Rediscovering the Magic of the Blogosphere, with John O’Nolan and Matthias Pfefferle
Fri Jun 27 2025
Social networks were built on short posts designed for speed and scale. But what if the next era of the web was built for something deeper?
Two of the social web’s “longformers” are working on this. John O’Nolan, the founder and CEO of Ghost, and Matthias Pfefferle, the developer behind the ActivityPub plugin for WordPress, are at the forefront of integrating social features with blogs, newsletters, essays — anything that doesn’t fit in a box of 500 characters or less.
In this episode of Dot Social, the trio talks about rediscovering the magic of the blogosphere; why formatting, identity, and interoperability are tricky problems to solve; and where writing belongs in the next chapter of the internet.
Highlights include:
Importance to writers and bloggersModels for discovery Core principles around bringing long-form to the social webLessons from Web 2.0, emailRough edges and need for collaborationMentioned or related to this episode:
Julian Lam of Node BB“Digital Sovereignty Is the New Influencer Status, with Citation Needed's Molly White”“Steps Forward in Long-form Text”🔎 You can find John at https://john.onolan.org/ and Matthias at https://pfefferle.dev/
✚ You can connect with Mike McCue at @mmccue.bsky.social.
🌊 Catch the wave! Surf the social web and create your own custom feeds at surf.social, a new beta from the people at Flipboard. https://about.surf.social/
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Social networks were built on short posts designed for speed and scale. But what if the next era of the web was built for something deeper? Two of the social web’s “longformers” are working on this. John O’Nolan, the founder and CEO of Ghost, and Matthias Pfefferle, the developer behind the ActivityPub plugin for WordPress, are at the forefront of integrating social features with blogs, newsletters, essays — anything that doesn’t fit in a box of 500 characters or less. In this episode of Dot Social, the trio talks about rediscovering the magic of the blogosphere; why formatting, identity, and interoperability are tricky problems to solve; and where writing belongs in the next chapter of the internet. Highlights include: Importance to writers and bloggersModels for discovery Core principles around bringing long-form to the social webLessons from Web 2.0, emailRough edges and need for collaborationMentioned or related to this episode: Julian Lam of Node BB“Digital Sovereignty Is the New Influencer Status, with Citation Needed's Molly White”“Steps Forward in Long-form Text”🔎 You can find John at https://john.onolan.org/ and Matthias at https://pfefferle.dev/ ✚ You can connect with Mike McCue at @mmccue.bsky.social. 🌊 Catch the wave! Surf the social web and create your own custom feeds at surf.social, a new beta from the people at Flipboard. https://about.surf.social/