John O'Nolan
@johnonolan.bsky.social
Founder/CEO at @Ghost.org - Geographically restless.
Mostly posting about publishing, media, open source, JavaScript, Laravel, bootstrapping, SaaS, activitypub, and design.
Mostly posting about publishing, media, open source, JavaScript, Laravel, bootstrapping, SaaS, activitypub, and design.
It's just counted by unique domain - the term "server" isn't really a very good term for this stat! There can be many AP instances per server, and many servers running a single AP instance
October 30, 2025 at 12:36 PM
It's just counted by unique domain - the term "server" isn't really a very good term for this stat! There can be many AP instances per server, and many servers running a single AP instance
It's a good start! Somewhat skewed, cause it represents us rolling out AP to people who were already using Ghost, rather than direct user engagement. If WordPress put AP in core (rather than a plugin you have to manually opt-in to) they would immediately be 99.99% of all federated servers 😅
October 30, 2025 at 12:17 PM
It's a good start! Somewhat skewed, cause it represents us rolling out AP to people who were already using Ghost, rather than direct user engagement. If WordPress put AP in core (rather than a plugin you have to manually opt-in to) they would immediately be 99.99% of all federated servers 😅
Pretty cool. Doesn't represent overall popularity, ofc. Most other ActivityPub software runs as centralized services with millions of users each, so we're absolutely tiny by number of users - but large by scale of decentralized deployment.
October 30, 2025 at 12:05 PM
Pretty cool. Doesn't represent overall popularity, ofc. Most other ActivityPub software runs as centralized services with millions of users each, so we're absolutely tiny by number of users - but large by scale of decentralized deployment.
I doubt it! I know they've got some chunky enterprise customers :D
October 30, 2025 at 12:04 PM
I doubt it! I know they've got some chunky enterprise customers :D
Thanks so much! 🙏
October 10, 2025 at 10:12 AM
Thanks so much! 🙏
that's what I've heard! new limits and no opus or something? I'm still catching up
September 8, 2025 at 10:07 AM
that's what I've heard! new limits and no opus or something? I'm still catching up
We're hiring btw
If you want to get paid to work on open source full time and help shape the the future of Ghost, we'd love to hear from you
careers.ghost.org
If you want to get paid to work on open source full time and help shape the the future of Ghost, we'd love to hear from you
careers.ghost.org
Ghost
We're hiring! Ghost is a proud non-profit organisation building open source technology for fiercely independent, professional publishers.
careers.ghost.org
August 18, 2025 at 7:27 PM
We're hiring btw
If you want to get paid to work on open source full time and help shape the the future of Ghost, we'd love to hear from you
careers.ghost.org
If you want to get paid to work on open source full time and help shape the the future of Ghost, we'd love to hear from you
careers.ghost.org
Yes! Took off way faster than we expected, and continues to grow at an astonishing pace.
The main KPI we track is a subset of it: How many publishers generate sufficient subscription revenue for it to become their fulltime job
That's where we try to move the needle
The main KPI we track is a subset of it: How many publishers generate sufficient subscription revenue for it to become their fulltime job
That's where we try to move the needle
August 18, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Yes! Took off way faster than we expected, and continues to grow at an astonishing pace.
The main KPI we track is a subset of it: How many publishers generate sufficient subscription revenue for it to become their fulltime job
That's where we try to move the needle
The main KPI we track is a subset of it: How many publishers generate sufficient subscription revenue for it to become their fulltime job
That's where we try to move the needle
Thank you sir ❤️ really appreciate it!
August 18, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Thank you sir ❤️ really appreciate it!
We can just keep reinvesting 100% of what we make into improving the product.
That's going to create some really interesting asymmetric market dynamics over the next few years!
That's going to create some really interesting asymmetric market dynamics over the next few years!
August 18, 2025 at 5:04 PM
We can just keep reinvesting 100% of what we make into improving the product.
That's going to create some really interesting asymmetric market dynamics over the next few years!
That's going to create some really interesting asymmetric market dynamics over the next few years!
It's taken 12 years to get to this point as a bootstrapped non-profit org with no outside funding, but the position we're in now is pretty remarkable:
Other platforms have hundreds of millions of dollars in VC debt to repay, and shareholders to enrich.
We don't.
Other platforms have hundreds of millions of dollars in VC debt to repay, and shareholders to enrich.
We don't.
August 18, 2025 at 5:04 PM
It's taken 12 years to get to this point as a bootstrapped non-profit org with no outside funding, but the position we're in now is pretty remarkable:
Other platforms have hundreds of millions of dollars in VC debt to repay, and shareholders to enrich.
We don't.
Other platforms have hundreds of millions of dollars in VC debt to repay, and shareholders to enrich.
We don't.
For a while it felt like the entire web was moving toward big centralized platforms — but as subscription businesses grow we consistently see that people want to run their own platform & have full control
Bullish on publishers using Ghost, and the future of open, shared infrastructure more broadly.
Bullish on publishers using Ghost, and the future of open, shared infrastructure more broadly.
August 18, 2025 at 5:04 PM
For a while it felt like the entire web was moving toward big centralized platforms — but as subscription businesses grow we consistently see that people want to run their own platform & have full control
Bullish on publishers using Ghost, and the future of open, shared infrastructure more broadly.
Bullish on publishers using Ghost, and the future of open, shared infrastructure more broadly.