Ghost and WordPress announce deeper social web collaboration
Major publishing platforms join forces to advance long-form content integration with ActivityPub protocol, preparing for Ghost 6.0 launch.
Publishing platform leaders Ghost and WordPress announced expanded collaboration efforts for social web integration during a July 1, 2025 episode of the Dot Social Podcast. According to the newsletter announcement, Ghost CEO John O'Nolan and WordPress ActivityPub plugin developer Matthias Pfefferle outlined technical advancements as both platforms prepare for wider ActivityPub adoption.
The collaboration represents a significant milestone in decentralized publishing technology. According to O'Nolan, "We're hard at work preparing ActivityPub for the world as we gear up to launch Ghost 6.0 – so, for the most part, the team is quietly working away here." Pfefferle, who leads WordPress's ActivityPub implementation, emphasized the technical complexity of federating long-form content across different platforms.
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Summary
Who: Ghost CEO John O'Nolan and WordPress ActivityPub plugin developer Matthias Pfefferle announced expanded collaboration efforts between their publishing platforms.
What: The collaboration focuses on advancing long-form content integration with the ActivityPub protocol, enabling cross-platform publishing and social interaction between Ghost and WordPress sites.
When: The announcement was made during a July 1, 2025 episode of the Dot Social Podcast, with the collaboration preparing for Ghost 6.0's upcoming release.
Where: The technical integration spans both platforms' ActivityPub implementations, creating federated connections across compatible publishing services including Mastodon, WriteFreely, and Flipboard.
Why: The collaboration addresses the need for decentralized publishing infrastructure that maintains creator independence while enabling cross-platform social interaction, representing a shift away from centralized social media dependency.
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Both platforms have achieved notable compatibility milestones, though challenges remain. According to the Ghost team, "Ghost-to-Ghost interactions function smoothly between sites participating in the ActivityPub beta," while Ghost-to-Mastodon connections demonstrate effective collaboration between development teams. WordPress sites equipped with the ActivityPub plugin can receive Ghost content, although WordPress currently lacks native social web reading capabilities.
The partnership addresses fundamental infrastructure requirements for cross-platform publishing. According to Pfefferle, "We started with very different approaches to make blogs more social and for a long time we trained our users that crossposting is that thing there is nothing else than crossposting." The ActivityPub implementation eliminates traditional crossposting requirements by transforming WordPress profiles into federated accounts.
Technical implementation involves substantial protocol development work. According to O'Nolan, "The compatibility is even more challenging than what's now better established in the kind of short form space." Long-form content presents unique federation challenges including rich formatting, embedded media, and interactive elements that require careful security consideration across platforms.
The collaboration began gaining momentum following ActivityPub's 2018 standardization as a W3C recommendation. According to O'Nolan, "In 2017 as well, a year later Activity Pub got turned into a web standard and we were like that's interesting but we were still a team of about seven people and so there was really no way to make it happen." Current development efforts benefit from increased platform adoption and standardization.
Content formatting represents a primary technical challenge. According to O'Nolan, "Articles have rich formatting you know notes might have a link and a mention maybe bold text but articles have headings and lists sometimes embedded media and interactive elements and polls they have all kinds of stuff going on." Cross-platform rendering requires extensive compatibility testing to ensure consistent user experiences.
User adoption patterns demonstrate mixed reception during early implementation phases. According to Pfefferle, "The biggest problem in early on was to explain to the user that this is no longer crossposting so you need no Mastodon threads you name it account anymore because your WordPress profile is the account and others can follow your account." Educational efforts focus on explaining federated identity concepts to traditional blogging communities.
Discovery mechanisms remain underdeveloped compared to centralized platforms. According to O'Nolan, "This is the number one problem our beta users have with figuring out Activity Pub at the moment is discovery how do I find anything." Current ActivityPub implementations lack comprehensive search functionality, requiring users to know exact usernames for connection purposes.
Platform interoperability varies significantly across different services. According to the Ghost team, connections with WriteFreely demonstrate strong compatibility, while Ghost-to-Threads integration "barely works at all" due to connection blocking. BlueSky integration requires bridging services, and Flipboard shows Ghost content but struggles with interaction elements.
The collaboration timeline aligns with broader industry adoption patterns. According to O'Nolan, "In the past year and a half or so seeing the traction of activity pub seeing the amount of new platforms like Flipboard like threads like WordPress who was kind of very early it felt like the time is now right." Platform momentum accelerated following high-profile adoptions by major technology companies.
Security considerations influence implementation decisions across both platforms. According to O'Nolan, "Is it secure if I publish a JavaScript snippet in my blog post and you open it in Flipboard can I hijack Flipboard's admin credentials hopefully not but we have to think about all the different potential ways." Content sanitization protocols prevent malicious code execution while preserving formatting capabilities.
Development coordination requires extensive inter-platform communication. According to O'Nolan, "All of us regularly talk to one another often in the form of hey I posted a thing it's not showing up on your platform can you figure out like what's the interoperability conversations." Technical cooperation addresses compatibility issues as they emerge during testing phases.
User experience optimization remains a priority for both platforms. According to O'Nolan, "We have to make it easier we have to make it so much easier at the moment the we're not living up to the promise of what the photo could be yet." Friction reduction efforts target mainstream user adoption beyond enthusiast communities.
The social web implementation resembles email infrastructure models. According to O'Nolan, "This approach bears similarity to email systems, where users on different services (@gmail.com, @hey.com) can communicate seamlessly despite using different providers." Federated architecture enables cross-platform interaction without requiring unified service providers.
Future development focuses on standardization efforts across participating platforms. According to the collaboration teams, ongoing technical discussions address notification systems, content synchronization, and identity management protocols. Implementation timelines vary based on individual platform development cycles and resource allocation.
The announcement represents a broader industry shift toward decentralized publishing infrastructure. PPC Land has previously reported on Ghost's social web integration capabilities, noting the platform's focus on creator independence and cross-platform compatibility. The collaboration signals increased coordination among major publishing platforms pursuing ActivityPub implementation.
Both platforms acknowledge significant work remains before mainstream adoption. According to Pfefferle, "There are a lot of different use cases than you know from platforms so that is even more exciting I would say." Development efforts continue addressing technical challenges while expanding compatibility across federated networks.
Timeline
- 2017: Ghost begins exploring federated social networking concepts
- 2018: ActivityPub becomes W3C web standard recommendation
- March 17, 2025: Ghost introduces social web integration in public beta
- July 1, 2025: Ghost and WordPress announce expanded collaboration during Dot Social Podcast
- Future (announced): Ghost 6.0 release with finalized social web integration