I have been blogging for 6+ years, using Wordpress exclusively. When I started,I was able to get installed, up-to-speed, and adding new themes, tweaking CSS/HTML, and even PHP pretty quickly.

Like many, I got tired of constant upgrades, theme management, bloat, etc. Mostly, I was tired that new Wordpress themes were being developed mainly for marketers.

I'm a writer. I care about my content being seen on its own merit, not whether the theme has SEO capabilities and carousels. So, I decided to donate to Ghost and give it a try when it came out. Competition is always good.

I wasn't technical when I got started with Wordpress, but I am now. I never had issues installing Wordpress. Installing Ghost a couple months back, however, I just gave up. Let me outline the process from a writer's perspective:

1. Ooo. Ghost looks so pretty and so clean for my content. I'd love to have this and get rid of the fifteen different menus there are on Wordpress.

2. goes to installation instructions from Ghost team [1].

"Running Ghost locally on your computer is straight forward, but requires that you install Node.js first." What's Node.js, and why do I, as an end-user, care? Ok. It's some Javascript thing I've been hearing about. That's cool, I guess. It doesn't really matter to me, as long as it looks cool and is easy to write with. So how do I actually install this thing?

3. "I want to install Ghost on:" Mac | Windows | Linux. Huh? I thought this went on my web server somewhere? Like Wordpress does?

4. Ah, ok, here we go: "If you've already decided to deploy Ghost to your server or hosting account, that's great news! The following documentation will walk you through various options for deploying Ghost, from manual setups, to one-click installers."

5. "Manual Setup" Ok, here we go. "You're going to need a hosting package that already has, or will allow you to install Node.js. This means something like a cloud (Amazon EC2, DigitalOcean, Rackspace Cloud), VPS (Webfaction, Dreamhost) or other package that has SSH (terminal) access & will allow you to install Node.js" What? What is all this stuff? How do I know whether my webhost will allow me to install Node.js? Do I need to switch to DigitalOcean?

6. I know enough command line to be dangerous, but not sure about all of this stuff. Make Ghost run forever? Why do I have to worry about it stopping running? Is it that different from Wordpress?

7. The init script? Is that finally what I have to do to...oh well, forget it. I've already been Googling stuff for 20 minutes to make sure I understand. This is just too much to take in. I just want to write stuff! Maybe I'll try it again when they have a new release out. Back to Wordpress.

Ghost has the potential to be good, but it is just way, way too complicated for the average writer to stop using Wordpress, for now. Or, it's not complicated, and the set-up instructions are written for developers who want to sometimes write, instead of content-creators who might want to experiment with something new.

That should change in time. Technologies always trickle down.

But for now, yes, I still use Wordpress for my blog, and it might be adorable, but for me, I'm loyal to things that get out of my way and let me do my thing, and Wordpress just does.

[1] http://docs.ghost.org/installation/