Projects using Ghost.orgProjects using Ghost.orgThe Great Digital Land Grab: Why Your Online Creations Aren’t Really Yours (Yet)
We spend countless hours crafting content, building communities, and generating value on platforms we don't own. From your Instagram photos to your Substack archive, the digital world is a landlord-tenant relationship where you’re always the tenant.
The Illusion of Ownership
Think about it:
You build a massive following on a social media platform. What happens if they change their algorithm, charge exorbitant fees, or simply shut down? Your audience, your data, your income stream—all held hostage.
You publish your magnum opus on a blogging site. Can you easily export it, along with its full history, comments, and engagement metrics, to another platform without losing crucial context? Usually not.
We've been building castles on rented land. I received a design for an absolutely massive landing page. Had to be as close to pixel-perfect as possible. Every font (i.e. weight of a typeface), edge, corner rounding, highlight, background, animation, sound, and interaction was deliberated over. I rebuilt many of the graphics with HTML and CSS by hand. Just the main page (so, excluding the blog, pricing pages, contact, and about page) is 35 screens of my monitor's size worth.