Ahh! A Ghost!
No, not really a ghost. And I'm not back from the dead, either. It just feels like it, based on my woeful lack of blogging over the past decade. When you've published exactly two posts since the Obama administration, you can't really call what you've been doing "blogging".
Lately, though, I've been feeling the itch to get back to creating content for other people to consume. I started journaling eight months ago and turned it into a consistent, daily habit. Journaling helps me get my thoughts out of my head, but it's only for myself. It doesn't allow me to share my musings with anyone else.
So, since I'm feeling that itch, and I have a little time on my hands this week while taking a break from work, I decided to see if I still have the capacity to write for others.
Wait, remind me who you are again?
Oh, right, you probably need a refresher on my bio and my interests, huh? Lucky for you, there's a page for that on the site.
Jason Nassi
But first, a platform update was needed.
It felt weird to dust off my old Wordpress site and try to revive a voice that's been dormant for so long. Wordpress itself has evolved so much over the years that I was hesitant to jump right back in to that platform. I spent a few minutes poking around the admin interface, thinking I’d give the theme a fresh coat of paint – and it just felt... daunting. After moving from a self-hosted Wordpress install to Wordpress.com many years ago, I was immediately turned off by how every part of the admin interface now seems to be an upsell feature.
Instead, I decided to follow the lead of Craig Calcaterra and Myke Hurley in switching to the Ghost platform. I've been a long-time subscriber to Craig's Cup of Coffee newsletter, and watched him bounce between platforms – leaving Substack due to its ... questionable ... stance on the voices it chooses to platform, and then Beehiiv for technical reasons. Ghost seems to be serving him better; I don't recall him griping much (if at all), in recent months since the transition. And with Myke, a noted tech enthusiast, launching his new site on Ghost, that's another vote of confidence.
Both Craig and Myke are going to have vastly larger audiences than me, so if it's good enough for them, that's a strong enough endorsement for me.
Plus I just like the idea of bringing my site back from the dead into a platform named Ghost! 👻
Oh, and while this post was sitting in Drafts, Alan Sepinwall announced that he’s moving from Substack to Ghost, too. Another vote for Ghost!
So what may (or may not) be next for this site?
First, I'm planning to write a few posts to give you all updates on how life has been going – personally and professionally, and what I've been getting in to lately for fun.
Second, assuming that kind of writing actually clicks over the next few days, and further assuming that Ghost feels good for me as a content platform, I'll look into porting my old content over here, redirecting URLs, etc. My online public presence has withered to pretty much nothing, so it won't exactly be difficult to redirect people to a new platform.
Third, I'll actually have to do some planning on the kind of content I want to put out there. The dream of being a daily blogger is long dead, but what will actually be viable for me to produce semi-regularly? The tagline currently reads:
Jason Nassi's deep thoughts, digressions, ramblings, and idle musings
I figure that leaves me in a pretty wide open space to roam.
Or... this may all end up being nothing.
But wouldn't you like to find out if it turns into something?
If so, just add your email into the Subscribe section below. I promise I'm not trying to sell you anything. It won't cost you anything to subscribe! 👇