 2025 edition):

- Jun 2024: started the blog #TheFutureIsFederated
- Jul: started interoperability tests
- Aug: federated my #Wordpress site & joined #Friendica #Lemmy #Mbin and #PieFed
- Sep: federated 2 more sites
- Oct: joined #Sharkey
- Dec: got a #VPS, installed #YunoHost and started self-hosting via #GoToSocial
- Jan 2025: set up my own #Pixelfed and #Friendica instances
- Feb: migrating to my self-hosted #GhostIO blog

🏕️ my adventures in #selfhosting - day 55 ✨

Monday morning, which means: backing up my #YunoHost setup. This backup file was 5.5GB, which breaks down like this (from biggest to smallest):

- #GoToSocial: 3.3GB
- #GhostIO: 1GB
- #Pixelfed: 700MB
- #Friendica: 237MB
- #LinkStack: 91MB

I'm really tempted to remove the bridge to #Bluesky. Why? I don't see its utility, I still have people following me on Bluesky but not here (despite clear instructions and the fact I don't post there)... and in general I'm #TeamFedi all the way. Especially after reading @cwebber's brilliant analysis of Bluesky / ATProto: https://dustycloud.org/blog/how-decentralized-is-bluesky/

I feel a bit awkward saying this because there are many wonderful Fediverse champions who are equally enthusiastic about Bluesky and want it to succeed in parallel to the Fediverse. But my heart is not in it and I'm feeling very skeptical, crypto bro financing and all. When I think of Bluesky, I can't help but think of the fable of the Scorpion and the Frog.

Also: I'm curious to see if my GoToSocial backup file will decrease in size once I remove the bridge. Pre-bridge the backup file was teeny tiny.

Thoughts? Do you have Bluesky people following you via the bridge / do you find it useful?

#MySoCalledSudoLife #selfhosting

🏕️ my adventures in #selfhosting - day 48 ✨

Yesterday when I got back from #FOSDEM I found an email in my inbox that gave me a mini-heart attack: a message from my VPS hosting company saying my service had been suspended for running over costs / my card being declined.

The email looked absolutely legit, formatting and branding-wise. But I'm not a fool! I didn't click on any links, just closed it and logged onto my VPS account from another device. I checked billings and resource usage and everything was normal. Ouf. So it was a targeted phishing attack (someone who went through the trouble of looking up my hosting company and finding my contact email address, right when I was traveling and publicly posting from FOSDEM).

Nice try scammer! But you didn't fool me.

Thing is, realistically speaking I could have consumed too many resources. I'm at 75% RAM usage now. As soon as I stop paying for a Ghost(Pro) plan next month, I will upgrade my VPS. And please prevent me from adding another Fediverse app, I'm SOOO tempted to self-host #Friendica too, after re-falling in love with it during a demo at #SocialWebFosdem.

Anyway, today I hit a milestone of sorts: my first experience updating #YunoHost AND 3 different apps (#Fail2Ban #Pixelfed and #GhostIO). Everything went smoothly and my system diagnostics dashboard is all green – just as I like it.

This self-hosting journey is really empowering and the best antidote to my frustration/rage towards Big Tech oligarchs. You can't control my Fedi homes!

https://mail.bigdeskenergy.com/p/death-by-thousand-substacks

#substack #beehiv #ghostio

Good morning Fedi friends!

I'm currently in the process of moving - one post at a time - #TheRealists blog from #GhostIO to #Wordpress. I still adore Ghost... it's just that it makes no sense to pay for 2 accounts. I'm consolidating everything in one place.

If you enjoy #TheFutureIsFederated, you may also like The Realists, as it covers privacy, surveillance capitalism and our brave new digital world: https://therealists.org/2022/05/what-happens-when-everybody-lies/

You can follow the #blog here too: @elena

#tech #digitalliteracy

an interview of a cool band in a cool newsletter: https://salvo.ghost.io/divide-and-dissolve-takiaya-reed-2024/

#divideanddissolve #ghostio

@seachanger @anildash it warms my heart anytime a newsletter switches to #ghostio or #beehiiv. it seems like such a good move to leave the VC "free speech" 'stack.

Let me introduce you to Herding Cats, a little thinking and writing corner I just set up on #ghostio to discuss tech #ecosystem and #community building 🐱

Maybe the ecosystem/partner relations and community folks among you will find it worthwhile to read along (yes, it's niche, but nothing a PhD can't handle 🤓) I've come to realise I miss writing as a mode of thinking and connecting with like-minded people, and I've grown weary of the LLM-induced listicle feast. Reason enough to set up Herding Cats.

Happy to get feedback - and contributions! First up is an invitation to send me your fun #sideprojects to be featured if you want.

https://herdingcats.ghost.io/cybernetics-and-cats/

Joining the Fediverse

Dear Realists,

It’s been a while since my last post.

This year I decided to go all in on the Fediverse – focusing my attention on this galaxy of independent, not-for-profit, by the people and for the people federated social networks, beyond the walled gardens of Big Tech.

In June I started a blog titled The Future is Federated with the goal of introducing the Fediverse (some call it “Open Social Web”) to people not familiar with it.

In late July I successfully federated my personal website: elenarossini.com and published an explainer here: “The Future of Social is Here: a Show and Tell (part 2: WordPress ↔️ Fediverse)“.

And now, it’s the turn of this website, The Realists, to join the Fediverse.

What does it mean? This website will acquire some superpowers: every new post I publish will automatically appear on the Fediverse, in the feeds of my followers.

If you follow this blog from Mastodon for example, every new post will appear as a social post. If you reply to it from Mastodon (or MissKey, Friendica, or Mbin), your comment will appear on that Fediverse instance and also on this blog, in the comments section. The comments will seamlessly sync. If this sounds a little too abstract, you can read about Fediverse interoperability in my blog post mentioned before – and see concrete examples of what it looks like.

Reintroducing The Realists

I started working on The Realists years ago, thinking it would be the natural sequel of my documentary The Illusionists – this time focusing my attention on our brave new online worlds. Here is a teaser of the documentary:

There have been a few unexpected twists and turns: from Covid shutdowns, to my pregnancy and now caring for my little one. Because of my current lifestyle (not really compatible with full time film work and international travel) I had to put production of the documentary on pause. So I shifted to writing instead.

Online advertising, unattainable life ideals promoted on social media, comparison anxiety, loss of privacy, surveillance capitalism and digital literacy are the main themes I have been discussing on The Realists.

A quick word about platforms: WordPress -> Ghost -> WordPress?

This website went into hibernation as I moved my writings to a Ghost blog and newsletter (for the time being it’s available at this link but I will cease paying for it in January 2025 – so from then on this link will be broken). Ghost plans to join the Fediverse soon but still, it makes more sense for this particular project to return to its roots and run from its own website. So here I am.

The Realists Roadmap

I am planning to move my Realists Ghost archive back to WordPress, so you will discover my previous 2024 blog posts here… and going forward you will find new posts on the site AND on the Fediverse.

I am excited about The Realists having its own profile on the Fediverse: it’s like having a two-way RSS feed – fully interactive.

Here is to new beginnings.

Elena (say hi to me on Mastodon: @_elena)

P.S.: if you are curious about previous blog posts, here is a selection of the top 3 most popular ones so far:

• “Instagram vs. Reality? FaceApp and the uncanny world of photo editing apps“
• “The dark side of AI: writers Jia Tolentino and Ocean Vuong on how algorithms are killing serendipity”
• “Snow: the app that gave me negative body image“

#ActivityPub #Fediverse #GhostIo #openSocialWeb

https://therealists.org/?p=7904

2023 lanserades ett tillägg som gjorde det möjligt för publiceringsverktyget WordPress att kommunicera med hjälp av ActivityPub-protokollet. Det innebär att en WordPress-sajt kan bli en instans i Fediversum på samma sätt som en exempelvis Mastodoninstans eller en Pixelfedinstans.

https://blog.zaramis.se/2024/08/29/wordpress-kan-forvandla-fediversum-fediversums-historia/

Storföretagens entré. Det första kommersiella storföretag som intresserade sig för Fediversum var Facebooks ägare Meta. De lanserade ett alternativ till X (Twitter) under 2023 som de kallar Threads.

https://blog.zaramis.se/2024/08/27/storforetagens-entre-fediversums-historia/

Trying out ghost in anticipation of it joining the Fediverse. https://psychedelic-institute-of-mental-health.ghost.io/ #psychedelic #psychedelics #psychedelicassistedpsychotherapy #ketamineassistedpsychotherapy #cognitivebehavioraltherapy #studydesign #litreview #psychedelicresearch #psychedelictherapist #fediverse #ghostio

Been busy moving my website over to #ghostio so haven't had much time for actual writing on the site until yesterday. Really loving the speed, simplicity, and overall UI of Ghost. Very different from Wordpress but all in good ways.

I started using Ghost.

I like it. I think it’s a good tool that solves its problem area well.

So far, I like the balance of feature polish vs capability. Strong UX, hosted, but also FOSS and relatively easy to self-host.

It made it much easier to do what I wanted, which was to make a new online zine for me to do wtf I want.

If you like it, give it a sub! It’s a Ghostly Funkventure.

https://funkatron.com

https://ghost.org/about/

#ghostio #ghost #blogging

Photo unrelated

Has anyone seen a project that combines #ghost with #activitypub ? I would love a way to publish my blog posts out to the #fediverse #ghostblog #GhostIO

HEY SO

I know we're about to hit Peak Newsletter but if you're a writer looking to have a newsletter to support your work you should check out ghost.io instead of substack.

Substack has been very transphbic in the past and takes a pretty large chunk out of your pay in fees. Ghost has no fees. That's right. No fees.

That's why I use ghost instead of substack.

#substack #ghostio #newsletter #writing